Parkersburg, Iowa Eclipse and New Hartford Journal November 29, 1900 Notice of Appointment Notice of the Appointment of Administrator: State of Iowa, Butler County, ss. Notice is herby given that the undersigned has been duly appointed and qualified as administrator of the estate of B. Nicklaus, late of Butler County, deceased. All persons indebted to said estate are requested to make immediate payment, and those having claims against the same will present them, duly authenticated, to the undersigned for allowance. 133 E.H. Lundy Dated November 26, 1900 Parkersburg, Iowa Eclipse and New Hartford Journal December 20, 1900 Geo. Nicklaus has been appointed administrator of the estate of B. Nicklaus and Marie E. Nicklaus, deceased. E.H. Lundy, who had been appointed administrator of the estate of B. Nicklaus, resigned and by agreement George was appointed in both estates. Parkersburg, Iowa Eclipse and New Hartford Journal December 20, 1900 Notice of appointment of Administrator State of Iowa} Butler County}ss. Notice is hereby given that the undersigned has been duly appointed and qualified as Administrator of the estate of Marie E. Nicklaus, late of Butler County, deceased. All persons indebted to said estate are requested to make immediate payment; and those having claims against the same will present them, duly authenticated, to the undersigned for allowance. 16-3 George Nicklaus Dated December 19, 1900 Parkersburg, Iowa Eclipse December 20, 1900 Notice of Appointment Notice of the appointment of Administrator State of Iowa, Butler County, ss. Notice is hereby given, that the undersigned has been duly appointed and qualified as Administrator of the estate of B. Nicklaus, late of Butler County, deceased. All persons indebted to said estate are requested to make immediate payment, and those having claims against the same will present them, duly authenticated, to the undersigned for allowance 163 George Nicklaus Dated December 19, 1900 Parkersburg, Iowa Eclipse December 20, 1900 Court House Items By Geo. W. Conn, Abstractor, Allison, Iowa The following is the list of real estate transfers for the week ending December 17, 1900: Joseph Nicklaus heir Bolser Nicklaus to George Nicklaus qcd e 270 sw 11 sw and w 1/2 nw and w 20 a e 1/2 nw and w 1/2 se 14-90-17 also e 1/2 nw 4 se 30-91-16 also OL 14 sub div B and C in lot 18 Parkersburg 4500 00 Probate Calendar, Bond Record, and Will Record are all written in the form: Book-Page Notes about the probate proceedings in the administration of the estate of Balthasar and Marie E. Nicklaus: After Balthasar died, Marie apparently said that she wanted E.H. Lundy to be the administrator of Balthasar's estate. The four Nicklaus children apparently disapproved of this, and filed papers with several reasons why he should not be appointed administrator, including the fact that Marie was mentally incompetent and in poor health due to the incident that had killed her husband. After Marie also died, her daughter, Feranke Steffes (variously spelled Feranne, Franke, and Veronika, Steffen and Steffens) apparently signed a paper that motioned for E.H. Lundy to be appointed her administrator. Again, the Nicklaus children petitioned the court to have this changed. They said that Feranke did not understand English well, and had signed without knowing the consequences of her actions. They further stated that E.H. Lundy was hostile to their interests. Mr. Lundy was from Grundy County, and I believe he was an attorney, but I may have that wrong. The Nicklaus children also reasoned that he had been appointed administrator in the short period after the deaths when only the spouse or next of kin could be appointed as administrator, and that there would be travel expenses to the estate since he lived outside of the county. It appears that there was some amount of fighting between Balthasar's kids and Marie's. Also, the household goods were all set aside for Marie when Balthasar died, and apparently Feranke took one of the items, an iron safe valued at $5, which caused some commotion. It looked like she ended up paying the $5 back to the estate. I'm not sure what happened to the other household goods. At any rate, when all was said and done, Balthasar had only about $500 in cash with which to pay off about $2800 in debts, so his children ended up splitting the payment for the remaining $2200. The land was divided among them, and also Marie's children and grandchildren received her dowry right of 1/3 interest in the lands, which was split out by the property. I didn't see who ended up with all the land, but there were several properties, both farms and in Parkersburg. Marie's heirs were as follows: Residence: Feranke Steffes Daughter, age 50 Washington Mills, Dubuque County, Iowa Werner Schmerbach Son, age 46 Washington Mills, Dubuque County, Iowa Christ Schmerbach Son, age 42 Washington Mills, Dubuque County, Iowa John Klinkhammer Grandson, age 15 Heron Lake, Minnesota Herman Klinkhammer Grandson, age 13 Heron Lake, Minnesota Joseph Klinkhammer Grandson, age 11 Heron Lake, Minnesota Mary Klinkhammer Granddaughter, age 9 Heron Lake, Minnesota The guardian of the Klinkhammer children was listed as W. F. Ray Also, there was a bill from the Delmonico Lunch Room for Balthasar's tab. Joseph Nicklaus owned the Delmonico.