A Wilson Family Tree
Notes for John E. Roat
In his grandfather, Abraham Kanouse's, probate papers, he is listed as John E. Roat, but in the 1870 census his middle initial is given as H (listed as John H. Rhote). The marriage license for son John C. Roat and Mabel E. Baker also shows John C.'s father as John H. Roat. For now I'm going to stick with E, but maybe he went more by H...
A little more about the probate papers: There is a document dated 25 Apr 1914 (over 40 years after Abraham's death!), which is a legal finding of Abraham's heirs at the time of his death. Like a few other documents in the package, it lists John E. Roat as one of four children of "Betsey Roat also known as Elizabeth Roat, a deceased daughter". This document is even typed, so there is no question that the middle initial is E. At first I thought that maybe this means that John E. Roat was still alive in 1914. However, two of Abraham's other children, William and Josiah, were also dead by this time, and there is no indication of that in the document either (or elsewhere in the probate papers). So we can't assume from this document that John E. Roat was still living.
This is very strange. Ancestry.com, "Pennsylvania Marriages 1852-1968", has the application of wife Hannah to get remarried. It includes the following deposition:
State of Pennsylvania
Montour County
Personally appeard the subscriber Hannah E. Roat who being by me duly sworn according to law who doth depose and say; That she was married July 6, 1879 to one John Roat of Buckhorn Columbia County; That the said John Roat & I never lived together, but that he went West in the year 1885 since which time I have never heard from him, and as so much time has elapsed I think that he is dead, and hereby apply to the Clerk of Orphans Court of Montour County Pa. for a Marriage License
sworn and subscribed before me at Danville Penna, May 23, 1892
E.G. Hoffman
Clerk
Apparently John was declared legally dead so that Hannah could remarry. Unfortunately, we don't really know for sure from this that he was dead... though it does seem likely.
There is a short item in The Columbian (Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania), 20 May 1881, p. 3 (obtained from Newspapers.com), under BUCKHORN NEWS.:
Mr. James Roat started on Tuesday for Coldwater, Mich., where he intends visiting his son and other relatives.
Apparently John was living in Branch County, Michigan, at that time. Is this why Hannah said that she never lived with him? Did he go to Michigan while she stayed in Pennsylvania? When she said he went West in 1885, was he going back to Michigan? Note that John's sister Emma also went to Michigan, and was married in Branch County in January 1885. It's worth mentioning that the Abraham Kanouse family moved to Branch County in 1855, except for oldest daughter Elizabeth (John and Emma's mother), who was already married and stayed in Pennsylvania. (Second daughter Lydia Ann moved back and got married in Bloomsburg in 1856.) John wouldn't have known the family in Branch County very well when he was growing up, but perhaps there was some visiting back and forth.
Note: Some of the information in these pages is uncertain. Please let me know of errors or omissions using the email link above. ...Mike Wilson
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