Working on Wednesday: Otis Slater (1866 - 1936) Not Only an Auctioneer

Otis Slater was a grandson of my third great grandfather William T. Slater.* It was this obituary that led to me do some further research.**

[30 Mar 1936, Page 2 - The Decatur Daily Review at Newspapers.com]

In earlier days Otis was well known as a breeder of horses, mules and hunting dogs. I wonder if he's the person posed with the huge Percheron stallion in this 1910 front page newspaper spread?

Here's an excerpt from the above newspaper:

[12 Jun 1910, Page 1 - The Decatur Herald at Newspapers.com]

This notice of a public sale a year later gives a good idea of the size of his enterprise.

[15 Feb 1911, Page 11 - The Daily Review at Newspapers.com]

The caption to this 1913 picture of Mueller Company employees informs us that the coon dogs belonged to Otis Slater who "does a great deal of hunting and keeps the dogs for his own use, seldom loaning them to any one else."

[5 Oct 1913, Page 3 - The Decatur Herald at Newspapers.com]

However by 1917 he and his sons were proudly advertising his dogs in national publications like Country Life, Forest & Stream and Harper's Bazaar:

[The New Country Life: 1917, Volume 32. Google Books]

[Country Life, Volume 37, 1920. Google Books]

*Here's how we're related:

[Ancestry.com]

**While I found numerous newspaper articles that referred to him as Colonel there's no evidence that he ever saw military service.






© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Sarah Coye Slater (About 1825 - ?)

William Tiller Slater, my third great uncle, married Sarah Coye (or McCoy) on Valentine's Day in 1843 in Lawrence County, Illinois. The couple, residents of Shelby County by 1846, had seven children together--two of whom, Julia and Thomas, were under age when William died on September 10, 1870.

Here's the family listing in the 1870 U.S. Census which was taken less than a month before William's demise.

[Year: 1870; Census Place: Oconee, Shelby, Illinois; Roll: M593_277; Page: 149B; Family History Library Film: 545776.Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.]

William died intestate so Sarah petitioned the Court and was named administratrix of her late husband's estate.

["Illinois Probate Records, 1819-1988," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939V-WHHP-Y?cc=1834344&wc=SFKB-DP6%3A162590401%2C162612401 : 20 May 2014), Shelby > Administrator's record 1869-1871 vol B > image 44 of 64;

county courthouses, Illinois.]

Four years later Sarah petitioned the Court to appoint a friend, neighboring farmer Milton Lowe, as the guardian of Julia and Thomas which was approved on April 5, 1876.

["Illinois Probate Records, 1819-1988," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939V-WHHP-Y?cc=1834344&wc=SFKB-DP6%3A162590401%2C162612401 : 20 May 2014), Shelby > Administrator's record 1869-1871 vol B > image 44 of 64

 county courthouses, Illinois.]

By the time of the 1880 U.S. Census Sarah's household included her son Thomas and her granddaughter Ida B. Haller (the oldest child of her daughter Margaret Jane who died some time previously).*

[Year: 1880; Census Place: Oconee, Shelby, Illinois; Roll: 251; Page: 142B; Enumeration District: 190. Source Information: Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Here's  my relationship to Sarah:

[Ancestry.com]

*Julia married John Brock in 1878 and they were living in Fayette County, Illinois at this time. Their second son's name was Albert Tiller Brock--a middle name carried down through the Slater line.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.