Isaiah S. Daniel, of Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, was appointed executor of the estate of wealthy distiller and farmer Nathaniel Miller after his death in 1928. On 10 June 1929, he published a “correction” in the Elizabethville Echo, to information that had appeared in Harrisburg newspapers about what Miller’s third wife and widow, Gertrude [McClure] Miller, had received during his lifetime:
A CORRECTION
Mrs. Nathaniel Miller wishes me to correct the statement recently published in city newspapers, saying that Nathaniel Miller gave her $15,000 or $20,000 during his lifetime, and says: “it is not true, and there are papers and books here to show every cent he gave me, and it’s invested in two houses in Elizabethville“; also says she will not pay State tax on something she never received.
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From the Harrisburg Evening News, 19 December 1928:
Distiller's Third Wife Agreed to Take $3000 At Death, Will Shows
The will of Nathaniel Miller, 91, wealthy retired farmer and distiller of Elizabethville, was filed at the Courthouse today. It disclosed that when Miller took his third wife a generation ago, an agreement was entered into fixing the amount the widow should have out of his estate after death.
The agreement was not filed in the will, though those acquainted with its terms said the widow is to received to receive $3000 out of the $45,000 estate. This is to be in addition to the $15,000 or $20,000 given to Mrs. Miller during her husband’s lifetime, it was explained.
Squire Isaiah S. Daniel, of Elizabethville, who was named executor, said the estate was originally worth in excess of $75,000 and it included four farms in addition to seven dwellings in Harrisburg. The nonagenarian, however, gave a farm to each of his children during his lifetime and also gave a Harrisburg property to one of his grandchildren early this year.
Miller had a son and two daughters, the son having died some years after receiving a farm near Millersburg and his three children are to receive their father’s share of the estate. The daughters years ago were were given farms at Loyalton and Halifax and the fourth one was sold so that at the time of death the Nathaniel Miller estate concerned in the will filed today consisted chiefly of six Harrisburg homes, which are valued at approximately $45,000.
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NATHANIEL MILLER ESTATE IS $45,000; GIVEN TO FAMILY
The settlement was also reported in the Harrisburg Telegraph of 19 December 1928:
In the will of Nathaniel Miller, late of Elizabethville, filed to-day in the office of the Dauphin County Register, the estate consisting of $41,000 real estate and $4000 personal property, was given to: the widow, Mrs. Gertrude Miller; three children, Stephen A. Miller; Helen C. E. Watson; and Ida [Miller] Harper; and two [sic] grandchildren, Florence M. Miller and Elwood Miller and Annie Miller. Isaiah S. Daniel, of Elizabethville, was named executor.
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In the end, while not reported in the newspapers, Mrs. Gertrude Miller received the pre-nuptial agreed-upon amount of $3000 from the $45,000 estate. The remainder of $42,000, was divided into four equal shares, three given to Nathaniel Miller‘s surviving children, and one divided into three parts for the children of his deceased son.
There apparently was some dispute among the children regarding the money that had been given to the third wife during Nathaniel’s lifetime, which someone estimated as between $15,000 and $20,000, which it was believed should have been included in the distribution. It was not, and therefore the third Mrs. Miller was allowed to keep whatever was given to her marriage.
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