Anthony Leffel's Will

In 2008, I had the opportunity to visit Springfield, Ohio, where our Leffel family lived.  A cousin on the Leffel side of the family who lived near Cleveland, met me in Springfield.  We spent the afternoon doing research in the Heritage Center.  About 30 minutes before closing time, we located the probate file for our 3rd great-grandfather, Anthony Leffel. It was a large file with probably 100's of pieces of loose papers - will, codicils, receipts, correspondence, etc. We were hurriedly going through trying to copy everything that was of importance - especially pertaining to Anthony's son, our David Miller Leffel's family.

Anthony Leffel wrote his will on 16 January 1869 and died one year later on 28 January 1870.   At the time of his death, he was married to his second wife, a widow named Lydia Ann Mayne Harris. Anthony married Lydia in 1851 when he was 60 years old and about 7 months after the death of his wife, Mary Polly Miller.
Anthony and Mary had been married 40 years when she died 1850.  They were the parents of  10 children, although only four were still living when Anthony's will was probated: Samuel Leffel, Harrison Leffel, Daniel Leffel, and Anthony M Leffel.  Two children, Frederick (1821-1830) and Delialha (1824-1830), died young so there were no offspring.  Four of Anthony's children (Joel Leffel, Rebecca Roller, Eveline Jones, David M. Leffel) died previous to Anthony's will being probated and so their heirs are mentioned in the probate papers.  Our family descends through son, David Miller Leffel.

Below is Anthony's will written on 16 January 1869 and an attached First codicil signed on 24 April 1869.  

Anthony Leffel Will 1

Anthony Leffel Will 2

Anthony Leffel Will 3 plus 1st Codicil

These two pages of Anthony Leffel's will can now be viewed on Ancestry.com and is part of their database: Ohio, Wills and Probate Records. 

This post will be the first of several posts containing information and documents from the probate file for Anthony Leffel.
Anthony Leffel's Will, part 2
Anthony Leffel's Will, part 3
Anthony Leffel Biographical Sketch