Jacob Ringer’s Last Will and Testament
Marion County State of Indiana
In the name of God, amen. I, Jacob Ringer, jr. Of Marion County, being sick and weak in body, but of sound mind, considering the certainty of death, and the certainty of the time thereof, and being desirous to settle my worldly affairs, and thereby being the better prepared to leave this world, when it shall please God to call me hence. I do therefore make and publish this my last will and testament in measure(?) and form to-wit: I commit my soul into the hands of God, and my body to the earth to be decently buried by my Executors, hereinafter named and after my honest debts and funeral expenses are paid, I devise and bequeath as follows, to-wit: All that remains of my real and personal property to my dear wife Susanna Ringer, so long as she lives, my widow. And provided should she marry again, I devise that she shall have the third part of all the property real and personal estate; but if my dear wife will remain single, and my widow till death, the real and personal property shall remain hers for support and the support of my children, that will remain to live with her.
I do further devise that after the death of my wife, and so effect my intentions, I hereby vest the surviving Executor with full powers and authority to dispose of my real and personal estate in ? simply, in as full and ample a manner as I could do if living, and the proceeds thereof to be equally divided amongst all my children and their heirs, share and share alike, the property to be sold or divided as the heirs think best or the most beneficial to them or a majority of them, as may admit of; and it is my desire for it to be done as soon as the time will admit of after the death of my dear wife. The property to be sold or divided equally share and share alike, according with this my last will and testament.
And I hereby make and ordain my beloved wife, Susanna, and dear son, Daniel Ringer, executors of my last will and testament; I do hereby authorize my son, Daniel Ringer, to sell property, execute deeds or any other instruments of writing that I could have done should I be living.
In Witness Whereof, I, Jacob Ringer, jr., the testator have hereunto set my hand and seal this Sixteenth day of September in the year of our Lord, One Thousand, Eight Hundred and Forty-five.
(his mark)
Jacob Ringer, jr. (Seal)
Signed, sealed, published and declared by the within named Jacob Ringer, jr., as his last will and testament in the presence of us & have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses thereto in the presence of each other.
Daniel Shartz
David Ringer
Anna Maria Bower
State of Indiana, Count of Marion SS:
Before me, John C. New, Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of the County and State aforesaid personally came Daniel Shartz, David Ringer, two of the subscribing witnesses to the foregoing instrument of writing, who being by me duly sworn upon their oaths say that Jacob Ringer, the testator named in said instrument of writing, signed, sealed and published and declared the same to be his last will and testament on the day of the date thereof, that said testator was of said time of the full age of twenty-one years, of sound and disposing mind and memory, and competent to devise his property, and not under coercion, compulsion, or restraint, as they verily believe, and that said testator signed, published and declared said instrument of writing to be his last will and testament in the presence of these affiants and of Anna Maria Bower, the other subscribing witness thereto, and that they subscribed the same as such witness in the presence and at the request of said testator and in the presence of each other.
Daniel Shartz
David Ringer
Subscribed and sworn to before me:
In Witness Whereof I hereto subscribe my name and hereto affix the Seal of
The Marion County Court of Common Pleas at my Office in the City of Indianapolis, the 11th day of May A. D. 1859
Jno C. New, Clerk
(Seal) By Fred Knefler Depy.
State of Indiana &
County of Marion
I, John C. New, Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Marion in the State of Indiana, do hereby certify that the foregoing last will and testament of Jacob Ringer was duly admitted to Probate before me, that the same was proven by the examination under oath of Daniel Shartz and David Ringer, two of the subscribing witnesses thereto, and that a full and complete record of said Will and of the proof and examination of the witnesses, by whom the same was proven has been duly made in Will Record Co, pp. 190 & 191.
In Testimony Whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name and hereto affix the Seal of the said Marion County Court of Common Pleas at my Office in the City of Indianapolis the 11th day of May A. D. 1859.
Jno C. New, Clerk
By Fred Knefler, Depy.
Recorded May 11th, 1859