Amanuensis Monday - Estate of George B. Chilcutt

I don't know too much about my 2x great-grandfather George B. Chilcutt and was hoping to find some information in the Maryland probate records. He was born in October 1854 in Maryland and married my 2x great-grandmother Kate Covey on December 21, 1876. While it doesn't appear that he left a will, his estate papers are available on familysearch.org. The papers help to place his date of death sometime before or during December 1916. His estate was probated in Queen Anne's County, Maryland.

A newspaper notice was placed in the Centreville Record on December 26, 1916 to alert any persons with claims against his estate to make their claims by July 30, 1917.

The newspaper notice reads as follows:

NOTICE TO CREDITORS.
Notice is hereby given that the undersigned has obtained from the Orphan's Court for Queen Anne's County letters of administration on the personal estate of
GEORGE B. CHILCUTT.
late of said county, deceased. All persons having claims against said deceased's estate are hereby warned to exhibit the same, with the proper vouchers thereof, to the undersigned on or before July 30, 1917, otherwise they may by law be excluded from all benefit of said deceased's personal estate.
  All persons indebted to this estate must settle at once.
  Given under my hand this 26th day of December, 1916.
KATE O. CHILCUTT
Administratrix
Ture Copy -- WM. T. BISHOP, Register
D30t4 Test -- WM. T. BISHOP, Register

In the estate papers, the newspaper notice was attached to a certification from the Centreville Record that the notice had been published for four successive weeks.

"THE CENTREVILLE RECORD PUBLISHING CO. hereby certifies that the notice to creditors in the case of the estate of Geo. B. Chilcutt a true copy of which is hereby annexed, was inserted in The Centreville Record, a weekly newspaper printed and published in Centreville, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, once a week for four successive weeks, the last insertion being six months before the 30th day of July in the year 1917. The Centreville Record Publishing Co." The record was signed by Edwin H. Brown, Jr. President.

An appraisal of George's personal property was followed by a public auction to sell his personal estate. The auction was held "on the farm On Saturday, January, 27th, 1917, beginning at 11 O' Clock A.M."

The items sold were mostly farm equipment and goods. A brown mare was sold for $8 and a very old gray mule for $1. I think the Covey Chilcutt shown here is probably George and Kate's son. He bought a riding saddle for a grand total of 25 cents!

An account of the estate filed by Kate with the Orphan's Court showed that while the estate was appraised at $485.90, only 260.20 was raised by the public auction. Kate then made claims against the estate for funeral expenses and probate expenses.

The second page of the account shows that an allowance of $49.71 was given to Kate "as the surviving widow of the deceased with infant children of the deceased." The total amount charged against the estate was $225.70, leaving only $34.50 from the money raised by the auction. In the 1910 census, George and Kate were renting their farm, so I'm guessing that they didn't own any land. I'm wondering how Kate survived with the children. I haven't been able to locate her in the 1920 census yet. Some of the children were adults, so I suspect she may have been living with one of them.

Source: "Maryland, Probate Estate and Guardianship Files, 1796-1940," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XXFD-S6F : accessed 20 Oct 2014), George B. Chilcutt, 26 Dec 1916; citing Queen Anne's County, estate number QA0000001204.

Amanuensis Monday is a daily blogging theme which encourages the family historian to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts.