Motter Family History

I recently requested part of John Motter’s Estate file from the Hardin County courthouse.  When reading through this post, you might want to keep a few things in mind.  First, John was a farmer and as such he needed a large family to assist with running the farm.  As you can tell from this record, he definitely had a large family.  Secondly, John was married three times.  He married his first wife, Anna Howenstine in 1858.  I don’t have any information on this first wife and it does not appear that they had any children.  John married Catherine Zollinger in 1863 and they had eleven children.  When he refers to his “first family”, he is referring to the children that were born during this marriage. After Catherine’s death in 1887, John married Anna Charles and had eight children.  From the tone of the last part of his will, it sounds like there may have been some bad feelings between some of the members of the two families. Continue reading →