Seeking Family Heirloom Bible’s Owners

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By Heather Harper

Heirlooms have a special place within families, particularly if they carry sentimental value, including items that have been handed down for generations. Within the past five-and-a-half months, an heirloom, an illustrated Bible, containing information about various interconnected families, with the surnames Stonebraker, Yeager, and Kittle, is currently homed at the Scotland County Clothes Closet in Memphis.

According to Priscilla Sterner, Clothes Closet director, sometime before Christmas there was a donation brought in by a gentleman who had purchased items at an auction, in which the Bible was included. The man did not who the Bible belonged to and hoped someone from the surrounding would know who the Bible belonged too and returned to its rightful owner. Sterner said she had made attempts at finding the family that the Bible rightfully belongs. She posted information on social media and sent information of the Bible to area historical societies and museums, with no luck in finding any potential owners or family members.

There is a hand-written inscription in one of the front pages, reading “To Mrs. Silas Stonebraker from her mother, September 1872.” Notably, there is a marriage certificate for Silas A. Stonebraker and Eunice M. Yeager, both of Cantril, IA, dated for January 25, 1882. Witnesses for the marriage were Hayden Yeager and Mary Piper. The minister was G.M. Jones.

Also included in the Bible are numerous newspaper clippings, hair clippings, including a lady’s braid, as well as a list of names, recorded marriages, births, and deaths.

Additional family information includes the following: Handwritten on lined paper, the names of Elijah Kittle, his wife Lucinda Waldo, and the names of their children, Cyrus, Hilda, Amasa, John Waldo, Prudence, Alva, David H., Harriet, and Louesa. Three daughters, Paulina, Emeline, and Sally are listed as having married into families with the last names Yeager, Findley and Triplett respectively.

Two additional marriages were recorded in the family’s Bible are that of Jay Edward Daggs and Patricia Stonebraker, married on December 7, 1905, and Ola Darrel Stonebraker and Edith Arnold, who were married on January 15, 1913.

If anyone has information please contact, Priscilla Sterner at 563-260- 8670.