9-18-96 - There are quite a few discrepancies here as I return from South Bend with an obituary and Death Certificate on Leona Counterman Overhulser. The date on the date of birth on her Death Certificate and also in the newspaper obituary is given as 5 October 1886. I find this to be in error as she was married in 1893 to Daniel P. Overhulser and the age given at THAT time was 17. That would make her birth year at 1876, not 1886. (Even though the obituary and the death certificate state that her birthdate was 5 October 1886, the death certificate DOES state her age at death was 87, not 77, as in the newspaper.) So, for all of you looking for an obituary or a death certificate to be the answer - they are not always right! Especially on death certificates - they only have what information on it that was given by the informant, which in this case was her son, Glen. Just think, she was 10 years older than what they reported! You cannot always go by the return of marriage either, as in this case she reported her father's name as Elisha Counterman (her mother was Nancy Blazer), where in fact, it was Alexander Counterman. If we look closely at the birth dates of the children of Alexander and Nancy Blazer Counterman we find Lemual born in 1873, William born in 1875, Leona born in 1876 and Lewis born in 1880. Sometime between 1880 and September 1883 something happened to Alexander, either divorce or death as this was when their mother Nancy Blazer Counterman remarried to Nelson Rice. I have no knowledge at this time about the death of Alexander Counterman as I cannot seem to find any record in Van Wert, Mercer Counties in Ohio or Adams County in Indiana. I will try to find out more. I thought I would get all the answers with the obituary. So far I have seen errors in information from Grant County Health Department in Indiana, obituary cards in Mercer County, Ohio, Census records in Allen County, Indiana for 1920 and now a marriage certificate and death certificate and obituary in newspaper. (These have spellings of names often times spelled wrong on the survivors.) So when someone talks about proof just what is the proof - nothing is gospel!!!
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OBITUARY APPEARING IN THE SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE 11-25-1963:

Mrs. Leona Overhulser, 77, a resident of the Burbridge Nursing Home for the last year, died at 12:55 a.m. Sunday in Memorial Hospital. She was born on October 5, 1886, in Willshire, Ohio and came here from Rockford, Ohio. Her husband Daniel Overhulser, died in 1958. She is survived by three sons, Glen, Louis and William, all of Elkhart; three daughters, Mrs. Ada Fairchild of Nappanee; Mrs. Dolly Hook of Osceola and Mrs. Marcella Wiening of Lowell, In.; 21 grandchildren; 62 great-grandchildren; 32 great-great-grandchildren and a sister, Mrs. Ella ~IRoutner~i, of Fort Wayne. Friends may call after 6 p.m. today at the Walsh-Bilancio Colonial Chapel, 3718 S. Michigan St., where services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday. Rev. Kenneth Bateman, pastor of the Church of the Nazerene, of which she was a member, will officiate. Burial will be in St. Joseph Valley Memorial Park.