Ethel and Essie Koontz

Essie P. Koontz was born on 7 August 1887 in Ligonier, Noble County, Indiana, to Casmear P. (call me C.P.) Koontz and Phebie Gardner.  Aunt Essie was the older of the two children in the above photograph (the younger was Ethel, born in 1889).   My grandmother, Florence, was born a number of years after the two pictured.  Essie was the eldest of the five children of C.P. and Phebie Koontz.  Both Essie and Ethel (pictured above) were born in Indiana, the other three were born in Columbus, Ohio.  Aunt Essie married Louis Kincaid Postal in 1912.  The marriage did not last and by 1922, Aunt Essie had enough and divorced Louis.   In 1923 she married Harold Rudolph Spuhler.  Uncle Harold also happened to be Aunt Essie’s ½ first cousin, once removed.  The couple had no children.  Aunt Essie died in January 1953.   My grandparents, used to take one grandchild down to Massillon, Ohio, to visit Aunt Essie and Uncle Harold each year.  My older cousin, my brother, and I made the trip and I have a very vague memory of Aunt Essie (I was only 3 when she died).