On 29 December 1867, in Noble County, Indiana, Ezra Peter Koontz [my great great grandfather] married Mary Anna Sibert, the daughter of Phenias and Mary Jahne Sibert. Mary Anna was Grandfather’s second wife as his first wife, Mary Ann Allen had passed away 7 September 1864 in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana.   At the time of his first wife’s death, Grandfather found himself left with four children all under the age of 11:  Huntington (1854-1865), Ephriam (1855-1857), Casmear P. (1857) [my great grandfather], Harriett Honora J. (1859), and Orrin DeForest (1862).

Ezra and Mary Anna [rather clever of Grandfather to marry a woman whose name was so close to wife #1] together had an additional three children: Phineas H. (1869), Ezra B (1871), and George Derr (1878).    It is from Uncle George that my grandmother was named one of the heirs and began her habit of investing any monies she got via inheritance in Petroleum Stocks — but never Texaco, since that is where Grandpa worked, until after Grandpa retired then she took all new money and laid it into Texaco.

Ezra Peter died 21 January 1907, in Ligonier, Noble County, Indiana, and was  laid to rest in Oak Park Cemetery there.  Mary Anna died 8 years later on 10 July 1915, also in Ligonier and is buried beside Grandfather.