Fred Holland, Leota Gerner's Second Husband

I'm not eager to search in too much detail or spend too much time to find more information about Leota (Gerner) Riss's second husband, Fred Holland.  Leota is my paternal grandmother's sister, not in my direct line.  I may come back to Fred in a few years but for now I'm happy enough with what I've found below.

FamilySearch had Ohio death indexes only for more recent years.  This is Fred's.
 

It tells me that he was born in 1992, died on August 18, 1958 in Youngstown, Mahoning County, Ohio, and that his residence was Struthers, Mahoning County, Ohio.  It also tells me that he was married.

I found a little more information in his death notice at Google News Archive.  It is on page 16 of the August 18, 1958, issue of The Youngstown Vindicator. 

             Fred Holland
     (Special to The Vindicator)
   Struthers, Aug. 18---Fred Hol-
land, 76, of 380 Spring St., was
pronounced dead at 7:55 a.m. to-
day at South Side Hospital after
Collapsing in a Struthers restau-
rant. The body is at the D. A.
Davidson Funeral Home.

Fred's obituary was published the next day, August 19, 1958, in The Youngstown Vindicator, on page 19, column 3, again available at Google News Archive.

            Fred Holland
     (Special to The Vindicator)
   Struthers, Aug. 19---Funeral
services will be held at 1:30 p.m.
Thursday at the D. A. Davidson
Funeral Home for Fred Holland,
76, of 380 Spring St., Apt. 14.  He
died of a heart ailment Monday
in South Side Hospital.
   Mr. Holland was born July 10,
1882, in Oxford, England, a son
of Harry and Elizabeth Holland,
and emigrated to Struthers in
1914.  He was a foreman at the
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.
coke plant, retiring 10 years ago.
He was a member of Wesleyan
Methodist Church.
   Besides his wife, the former
Leota Riss, whom he married 22
years ago, he leaves a daughter,
Mrs. Isabella Homer of Struth-
ers; a son, Harry, of Denver,
Colo.; a sister, Mrs. Anna Fox
of Struthers; and five grandchil-
dren.
   Friends may call from 7 to 9
p.m. Wednesday at the funeral
home.

Comments

• Might Fred have been married before?  Beulah Evelyn is not mentioned as a step-daughter and I haven't found any information that suggests Leota had more children.
• I've been unable to find Leota and Fred in the 1940 census, the first census in which they would likely have been married, based on this obituary's statement, "his wife, the former Leota Riss, whom he married 22 years ago."

Leota and her spouses certainly present a puzzle to be solved.  At some point in my past I remember the briefest of conversations between my parents about Aunt Leota in which my father said that she had been his wet nurse after his mother died when he was only weeks old.  If that's true, Leota would have had another child between about 1911 and 1913, and may (or may not) have been married.  I've found no record of a marriage from about that time nor a record of a birth.  Puzzles, puzzles.  Gotta love those family history puzzles to be solved!

-–Nancy.

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