Father and son die same day

In 1880 William and Harriet were living on an 80-acre farm just east of Averill, Michigan, a mile or so from Sanford. They shared the farm with son George W McMullen and his wife Josephine, who later inherited it. In a bizarre coincidence, George and William died on the same day - 10 March 1896 - from different causes, George of heart failure at age 42 and William of consumption at 87.

By 1900 the farm was sold and George's wife Josephine had remarried. Harriet was then living with her son John V. McMullen in Imlay City, Lapeer County, Michigan. She died there 15 Nov 1907 of senile dementia. Her remains were shipped back to Sanford, but her burial place is unknown. Odd, since most of the the family is buried in the Jerome township cemetery. Perhaps she and William are both buried in some small plot on the original farmstead.

Even though the farm had been sold by that time, a 40-acre plot adjacent to it was still owned by a Lewis Emlaw in 1910. Lewis is about the right age to be Harriet's brother or maybe some more distant relative, but the name Emlaw is not a common one - Lewis was the only Emlaw in Michigan in 1910.