Furniture left to the Lees in Kate Clexton's Will

What hints can we take from this article? First off, weird that this is published in the Troy Record newspaper. I guess the value of estates is public information, but still... now we know that the Lees have some furniture that someone thought was significant enough (significant, but not necessarily valuable... admired?) to bequeath. I wish I knew what/which pieces they were, as then maybe I could ween some of "the Tyranny of the Heirloom" pieces I am now contemplating reupholstering! But, if they have lasted this long, I should save them - better than the crap made in China we buy nowadays, right?

We know this is Nellie Jane because her daughter is mentioned directly after her. Too bad I have not written anything about Margaret - though she is mentioned in Herb's letters.



But who is Kate M. Clexton? Merely a family friend? A neighbor? Could she have been a relative?

Doing a search on Ancestry.com she pops up in a tree created by Garth Burger, though I can't see anything. His information suggests she neither married nor had children. In 1865, at the same age as her cousin, 11, she was living with her aunt and uncle in Albany, NY. She was either born in Missouri or Indiana. By 1910 she is living alone - or at least as the head of household - and working in the Collar business. Of course this was a huge business in Troy and Olive worked for Cluett-Peabody her entire life. We find Kate again, as a collar worker and living as the head of household, in Troy in 1925.

In the 1940 census, she still lives as the head of household, though she no longer claims a profession. She does have a little more education than others on the same page - she claims 2 years of High School education.

So, was she gay? Was she fiercely independent or was she always sad she never had kids? Did she fight for women's suffrage as a young person? Was she so beautiful that she had so many suitors that she couldn't decide? Was she living in sin with the a man she met at work?

After contemplating my questions, I suspect she was a family friend. I can't find her in the Findagrave database, unfortunately. I just sent a message to Garth. Hopefully he will respond and have lots of information about his relative Kate Clexton.