Ara Belle Gilmore was the seventh of nine children born to Robert Gilmore and Martha Jane Lankford.   She was born on May 11, 1873 in Steen Township, Knox County, Indiana.  Her older siblings, in order of birth, were Elizabeth, Bertha Ellen, Susan, Sarah, Benjamin and Nancy.  She was followed by younger brothers Irvin and George.  Elizabeth was the only child not to live to adulthood.  In 1884, Ara’s sister Ellen died.  Ellen’s son Charles was raised by his grandparents Robert and Martha.

Ara married on May 3, 1899 at the age of twenty-five to Thomas Albert Strange from Daviess County.  They had a daughter in 1901 named Elsie.  Albert worked for the railroad and was often gone for stretches of time doing construction.  On May 23, 1905, he was hit and killed by a passenger train in Mitchell, Indiana.

Ara and her daughter lived with her parents for a few years until she met and married Charles Downey around Christmas 1910.  They made their home together in Bicknell where Charles was a farmer.  Ara’s father died in 1920 and her mother followed in 1925.  At the age of sixty-six, Ara passed away on August 6, 1940 from complications associated with a hernia.  She is buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Bicknell.

Ara Belle Gilmore is my 1st cousin 4x removed on my dad’s side.

REFERENCES

• United States Census – 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940
• Indiana Death Certificates
• Indiana Marriage Collection
• Find A Grave website
• Vincennes Commercial, December 23, 1910
• Vincennes Sun-Commercial,  August 7, 1940
• Daviess County Democrat, May 27, 1905