Ella Wolka:1955, Starve Hollow, Driftwood Township, Indiana

  

  Ella Wilhelmine Wolka was born to Mary (Schafer) and Christian Wolka on February 22nd 1880 in a little cabin in Driftwood Township, Jackson County, Indiana. Her father, Christian Wolka, had been born in Hannover, Germany. Her mother Mary was born in Ohio. Her maiden name was Schafer. 

  The little cabin sat on Starve Hollow Road in Driftwood Township near the little town of Vallonia. Today the site of the cabin is part of Starve Hollow State Recreation Area in Jackson County, Indiana. The lake that the home stood near is still there and people enjoy camping, hiking and all sorts of recreation there today. 

  But, in the 1800’s it was a very different place.

  Mary (19) and Christian Wolka (28) appear in the 1860 Census and they are living in Indiana. In 1863, Christian Wolka signed on with the Union Army and served in the Civil War. He survived and in the following years Mary and he would have many children. 

 In the 1880 Census, Christian Wolka is still alive at 51 years old. Their children are listed as Sophia, (The census taker misspelled 18 year old Sophia’s name as “Sofa”.) Henry (12), Mary Jr.,(8) George (5), Catharine (3) and youngest daughter, Ella, was just a few months old. (The census taker also spelled Ella’s name wrong as “Allen”.) That census taker also mistakenly listed Caroline as Catharine. 

 Their daughter Sophia Wolka would marry Henry Peters in 1893. In the 1920 census they had two children, Jonus (20) and Nora (17). 

 Mary Wolka (Mary Junior) married John Waldkoetter around 1901. They had several children including William Waldkoetter. 

 In the 1900 Census, Mary Wolka is the head of household. I didn’t find Christian Wolka’s date of death. But, it does seem as though he passed prior to 1900. 

 In the 1910 Census, Mary, 69, is the head of the household. Her occupation is listed as “farmer” of her own farm. Her sons Henry J.G. (39) and George H. Wolka (34) worked as farm laborers on the nearby Howe Farm. Her daughter Caroline, 32, was listed as a housekeeper there at home. Ella was 30 in 1910 and her occupation is listed as “none”.  Of course she helped her mother, sister and brothers around the house. 

 Ella’s brother, Henry J.G. Wolka passed away the following year on the 16th of February 1911 at the age of 41. His obituary was printed in the Brownstown newspaper. It stated that his father, four brothers and a sister had preceded him to the grave. 

  Caroline was married to Claud H. Foster sometime before 1917. They had a daughter on September 2nd, 1917 that they named Carrie Luecile Foster. Little Carrie died at home on March 19th, 1918. 

  By 1920, only George and Ella were listed at the home on Starve Hollow Road in Jackson Township. He was listed as the a farmer. Her occupation is left blank. But, we can assume she did all the cooking, sweeping, cleaning, washing, mending, ironing, sewing, gardening, canning and preserving of food. 

 The outside of the cabin was covered in clapboards at some point but the interior was left alone. Outside it looked like a little framed house. But, inside it still looked like a log cabin. It was about 50 yards from the road.

  

  

  In the 1920’s a type of publication was popular called a City Directory. It was kind of like a phone book. In the particular city directory that Ella Wolka is mentioned in, the property taxes that each homeowner paid are detailed. It basically reveals to the public how much each person was worth. That’s not good. 

  George Henry Wolka passed away in 1936 at the age of 60. So, Ella Wolka lived there on Starve Hollow Road all alone after that. She lived there alone on the 1940 census. 

  After George passed away, Ella’s friends convinced her to put her money in the bank. They worried about her living alone. 

  In 1955 Ella Wolka was living pretty much just like her people had lived in 1855. A wood stove heated her small home. Her bed was placed near the stove so that she could stay warm in the winter. She was 75 and after a lifetime of hard work her bones probably ached in the cold. She ate mainly just milk and crackers in her last years of life according to her neighbors. In June of 1955, she became quite ill. Her neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Wolff took her into their home to care for her. When she felt a bit better she insisted on going back to stay at her own place.

  Her home did not have electricity or indoor plumbing but she did have a telephone. It was her only modern convenience. 

  Sometime between Wednesday the 3rd of August and Friday the 5th of August, 1955, someone entered the home of Ella Wolka. They struck her on the head with a heavy object as she suffered a bloody wound to her head. They bound her hands behind her back and gagged her. They tied the gag so tightly and violently that her jaw was dislocated. She must have been screaming despite the gag because the strips of cloth were not just around the mouth but also another strip of cloth was tied around her jaw and atop her head. A pillow was also placed on her face. The killer was probably worried that someone might hear her screaming. They tied her feet to the bed that she lay on. Curiously, the killer also blindfolded her. Then they ransacked the small home looking for money. Ella Wolka was rumored to be very wealthy. Ella was unable to breathe properly and suffocated, likely while the intruder was still ransacking her home.

  The strips of cloth were torn from a white dress that had been trimmed with blue and white polka dot trim. 

  She was fully dressed but had no shoes on. Investigators did not think she had been raped. Her neighbors said she usually slept in the same dresses she wore during the day.

  The killer stayed a good long while. The killer closed the blinds and placed blankets and patchwork quilts over the windows without blinds. The used nails to keep the blankets in place. That killer didn’t want anyone to see what they were doing. This is a very rural area and was likely a local person. The killer really didn’t want to be recognized. The killer took their time going through all the old trunks, vases desks and drawers. The killer tossed papers and other items all over the floor. The killer went so far as to pry up floorboards and baseboards. That person went through every room including the attic of the two story home. 

 The killer also used a pitchfork to pry the lock off of an old tiled outbuilding. He was determined to search the place thoroughly. Even though the home was plainly visible from the road, this killer felt confident no one would see him or her. 

 The full moon in August of 1955 was on the third. So, the killer would have had plenty of light to see by as he probably walked to and from Ella’s home. Police later used flashlights when first investigating the scene as the quilt covering the window made the interior of the cabin very dark. 

  

  Asbury Jarvis was a neighbor of Miss Ella Wolka. He stopped by the house often to buy corn for his livestock. He was driving home from work and intending to stop and buy some corn but was concerned because the blinds were not usually closed. The house seemed too quiet. He stopped to check on his elderly neighbor. The front door was open and he looked through the screen door. He saw papers and debris strewn everywhere. Concerned, he went to the nearest neighbor, Raymond Wolff’s home. The two then returned and entered the house and found Miss Ella Wolka murdered in her ransacked home. 

  Raymond Wolff farmed land owned by Miss Ella. He told police that he had last seen her alive on Wednesday the 3rd of August at about 4 p.m. Raymond Wolff also helped Miss Ella with financial matters. He told police that she did not keep money in the house. He said he banked all her money for her in Vallonia, the nearest town. 

 Since 1919, Raymond Wolff and his half-brother, Louis Rorig and their families had been tenant farmers on Ella Wolka’s land. 

 The rumor around the area was that she kept large sums of money in the house. Ella Wolka rented out her farmland and her wooded land to people like Raymond Wolff who worked the land. The crops he raised were sold and Ella Wolka would have gotten a large portion of the proceeds later. Mr. Wolff cut timber from the forest there and sold it keeping a percentage of the price. 

  Despite the killer searching the house so thoroughly, police later found a few hundred dollars in a crochet bag in plain sight on the bed with Miss Ella Wolka. The fact that the killer had pried up floorboards and baseboards makes me think he or she wasn’t finding what they wanted. Who knows how much he or she found, if anything? Were they really only looking for cash or were they looking for a will perhaps. 

  Investigators dusted for fingerprints and interviewed neighbors and family. 

  An autopsy would place her time of death as 3 a.m. August 5th, 1955. 

  After the autopsy and investigation, Ella Wolka was buried at Vallonia Cemetery. Her surviving relatives were her nephews Jonas Christopher (55) a farmer of Seymour, Indiana, William Waldkoetter also a farmer of Seymour and a niece, Nora Christopher (52) a house cleaner of nearby Brownstown. 

  Her two nephews had children with their wives. Nora was not married and did not have any children. 

  In the days following the murder, souvenir hunters would creep into the house and take away bits and pieces of Miss Ella Wolka’s life. 

  In January of 1956 it was reported that a couple of  clues were found in the bushes at a spot nearby. At the side of the road at a spot that a person could park or even turn a car around; someone found a flashlight and an oddly folded dollar bill. The flashlight was identified as Ella’s. The killer must have taken it from the scene. That spot was across the valley. That person would have had to hike through the woods to Ella’s house. They would have known their way around those woods. Ella was known to fold her money in that same unusual way. Ella folded bills lengthwise and then made two more folds across. 

Perhaps like this? 

  Who inherited her home and land? In Ella’s Will she gave her nephews, Jonas Christopher, William C. Waldkoetter and her niece Nora Christopher…$25 dollars each. Did they and their families know in 1955 that this was all they would inherit? 

  Who inherited the actual home and all that land?  Ella Wolka left everything else to …Raymond Wolff. He farmed and managed her land. He and his wife even took care of her when she was sick. 

  

   I suppose no one would be surprised that the Will was contested just a few months after Ella’s death.  Nora and Jonas Christopher and William C. Waldkoetter sued the Vallonia Branch of the Brownstown Loan and Trust and Raymond Wolff. The niece and nephews alleged that Ella Wolka was of unsound mind and that the will was improper and null and void. 

  When did Ella Wolka write that Will? It is dated July 24th, 1940. She was only 60 then. Her brother, George, had passed away four years earlier. She had had four years to think about who came to check on her the most. She had four years to think about who had her best interests at heart. Raymond Wolff could have cheated her or mismanaged her money but he never did. She specifically calls out her relatives in the will because they “never helped her”. 

  The lawsuit was settled out of court with the aggrieved family members receiving $17,000. 

 

 How did her home come to be part of a State Recreation Area? It seems that land might have been sold to the state in 1958 or 1959. By 1959, a beach was opened at the North end of the lake. In 1960 they advertised their second season was beginning at the beach. Campgrounds were being built and the facilities were improving. 

  I found it poignant that Ella died in the same little cabin in which she’d been born. I was also struck by the fact that the photos of her crime scene might possibly have been the only photos ever taken of her. 

  Ella Wolka’s murder is still unsolved. 

  Rest in peace Ella. 

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