The Long Line

1870s Nebraska with unorganized territory

This week's challenge for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks is "Long Line."  For the Turpin family, the Long Line is one drawn on a map of the United States, stretching from Virginia to Nebraska and then beyond.  

My great grandfather Newt Turpin (Robert Newton Turpin) hailed from Halifax County, Virginia.  He was born there in 1821 when the Louisiana Purchase and the expedition of Lewis and Clark could have been considered “old news” by many.  Yet America was still a nation composed of unconnected pieces.  Linking the colonial settlements to that newly added area was a huge challenge for a number of reasons.  But people moved west regardless of the challenges.  It is estimated that a million citizens left Virginia for new territory after the Revolution and before the Civil War.  Our Turpin family was among them and their journeys were long.

The mountains were difficult. The frontier was hazardous. The roads were few. At that point in time several routes to the Ohio River existed along the lines of the old Indian paths.  Some were considered roads.  But simply put, moving a family over the mountains and out into the new lands was problematic and wrought with danger.  Usually a family’s supplies and cherished items traveled in the wagon. The family walked along side or rode horses if they had them. Perhaps they took a flatboat part of the way. How many miles a day could a family travel?  How many wild rivers had to be crossed?  How many times would a wagon break down or a horse go lame?  How many encounters did people have with wild animals or the indigenous people?  

Before Newt was born, several Turpin families had made their way to homes in Owen County, Indiana. Obediah and his son Thomas’s family show up in the 1820 census. Newt’s parents, John and Elizabeth, came along later -- by the time the 1830 census was taken. So, Newt was a very young child when he made the journey from Virginia.

In the 1850s, Newt and his family headed to into Illinois. Newt’s sixth child Mary Amanda Turpin Porter was born there in 1855.  By 1858, they were in Greene County, Iowa where Emma Zetta Turpin Groves, their seventh child, was born.

After the death of Newt’s wife Sarah Elizabeth Lowery in 1872, Newt married Mary Ellen Leonard.  This is when Newt “pulled up stakes” again and headed further down the line to Nebraska. The grown children in the family stayed in Iowa. The young daughters joined the journey west. 

At the age of 51, Newt had moved halfway across the continent, crossing frontier land by horse and wagon. He had to be an incredibly strong, resilient, and hopeful person to face all those new horizons.  Life had to be easier in Virginia. You could always rely on a neighbor to find out how something was done. In Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska there were few neighbors. No one to ask!

One of Newt’s youngest daughters, Lettie, moved to California as a young woman. I feel confident in saying she probably went by train. That journey was probably much easier than her father’s many treks.  All the same, Lettie covered the second half of the North American continent that her father did not get to experience.  

Few stories were handed down through the generations of the Turpin family.  Most of what we know has been reconstructed piece by piece from documents left behind. We don’t know the ins and outs of their travels so for that reason I would love to go back in time and experience a day or so of each of those journeys Newt Turpin took.  One with young Newt and his parents crossing the Appalachian Mountains.  One crossing the Wabash River with Sarah and the children.  Another crossing the Mississippi River and traveling through Iowa. And finally, the with Mary Ellen trip crossing the Missouri and heading into the Unorganized Territory of Nebraska.