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.

Remembrances of Robert Newton Turpin from "Families of Rippey"

These remembrances were passed on to the descendants of the Turpin Family living in Greene County, Iowa.  It provides us information about Newt and the family that can not be verified by primary sources.

“Families of Rippey", 1990 reprint of the 1956 "History of Rippey”

From page 106

Newton Turpen -- One of the earliest settlers of Washington Township, Greene county, Iowa, was the Newton Turpen family who settled here in 1855. Newton Turpen was born near Richmond, Virginia, June 10, 1821, and his wife, Elizabeth Lowry Turpen, was born there on January 13, 1823. They spent their youth near Richmond and were married at an early age. Early in her life Elizabeth’s father had become a slave holder, over the protests of his wife. Thus, Elizabeth, agreeing with her mother, was raised with a secret hatred of slavery.

After their marriage her dislike for slavery and her husband’s longing for a new country led them to decide to come west, so they packed their few possessions and came to Indiana by wagon train. Here they lived for some time before moving to Illinois. Not seeming to do as well financially as they wished, they again decided to move -- this time to Iowa. When their youngest child was three weeks old, they loaded their goods into wagons and set out. This was a long, hard journey, marked by the tragedy of Newton Turpen’s mother dying and being buried in a lonely grave by the wayside. They came by way of Des Moines, then a small fort, and on across country to Greene County where they built their first log house on the farm in northwest Washington Township. This farm is now owned by their granddaughter, Mrs. Ocy Dorris. Later Mr. Turpen bought a farm about a half a mile west and lived there. Besides breaking the prairie sod and farming, Newton Turpen served as blacksmith in the pioneer settlement. Mrs. Turpen spent long hours of the day at her loom weaving cloth from the wool they had taken from their own sheep. The children of the family spent many lonely days on the prairie guarding the sheep from he wolves that were always ready to prey upon them. It was not unusual for him to load what produce they might have to sell into the wagon and make the long overland trip to Des Moines to sell the produce and bring back supplies. Newton and Elizabeth Turpen raised a family of eight children, 7 daughters and one son.

The only son, Thomas Benton Turpen enlisted in the army when Lincoln called for volunteers in 1861. He was among 32 volunteers from Greene County. His brief military record on file in the State Adjutant General’s Office showed that he enlisted in Co. H., 10th Inf., Iowa Vol., August 23, 1861, was mustered into service September 7, and died of measles on December 25, 1861, on his 18th birthday. He was buried in the National Cemetery near Mound City, Illinois. Although the exact grave has not been found, officials state that he must have been buried in one of the many marked unknown. Elizabeth Lowery Turpen passed away January 26, 1872, and was buried in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery. Newton Turpen moved on west to Nebraska and was buried there.

Of this large family, only [Louise] Annie, who married Wm. Turpen, and Emmazetta, who married John Groves, remained in Washington Township to raise their families and spend their lives. The other daughters were: Margaret who married Wilson Van Horn, Sally [Sarah Jane] married Warfield Paul, [Mary] Amanda married Wm. Porter, [Nancy] Elizabeth married Joe Bell and Hannah [Catherine] married Douglas Bell.

Thank You Julie!

This is a good way to end the year--a photo of some of the sisters in the first Robert Newton Turpin family.

A big thanks to Julie Gerren, another Turpin researcher, who remembered she had an old photo of these ladies. This picture is probably taken between 1926-1935.

Noted on the back -- left to right:  Emma Zetta, Sarah Jane, and Hannah Catherine

Emma Zetta (#7) 1858-1936 
Born in Greene County, Iowa.  She married John Abraham Groves.  

Sarah Jane (#3) 1848-1935
Born in Owen County, Indiana. She married Warfield Paul.

Hannah Catherine (#9) 1864-April 1939
Born in Greene County, Iowa.  She married Douglas Bell.

In trying to calculate when this photo was taken, it helps to know that sisters Margaret Golden (#2) died in 1926, Martha Ellen (#4) died as an infant, Louise Anne (#5) died in 1880, Mary Amanda (#6) in 1912.  Nancy Elizabeth (#8) lived until December 1939 but is not in the photo; perhaps too ill to get together with the rest of the sisters. 

Seventh Child Emma Zetta Turpin

Emma Zetta was the seventh child in the family of Robert Newton Turpin and Sarah Elizabeth Lowery.   I love the name Emma Zetta!  While searching censuses, I noticed that there was another Emma Zetta born in Iowa in 1858.  So out of curiosity I googled the name and found plenty of them – it was obviously a name making the rounds in the 1800s. 

Yet the 1870 census taker mangled her name quite badly.  Here is a clip from that census when the Turpin family lived in Grand Junction, Washington Township, Greene County, IA.   Emma Zetta appears as Henertta.  Even the name Turpin is mangled.  

This census was post-Civil War.  Thomas has died, as has Martha.  Margaret is out of the house and married. Anna and her husband Will Turpen are living next door.  With a household full of women, Newt has a 13-year-old boy, William Pickett, living with them to help with the farm.



Turpin Family in 1870 Census