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



Our Emma Zetta was born in Greene County, Iowa on 9 May 1858.  She married John Abraham Groves who was born in Tippecanoe, Ohio on 2 May 1847.  A family history written by some of the Iowa descendants of Robert Newton Turpin states that John moved to Clinton, Iowa when he was 19 years old.  He then came to Greene County with the Baker family who made the trip in a covered wagon as he walked along beside their wagon.

According to Greene County Iowa Early Marriages, 1854-1880 Emma Zetta and John were married by Reverend Bird on 3 May 1876 at the home of her sister Sarah and brother-in-law Warfield Paul.  Sarah was one of Emma Zetta’s older sisters.

John and Emma Zetta had 12 children:  Haulcey Elmer (b. 1878), a baby boy (b. and d. 1880), Fred Leland (b. 1880), Ocy Alphretta (b. 1883), Robert Hiram (b. 1885), Walter (b. 1887), “Dolly” Rachel Winefred (b. 1889), Nelle Groves (b. 1891), Jessie Lee, (b. 1894), another baby boy (b. and d. 1897), Bertha Leona (b. 1899), and Lyman (b. 1903). 

Some of the children died young, others married and had children.  Ocy married Thaddeus Voshal Dorris. Robert married Elsie Olive Grow. Dolly married Loren Othello Grogan.  Nelle married Grover C. Rittgers.  Jessie married Bernice Marie Miller.  Bertha married Barton Glenn McCuen. Some of the family still resides in Greene County.   With just this one branch of the family, you can see how Robert Newton Turpin came to have thousands of descendents!

John and Emma Zetta lived on a farm owned by Jesse L. Groves. I think Jesse was John’s brother.  Emma Zetta and John eventually purchased 80 acres of land -- for $8.00 per acre. 

Emma Zetta lived until 1936.  John died 4 May 1926 in Rippey.  They are buried in the Rippey Cemetery.