Turpin Land Records in Owen County, Indiana

Back in an October 2011 blog, I mentioned the relationship of John and James Turpin.  

I’m sure they are related but I don’t have original documents that say what the relationship is.  One source that is a compiled history of some Virginia families states they are brothers but provides no evidence.  But John and James stick together over the years.   They are listed next to each other as Heads of Households in the 1830 Halifax County, Virginia Census.  They show up in the 1840 and 1850 Census in Owen County, Indiana.   After John’s death, his son Robert Newton Turpin and James Turpin both moved to Greene County, Iowa.  That is where James died and is buried, but Newt Turpin moved on to Nebraska.

The property where John and James lived in Indiana is on adjacent land south of the town of Spencer.  There are patents for these pieces of land, digital copies of which can be found at the Bureau of Land Management’s website with General Land Office records:  http://www.glorecords.blm.gov.  (If you have not used this website for genealogical research, it's quite useful -- take a look at it.) 

John lived on land that was patented by his wife Elizabeth, specifically from the 2nd Prime Meridian, Township 9 North Range 3 West,  SW 1/4 NW1/4 of Section 5.  James' land was Township 9 North Range 3 West, NW 1/4 NW1/4 of Section 5.

They were next door neighbors in Indiana just like they were in Virginia. 

Elizabeth Turpin's Land Patent in Indiana in 1839

James Turpin's Land Patent in Indiana in 1852

1940 Dundy County, Nebraska

In between indexing pages of the 1940 census of Nebraska, I took a look in Dundy County, Nebraska to see what Robert Newton "Tom" Turpin (Child #18) was doing in 1940. 

Haigler is a small town so I thought this should be a quick look up.

I came across a surprise.  I found a Robert Newton Turpin on the 3rd and 6th pages!  

Not only are 47-year-old Tom and Mamie Turpin living in Haigler, but first I found a 42-year-old Robert Newton Turpin.  He is the son of Francis Charles Turpin (Child #10).  

Newton (Tom) Turpin in Dundy County, Nebraska in 1940

Robert Turpin in Dundy County, Nebraska in 1940

Tom is working as a janitor in the public schools to support his wife and the two children at home.  He’d been a butcher and a farmer. We know that he and Mamie would be leaving for Colorado in the 1940s.   Times were hard. 

Tom’s nephew is working as a plumber.  The census lists him as married but there is a 7 in the census marriage status column meaning that his wife is not living in the house.  Robert was first married to Lela Margaret Pearson until after 1930.  He later married to Mary Frances Holt.    In 1940, he is sharing a rental with William Palmer a 74-year-old man from Connecticut, so this might be between marriages.   

Robert and Lela Turpin

Good finds -- I love the censuses!