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! 

Newton Turpin, #18 -- Better Known as Tom Turpin

Tom and Mamie Turpin

Robert Newton Turpin’s last son was named after him.  Newton was born on 13 April 1890 in Mariaville in Rock County, Nebraska.  In his youth he was known as Newtie.  As an adult, he was known as Tom. 

His father Newt died when Newtie was three years old and his mother Mary Ellen remarried in 1902.  The family eventually relocated to Dundy County in southwestern Nebraska where Tom grew up.  Tom married Mamie Armstrong about 1921.  She was born 3 December 1899, the daughter of Lyman B. “Billy” and Lela Armstrong.  Mamie’s father was a grocer in Haigler.  Tom and his step-father James Estlack were meat cutters.  So even though Haigler was a small town, it seems very likely that Tom and Mamie became good friends through their families and the grocery business.  Together they raised three children:  Billy, Donna, and Thomas Newton. 

During World War I Tom registered for the draft.  He stated on his registration form that he had been working as a butcher and meat cutter for his step-father.  When he had completed his military service, he returned home to Haigler.  He was a member of American Legion Post No. 19 and the World War I Platte Valley Barracks.  

Tom was a meat cutter for 30 years.  The 1930 census reported that Tom was engaged in farming in Dundy County also.  About 1942, Tom and Mamie moved to Fort Morgan, Colorado where they resided until their deaths.  Mamie died at a young age after suffering with a heart ailment for many years.  She died at home in Fort Morgan the day before her birthday, on 2 December 1945 according to the Haigler (Neb.) News.  Newton died 3 May 1969 in Fort Morgan, Colorado according to his own obituary in the Benkelman (Neb.) Post & News-Chronicle.  Tom and Mamie are buried at the Haigler Cemetery.

James Robert Turpin - Cloyd and Delbert’s Dad

James Robert Turpin

James Robert Turpin was the last of the Turpin children to be born in Iowa.  He was born 9 April 1877 and spent his first birthday in Nebraska as the family relocated. 

Not much is known about his youth, but at age 18 (a few years after his dad's death) James went to work at Carns in Keya Paha County, Nebraska in the A.O.U.W. (Ancient Order of United Workmen).  He was living at home in the 1900 census and his brother Charles and family are living next door.  In 1900, his father Newt Turpin was no longer alive and his mother Mary Ellen had not yet remarried.  James was listed as a farmer and I’m sure that at 23 years of age, he was helping his mother with the farming as she raised the family – there were six other kids living at home in 1900.