James’ Children - Susa,1st Child

I plan to blog what I’ve found on the known children of James Turpen.  This is a first post on his children.

From the www.sweetowen.net website, Nancy Jane Carter -- is this Jim and Janey?

Susa was the first child of James and Janey (Carter).   Susa was probably born about 1838 and is indicated in the 1840 census records of Owen County, Indiana as a daughter less than five years of age.  She is a 12-year-old in the 1850 census.  Since James and Janey cannot be found in an 1860 census, when Susa would have been 22, she drops from sight in that big time gap of 20 years.  That presents a research challenge.

Her name appears once, on a single census so it could be misspelled or shortened by the census taker.  Susa could have died.  She might have gotten married in Owen County, Indiana or Greene County, Iowa but there doesn’t seem to be any clues in the marriage records.  We don’t know where the family lived in Arkansas but we might find traces of her there someday.  It's an open project!

James of course had a son before he married Janey Carter.  When he was married to Jane Mills in Virginia, they had a son.  Both Jane and son are gone from records after 1830.  The most likely explanation is death but this is another open project. 

James Turpen Summary

James was born about 1806 and could definitely be a child of John Turpin and brother to Newt Turpin.  He moved from Virginia to Indiana with John’s family, then from Indiana to Iowa with Newt’s family.  He and his children sometimes spelled their name with an “e” and sometimes with an “i” but it’s the same family.  Some descendants of this Turpen branch still live in the Rippey, Iowa area.

Jim’s tombstone says he was born in 1790 and died 6 Dec 1886.  It’s doubtful that James was born before 1800.  John and Elizabeth were married 1797.  Also, various census records estimate James’ birth in a number of different years but very likely he was born about 1806 in Halifax County, Virginia.  

Jim can be detected in the John Turpin household in Marseilles, Halifax County, Virginia in the 1820 census by his age – there is a son listed who is 10-16 years old.  In 1827, he married Jane Mills.  By 1830, he is listed as living next to John Turpin with his wife and a son under five years old.  At this point, Jim is 20-30 years old.  Within a few years, his wife Jane and his son appear to have died. I’ve found no death or cemetery records for Jane or the son. Then Jim and others in the family leave Virginia to settle in Owen County, Indiana sometime in the 1830s. 

In Owen County, Indiana, Jim met Jane Carter and they marry in 1837.  Nancy Jane Carter was born 10 Mar 1813 in Virginia. (I'm guessing that she ties into all the other Carters in the family.)  The 1840 census lists him as 30-40 years old, with his wife who is 20-30 years old, and a daughter under five years old.  By the time of the 1850 census, Jim’s family had grown with children Susa, William, Luke and Isaac N.  Janey’s mother, Sucky Carter also is living with them.  (Sookie, Suky is a nickname for Susan or Susanna.)

Now is when the Turpins begin to drift out of Owen County.  Newt Turpin goes to McLean County, Illinois and then on to Iowa.  Newt is in Greene County, Iowa in 1860 but Jim is not.  He isn’t on a census in 1860 (that I can find).  It’s said that around 1864 Jim and Janie moved from Indiana to Iowa, then to Arkansas in about 1869.  Three years later they returned to Rippey in Greene County, Iowa. However, Jim is listed in Greene County, Iowa in the 1870 census.  It seems the estimated years of James’ travels may be off by a few years but the details of where he went are probably accurate.  

Jim stayed in Greene County the rest of his life.  He and Janey added Henry, Samuel, George, and John to their family.   Jim died 6 Dec 1886  and Janey died 23 May 1910.  Both are buried in Greene County, Iowa.  Janey’s tombstone has her name engraved as Nancy J. Turpen.

Who is James Turpin/Turpen of Owen County, Indiana?

The Turpin family members were the ultimate recyclers.  Few names were used only once, but rather they keep coming back over and over, used sometimes in multiples.  James is one of those names.  The Turpins loved their Jameses.  If you mix that with unreliable dates in documents, it’s the perfect recipe for a genealogist’s headache.

Early Setters of Tidewater Virginia, Volume 3 compiled by Elise Greenup Jourdan shows that Michael and Edith Turpin had sons named Obediah, John, and James.  And we have Turpins in Owen County, Indiana named Obediah, John, and James who hailed from Virginia.  That would appear to be a good fit.  But the Indiana James does not usually match the Virginia James profile.  He is on the edges of the age range for being a brother of Obediah and John and a son of Edith.  

Obediah was probably born about 1761.  John was born about 1770.  James was born 1792 or 1798 or 1806 or 1820 depending on which record you are reading.  Here is the James information formatted into a timeline. 

Does he look like a brother to Obediah and John or a son of John?   I am tempted to split this timeline.  The events before 1820 are the James who is Michael’s son.  The events starting in 1820 could be a son of John who is Michael’s son.  I’ve found no direct evidence to support this idea but this timeline sort of points that way.  Thoughts?