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. 

Julia Turpin Jurges

Julia Turpin Jurges

Julia was another of the Iowa-born children in Robert Newton Turpin’s second family.  She was born 11 October 1875 in Grand Junction, Greene County, Iowa per her own handwritten notes.  Her obituary claims that the town of Jefferson is where Julia was born. 

Julia married a young German immigrant, Charles Jurges, on 15 March 1899 according to Rock County, Nebraska marriage records.  Charles was born 15 March 1876 in Hamburg, Germany, the son of Frederick H. Jurges and Johanna Wilhelmina Louisa Ilsemann according to German emigration records and his marriage record. Charles immigrated in 1892. He would have been about 17 years old. 

Mary Ellen Leonard Turpin's Father

Mary Ellen Leonard Turpin's father was Michael Leonard.

From Dennis Bell -- I've been checking Civil War records lately.  I wondered how Michael Leonard avoided being drafted. 

On March 3, 1863 the U.S. Government passed the Enrollment Act, the national conscription law.  The law called for drafts in July 1863 and in Mar., July, and Dec. 1864 on a state and county basis when there were insufficient volunteers.  The draft law applied to men aged 20 to 45; no married man could be drafted until all the unmarried had been taken.

On July 1, 1863 Michael Leonard registered for the draft, listing his residence in Cedar, Johnson, Iowa.  He said his age was 44.  He was actually 39, having been born June 8, 1824.

Follow-up on James R. Carter

In my Nov 12th blog post about the Iowa 10th Infantry and Thomas Benton Turpin, I mentioned James R. Carter who enlisted at the same time.  The Carters and the Turpins intermarried and I thought there might be a family connection: 

James R. Carter of Rippey enlisted as a Private on 23 August 1861 at the age of 18 in Company H, 10th Infantry Regiment Iowa on 7 Sep 1861.

James is the same age as Thomas.  Carter was probably Thomas’s grandmother’s maiden name. So looking to see if there is a connection could help me.  A bit of research shows there are no records of him in Greene County, Iowa in the 1860 census. I may want to scan the census in case the indexing is in error. I don’t see any James Carters in 1870 census that look like a potential match either. There is a 1890 Veteran’s Schedule which shows many James Carters. I guess this is a research project to put on my rainy day list.

Dennis Bell found the following entry for a James R. Carter in the 1860 census of Washington, Warren Co., Iowa.  Dennis suggested:

... he might be the James R. Carter (b. ABT 1843 in Indiana) who lived in Warren Co. IA in 1860?  See the below.  It appears to me that Charlotte (b. ABT 1820 in Indiana) is his mother, and that she remarried to John Epps and started a 2nd family.  John and Charlotte Epps were living in Washington, Greene, Iowa in the 1870 census.  John Epps was a widower in the 1880 census (Indianola, Warren, Iowa).