Obituary Sunday~James C. Copeland

In 1860, James C. Copeland was a young lad, age 9, living in Chesterfield County, South Carolina with his parents Thomas F. Copeland and Sarah Ellen White. James had two brothers and two sisters -  Joseph, Lafate, Ellen and Sarah.



Family folklore reports that Thomas F. Copeland, Sarah Ellen and two of the five children died of “pestulence”¹ on a steamboat near Louisville, Kentucky in 1864.  This query was posted on-line in August 2003.²



I have been unable to find Thomas, Sarah Ellen (wife); Ellen (daughter) and Lafate Copeland after the 1860 Census and it’s certain something happen to them. However, this extraction of James C. Copeland obituary shows that Joseph, James , Sarah and Silas T. [born after Census] lived to adulthood.



COPELAND, JAMES C. [Age] 70, D[eath] 8-7-22, [7 August 1922]
1035 Vine St.
Died at home
@St. Johns Evangelical Ch
Charge of Parsons & Scoville Bldg 915 Main St.
With company 41 yrs.
B. F. Parsons Pres of Co. was at his bed side when he died
He was born in S.C. and came to Evv [Evansville],  53 years ago [1869]
Son – Thomas C. of Chicago
Dau. – Mrs. Anna C. Jacobs of 1035 Vine St.
Bros. – Joseph of McCutchanville
Silas T. of Louisville
Sis. – Sallie Roth of Fern Creek, Ky

The fate of Thomas F. Copeland (Father); Sarah Ellen White Copeland (Mother); Lafate (son) and Ellen (Daughter) Copeland is unknown; though I can only account for the loss of two children, not three.
 
We know that Silas T. Copeland was born in 1862; it’s possible there is another child that I am unaware of, born after the Census enumeration. Until he was, of age, he was in an Orphanage.

Silas's obituary states that he came to Evansville, Indiana fifty-three years ago. That would be in 1869 and James would have been 17 years old.







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[1] a contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating
[2] http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa.states.tennessee.counties.grainger/1754/mb.ashx
[3] The extracted obituary was found on-line in The Browning Genealogy Database. This database was the lifetime work of Charles Browning and is a compendium of obituaries for Vanderburgh and surrounding counties of Indiana.<http://browning.evcpl.lib.in.us/>  My thanks to Beth Crowe for providing the hyper-link.