Re: Oldest Family in Anamosa
OLDEST FAMILY
Posted By: Tom (email) In Response To: Oldest Family in Anamosa (John Kruse)
Date: 5/20/2015 at 15:36:30
The Soper family has been in the area since 1847 and there are many descendants of the original settlers in the area. I am a distant relative living on Long Island. Our common ancestor was born in Huntington, Long Island, New York in 1670. The Soper family emigrated from Hampshire, England to Long Island about 1660.
Among the early settlers in Fairview township, in the area adjoining Greenfield township, were members of the Soper family: represented by the Jacob Soper family, Timothy Soper, and Orin R. Harvey. Their westward trek from Chenango county, New York, to Jones county, made with horses and wagon, consumed five weeks in the fall of 1847. Of the Jacob Soper family, a two year old son, Chauncey, died in 1848; the mother, Mrs. Jacob (Celinda) Soper died in 1857. Apparently both were buried in a private plot around which the Norwich cemetery was platted in 1865, attested to by various deeds by which parcels of land were transferred to the Norwich cemetery. Attached to the Soper monument in the old part of the cemetery, is a plaque with the following inscription thereon:
"Jacob Soper, his wife, Celinda, and their four children: Erastus G., Roswell K., Lillis, and Chauncey, aged from six years to four months, accompanied by his brother, Timothy Soper and a brother in law, Orin R. Harvey, drove a team of horses with a farm wagon containing family wearing apparel, bedding, etc., from the town of Pitcher, Chenango county, New York, to Jones County, Iowa, during the autumn of 1847, leaving their home in New York on the 11th day of September and arriving on the 18th day of October via Ithaca, and Corning New York,; Erie, PA,; Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio; Adrian and Coldwater Mich.; Michigan City, Chicago and Savanna, Ill.
http://iowajones.org/cemetery/Norwich.htm
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