This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: AMeadows Surnames: Cropper, Cully, Cox Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.maryland.counties.baltimorecity/4742.1.2/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Thanks again for the information. The following is a synopsis of the evidence that led to the conclusion that the Reuben Cropper who died in 1888 in Cecil County was the husband of Emily in Baltimore - and - the grandfather of Sarah Emma Cropper (1885-1979), daughter of George Reuben Cropper (c.1857 - ?) and Sarah Anne Cully (1868-1951). This summary was put together for distribution at a family reunion (GEORGE family) held in Kent County, MD. Sarah Anne Cully and George Reuben Cropper; And other Miscellaneous Information For years almost nothing was known about the first husband of Sarah Anne Cully. It was said that their son George R. Cropper was named for his father so it was assumed that the father, husband of Sarah Anne Cully, was named George Cropper. Family tradition was that he was a full-blooded Indian, possibly of the Delaware tribe of the Cree Nation (see "George Cousins Reunion 2003" book; information supplied by Blanche Keeler). When their daughter Sarah Emma Cropper was five or six years old (this would have been about 1890), her father "left the house and as he did he looked back at her at a window and blew her a kiss and said 'Goodbye, I love you.' The was the last time anyone ever saw him again." (Blanche Keeler) We have done a lot of research over the past few years, much of it recently, and although we still cannot say what became of Sarah Emma's father, we do now know a great deal about his family and something about his earlier life. We will try to provide that information in an order that makes sense. We began by locating the death certificate for George R. Cropper, younger brother of Sarah Emma. He was born September 3, 1886, and died October 13, 1918. The death certificate gave the name of his father as "Reuben R. Cropper," not George Cropper as we had assumed (since we had been told that George R. Cropper had been named after his father we figured that the middle initial in his name was for "Reuben"). With this information we then began searching the records for his father as Reuben Cropper. But we had little luck with this for a few years. A few months ago we found the following article in the September 15, 1888 edition of the Cecil Whig, a local (Cecil County, MD) newspaper: Sudden Death. Reuben Cropper, who lives in a tenant house on the Mt. Harmen farm in the First district and with his son of the same name engaged in fishing for a livelihood, died very suddenly recently. He ate his supper hastily and was sitting on a bench talking and smoking about 10 o'clock, when he fell forward. His son and a man named Thos. Carson placed him on a bed. He must have died almost instantly. Wm. J. Duhamel, a justice of the peace, summoned a jury of inquest which found a verdict of death from natural causes. Cropper was about 65 years of age. He was a widower his wife having died about 14 years ago. His remains were taken to Baltimore, where he had a son and two daughters, for interment. This was of interest for several reasons: (1) From our research we knew that Reuben Cropper was not a very common name in Maryland and both the father and son in the article were named Reuben. We thought that maybe the younger Reuben Cropper was the one who had married Sarah Anne Cully; (2) Mt. Harmon farm, or Mt. Harmon Plantation, is located in lower Cecil County, close to the border with Kent County. Sarah Anne Cully lived with her parents in northern Kent County so the Reuben Croppers in the article were close geographically to the Cully family; and (3) the Croppers, father and son, in the article were "engaged in fishing for a livelihood." In the 1880 census, Joseph Cully, the father of Sarah Anne, also listed "fisherman" as his trade so it is conceivable that the families knew each other because of the occupations of the fathers: Census, 1880, Kent County, MD; 1st Election District; dwelling/family #22/22: CULLY, Joseph, white, male, 40, married, fisherman, cannot write, born in MD, as were his father and mother. Mary, white, female, wife, keeping house, born in MD, as were her father and mother, cannot write Sarah, white, female, 10, daughter, at home Della, white, female, 7, daughter Martha, white, female, 3, daughter Agnes, white, female, 1/12 (born in April), daughter Joseph, white, male, 14 son The article stated that the elder Reuben Cropper was returned to Baltimore for burial so we began looking in the Baltimore records for a Reuben Cropper. We found this family in the 1860 and 1870 census': 1860, 17th Ward, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, 16th July, Baltimore City P.O., dwelling/family #2170/2848: CROPPER, Reuben, 30, machinist, Emily, 27 Susan, 7 Reuben, 2 HANCOCK, Anna, 25 Robert, 1 Thomas, 4/12 [all listed as white, all born Maryland] 1870, [17] Ward Baltimore City; Baltimore County, MD; 25/6 July; Baltimore City P.O.; family #1098: CROPPER, Reuben, 45, boiler maker Emily, 35 Susan, 16 Reuben, 13 Joseph, 9 Mary, 6 John, 1 [all listed as white] We had located the Reuben CROPPERs, father and son, who were living at Mt. Harmen Farm in 1888 when the father died but there were some questions: (1) why had the father changed from his occupations of machinist (1860) and boiler maker (1870) to that of a fisherman; and (2) why had they left Baltimore and moved to Cecil County? The article stated that the wife of the elder Reuben had died "about 14 years ago" so we thought that may have been a reason he left the city. We found the following: Baltimore Death Index: Emily Cropper, died 10-5-1878; CR48,053 In Matchett's Baltimore Directory for 1853-54, page 74: Cropper, Reuben, fisher, 90 Cross [Street] In Matchett's Baltimore Directory for 1855-56: Cropper, Reuben, laborer, 122 Cross [Street] Wood's Baltimore Directory for 1856-57, pg. 79: Cropper, Reuben, laborer, 122 Cross >From these we knew that Emily, the wife of the elder Reuben and mother of the younger, had died in 1878 (only ten years before the death of her husband, not "about 14" as the Whig article stated) and that the elder Reuben had worked as a fisherman when younger (in 1853/1854). These facts strengthened the theory that the Reuben CROPPERs in Cecil County were the same father and son that were in Baltimore City in the 1860 and 1870 census'. We next found the following: Western Cemetery Interment Records, 1874-1892, Baltimore, MD, Baltimore County Genealogical Society, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 2004. Area, lot #, name, burial date S-253 Cropper, Reuben Sep. 2, 1888 S-253 Jennings, Mrs. Dec. 12, 1874 S-253 Kropper (Cropper), Emily Oct. 7, 1878 S-253 Poyner, sb. Dec. 6, 1876 S-253 Stockett, J. Mar. 21, 1874 This shows that a Reuben Cropper was buried on September 2, 1888, just prior to the article in the Whig and so this is certainly the same person that, according to the article, "died very suddenly recently" and whose "remains were taken to Baltimore..for interment." Emily Cropper, the wife/mother in the 1860 and 1870 census was also buried in this same burial plot (at this time we have no idea who the other people in S-253 are). All of this evidence proves that the Reuben Cropper who died in Cecil County in 1888 while living with his son, also Reuben Cropper, as tenants on Mt. Harmon farm was the same Reuben Cropper who was in Baltimore from at least 1853 until 1878 when his wife Emily died. All of this looked good but we still had not definitely connected Sarah Anne Cully to the younger Reuben Cropper at Mt. Harmon. Geographically they were close and occupationally their fathers may have known each other (they were both fishermen) but we still were not certain. We had checked both Cecil County and Kent County courthouses and had not located any record of marriage for Sarah Anne Cully or Reuben Cropper. Then, in a book titled "According to the Church," by Trish Surles, we found this: page 43 Galena Charge Marriages Sep 2, 1884 Geo R. Cropper, 20, Fisherman, Baltimore, Md. Sarah A. Culley, 17, Cecil Co., Md. This states that Sarah A. Cully, age 17 (she was born about July of 1868 so the age is close) married a George R. (probably Reuben) Cropper, a fisherman, from Baltimore. This almost certainly has to be the younger Reuben Cropper at Mt. Harmon farm. >From our research we can say that: 1) Sarah Anne Cully married George Reuben Cropper on September 2, 1884. 2) George Reuben Cropper was born about 1857 or 1858 (he was 2 years old in the 1860 census and 13 years old in the 1870 census). He would have been about 27 when he married Sarah Anne Cully (not the 20 as stated in the marriage record, but it was not unusual to have incorrect ages given. And then again we have not checked the original church records - the number in the book may be a misprint). 3) The father of George Reuben Cropper was named Reuben Cropper. He was born in Maryland about 1825-1830, lived in Baltimore City at least from 1853 until 1878; moved to Mt. Harmon Farm in Cecil County where he died about September 2, 1888; he was buried in Western Cemetery in Baltimore City, along with his wife Emily (she was born in Maryland about 1833-1835 and died October 5, 1878). We do not know Emily's maiden name. 4) George Reuben Cropper, husband of Sarah Anne Cully, had the following brothers and sisters: a) Susan, born about 1853-1854 b) Joseph, born about 1861 c) Mary, born about 1864 d) John, born about 1869 5) We still do not know what became of George Reuben Cropper, father of Sarah Emma and George R. Cropper, after he said goodbye to his daughter around the year 1890. Items we are still researching: 1) We have contacted the people in charge of Mt. Harmon Plantation (it is open to the public for tours) and they will be looking for any records of farm tenants. It is a long shot but we thought we might find more information about the Reuben Croppers' time there. 2) We also found the following in the 1850 Baltimore census: 1850 census, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, MD; 17th Ward; dwelling/family #2131/2695: CROPPER, Stephen, 48, shoemaker, born MD Wm., 24, shoemaker, born MD Rueben, 22, shoemaker, born MD We suspect, but cannot yet prove, that the Reuben Cropper here is the one who married Emily and was the father of George Reuben Cropper, husband of Sarah Anne Cully. We have done some research on the father Stephen and brother William and if it turns out that this is the correct Reuben we will pass along that information. Miscellaneous Information: (1) We also have found the following information concerning Beulah M. Cropper, daughter of George R. Cropper (Emma Sarah's brother). George R. Cropper died in 1918 and his wife Ethel remarried (twice). We found her in the following census': 1920 census, Harford County, MD; Havre de Grace; 12 June 1920; dwelling/family #73/79: LAMPLEY, Charles O., 37, born MD Ethel E., wife, 28, born DE CROPPER, Beulah M., daughter, 6, born MD [Note: Beulah was a daughter of Ethel's first husband, George R. Cropper] 1930 census, Delaware County, PA; Lower Chichester Township; Linwood Heights; Sheet 19B; April 16, 1930; dwelling/family #379/396: LAWRENCE, Ralph H., 34, married first at 32, born PA, father PA, mother England; boilermaker, oil refinery Ethel E., wife, 36, married first at 20, born DE, father MD, mother MD [Henry] T., 68, widower, born PA, father PA, mother PA, watchman, oil refinery CROPPER, Beulah, step-daughter, 16, born MD, father MD, mother DE LAMPLEY, Ethel, step-daughter, 8, born MD, father MD, mother DE (2) We have located the burial place of Lydia/Lidea Reed, the mother of Amanda Hudson (wife of Nicholas Richard George and mother of Louis Harry "Poe" George). Lydia Reed Hudson married as her second husband W. John Cox and they had five children. She was living with one of these, John Thomas Cox, when she died in Queen Annes County about April 2, 1909. According to "Tombstoning in Kent County Maryland" she is buried in Galena Cemetery (we have not actually looked for the grave yet; some of you may already have been aware that she was buried there): Lydia Cox, 1819 - 1909, mother John T. Cox, 1865 - 1942 V Della Cox, his wife, 1874 - 1953 Bertha, daughter of John T. & Della Cox, 1892 - 1908 V. Della Cox, wife of John T. Cox, was Della Cully, sister of Sarah Anne Cully (mother of Sarah Emma Cropper). Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.