TOPE FAMILY PAGE

Chapter 3

The Family Moves West

    Except for the marriage record, the only official record of the Levi Tope family in Carroll County, Ohio, is the 1840 census for Monroe Township.¹ This census shows Levi Tope with one son under age 5, and a female between 20 and 30 years. That son would have been Hiram J. Tope, and the female, Sarah (Davis) Tope, Levi's wife. Before the family moved west, however, a second child was bom.² Martha Alice, as will be discussed in Chapter 5, is identified in other records as having been bom on 2 March 1841.³ With records showing the remainder of the children having been bom in Western Ohio, we surmise the family moved to Western Ohio after Martha's birth in 1841.

    The first record of Levi found in Western Ohio is a property deed that shows he paid $500 for property in Richland Township, Putnam County, on April 27, 1849. The deed did not give the acreage, but when Levi sold the property the acreage was given as 80 acres. He bought the property from Joseph Heath and Amanda Heath of Pickaway County, Ohio, and the deed was not recorded until 15 January 1855 in Pickaway County, Ohio, where the Heaths lived. George Neff, a Notary Public and one of the witnesses to the signing, notarized the deed on the same day it was signed. The reason for such a delay between the date of signing and recording is not known, although it wasn't delivered to the Pickaway County Recorder until 5 January 1855.19⁴

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    The trek from Monroe Township in Carroll County must have been arduous for Levi, Sarah, and the two children. Travel in those days followed Indian trails, and which trails they followed must be strictly a matter of conjecture inasmuch as Levi did not leave a known journal. They most likely took the Great Trail that went from the east to northwest part of Ohio. They would have had to take another trail from Seneca County to Putnam County (see map, page x). The family probably traveled with several families for security and support. At some juncture, the family must have departed from the established trail or road, and taken another trail or road to Richland Township in Putnam County where Levi eventually purchased property.

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Notes:

1. Census, Monroe Township, Carroll County, Ohio, p. 237.
2. Melancthon Tope, obsit, p. 42.
3. Certificate of Death, State of Colorado, File No. p. 133.
4. Recorder's Office, Allen County, Ohio, Bk T, pp. 412-3.