Levi Tope Rediscovered
The Martha Alice Tope Family
17. Martha Alice4 Tope (Levi3, George2, John1), was bom 2 March 1841 in
Carrollton,
Carroll County, Ohio,
and died 9 November 1938 in Boulder, Boulder County, Colorado.1
When the
family moved from Carroll County to
Western Ohio, she was a little girl about 7 to 8 years
old, and was a young woman, about 20 years old when the
family moved around 1861 into Van Wert County, Ohio.4
Martha moved to Colorado between 1880 and August 1881,2 bringing Lula Baxter, age 13, with her.3 Lula is found in 1880 living with Martha in the farm home of Levi Tope in Willshire Township, Van Wert County.
Martha married Davis Johnson Baxter, son of Robert Baxter and Ama Johnson, in Boulder County, Colorado on 11 August 1881.5
Davis was bom 7 February 1847 in Harrison Twp., Van Wert County, Ohio6 and was named for his maternal uncle. Ama's father was Joseph Johnson, and her mother, Mary Thorley Davis, was a sister of David Davis, Sarah Tope's father (see chapter 2).7
Davis Baxter died on 2 August 1908 in Berthoud, Weld County, Colorado, after suffering for sometime with cancer of the left ear and face.8 Martha survived him 30 years. Martha and Davis arejburied in the Greenlawn Cemetery, Berthoud, Weld County, Colorado.9
Davis was a widower when he married Martha. He first married Susan Smith at Pleasant Mills, Adams County, Indiana on 7 June 1869.10 He took his first wife, Susan, and baby daughter, Agnes Eustace, to Boulder County in 1872. Susan was bom in 1871 and died on 9 Jan 1877, just four short years after the move.11 The couple had another child, Samuel, in 1876, and he died on 5 January 1886. The two children are buried in the Burlington Rural
Cemetery, Longmont, Boulder County, Colorado.12
Davis was 18 years old when he joined the Grand Army of the Republic. He enlisted as a Private in Co. C, 2nd Ohio Regiment of Heavy Artillery, on
Notes:
1
Certificate of Death, State of Colorado, 10326, File No. 133, gives
date of birth and age as 97y 8m 7d.
2 1880 Census,
Willshire Township, Van Weit County, Ohio shows Martha Tope, age
39, living with Levi
Tope, and she married Davis Baxter in Colorado the following year.
Roll: T9 1074, Family
History Film: 1255074; Page: 445B; Enumeration District: 154,
Image: 0049.
3
Lois DuCharme, Except as noted,
all information about the children is from Colorado Centennial Project,
(Colorado
Historical Society).
4 1880 Census, Willshire, Van Wert,
Ohio, Roll: T9 1074, Family History Film: 1255074; Page: 445B;
Enumeration
District: 154; Image: 0049, Ancestry.com.
5 Marriages, Arapahoe County,
Colorado, 16 October 1859-1900.
6 Certificate of Death, State of
Colorado, File No. 7417, gives date of birth and ages as 61 years, 5
months, 25 days- His
mother's name is given as Mamie.
7 Meledie Gregory, email to Donald L.
Kear, Friday, March 07, 2003 6:33 PM
8 Ibid.
9 Certificates of Death, footnotes 1
and 6.
10 Index to Marriage Records, Adams
County, Indiana, 1845-1920 Inclusive, vol. I, bk. C. p.
245.
11
Meledie Gregory, ob sit.
12 Boulder County, Colorado
Cemeteries, p.45, FHL film #848730.
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Updated Wednesday, 12-Sep-07 13:24:46 PDT
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