Harper-Pope Bible
Letter from Edward Oscar McGowan, Jr. (1887-1968) to Leta McGowan Hedgpeth
(1876-1969), undated but probably written in the 1950s or early '60s.
Scrawled in pencil, but still quite legible.
Dear Sister:-
Here is the family record of the Harper family you asked me to copy. I wish
our ancestors, God rest their souls, had recorded deaths and marriages it
would certainly make things much clearer now. Perhaps they did record them
and they have been lost or destroyed or for all we know may be packed away in
some old family trunk some where. Who knows?
To try to make the record clearer, I have given each one of the persons
recorded a number.
No (1) Robert Harper son of Alexander and Margaret his wife was your great-
grandfather.
No 2 is Nancy his wife her name does not appear in the records again. Ann
Harper is recorded in
No 3 as being the mother of the first child. Could it be that Nancy Harper
recorded in No 2 as the wife of Robert died and Robert married Ann? If this
is true then why was grandmother McGowan named "Nancy" and why did she so
frequently mention the Popes as her kinsfolk? Pope was Nancy Harper's maiden
name. [Of course the solution to this problem is that Ann and Nancy are the
same person-I'm not sure why this didn't occur to my great-grandfather,
seeing as how his own granddaughter was named Anne after her mother Nancy
McGowan James.]
No 4 Reading Harper, grandmother's brother (I think) was her guardian after
her father's death. She often spoke of Uncle Reading or brother Reading and
one of them was her guardian. I can't remember which. It could have been
either of the two.
No 6 Lourainy Harper, Marsey's older sister, is the one Aunt Emma was named
for though by the time she came along the spelling had been changed to
Laurainy. Marsey sometimes called Aunt Emma Reeney, which was probably a
contraction of Lourainy. ["Marsey" was the family nickname for their
grandmother, Nancy Harper McGowan, see next.]
No 7 Nancy Harper is as you know our grandmother. She was the youngest child.
The name Robert Harper appears twice on the list. No (1) her father and No 4
her brother. Our Uncle Robert was probably named for him, as was Robert
Anderson our cousin named for our Uncle Robert. [A daughter of Nancy Harper
McGowan married Isaac or Ike Anderson; their child was this cousin Robert
Anderson.]
No 8 is "Peggy daughter of Dina" is almost illegible. She was born 1825 one
year before Marsey.
No 9 is just one word "Charity." [Looking closely at the original, this name
is "Charry" rather than "Charity".] These two entries mean nothing to me.
Could it be that these were slaves? It seems to me I have heard Marsey speak
of Dina and Charity as being among the slaves in the family. I am not sure
about this. Nor did I know that family slaves were recorded in family bibles.
Only given names being recorded might indicate that they were slaves. What do
you think?
Wish I could get more out of this but I am afraid it's the best I can do. Am
not shure you can read all this as I can't write legibly any more. Suppose
you copy it in your neat plain handwriting.
Bud
HARPER-POPE FAMILY BIBLE
Tucked into the McGowan family diary along with a cover letter from my
great-grandfather E.O. McGowan Jr. to his oldest sister Leta McGowan Hedgpeth,
the Harper-Pope family "bible" is really only one page and a fragment of
another torn from the Family Records section of a Bible. The pages are very
worn and crumbled at the egdes, and the "complete" page is in fact torn across
the middle fold and taped back together at some poin (probably by my
great-grandfather?). The two taped sections clearly match up. Originally the
pages must have been 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 or a little smaller, with a decorative
motif as a border: the motif resembles two acanthus leaves or pilasters
separated by two rows of four dots, sort of like {::} {::} , and there is a
stylized sunburst A4 in each corner. Each page is headed at the top with
FAMILY RECORD and MARRIAGES or BIRTHS or DEATHS, with a vertical line
dividing the page into two halves. All inscriptions are in the same hand, I
believe, and written in black ink faded to brown but still clearly legible.
Page 1:
This page is numbered [677] at the top center, 86 at the bottom left, and 4R
at the bottom center; all numbering is outside the motif border.
MARRIAGES
Robert Harper and Nancy Pope was [sic] married
the 16th of March 1809 - -
Page 2: [verso of Page 1]
Numbered [678] at top center, no other numbering.
BIRTHS
Robert Harper Son
of Alexander Harper
and Margaret his wife
was born July 21st
A.D. 1775 - -
[line drawn here and after each entry]
Nancy Harper wife of Robert Harper and
daughter of John Pope was born April 3rd
A.D. 1787 - -
John P. Harper son of Robert Harper and Ann
his wife was born July 4th A.D. 1810
Robert C. Harper son of Robt. Harper and
Ann his wife was born August 31st A.D. 1812
[top of second column]
BIRTHS
Readin Harper son of
Robert Harper and
Ann his wife was born
December 25th A.D. 1815
Lourainy Harper daughter of Robert Harper
and Ann his wife was born September 21st A.D.
1819
Nancy Harper [page crumbled, prob. "daughter"]
of Robert Harper and Ann his wife was born
July 28th A.D. 1826
[A line in ballpoint blue ink is drawn from this last entry and the words
"My grandmother McGowan" written in-surely either by E.O. McGowan Jr. or Leta
McGowan Hedgpeth. Nancy Harper McGowan was the mother of E.O. McGowan Sr. and
therefore their grandmother.]
Page 3:
This is the upper left quadrant of another page, badly crumbled at the edges,
torn along the horizontal fold in the middle. There's no evidence of more
writing on the page being lost in the tearing, however.
BIRTHS
Peggy the daughter of Dinah was born the 4
of may [sic] A.D. 1825
[a line drawn here]
Charry
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