Coppock, Benjamin bioglraphy
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Coppock, Benjamin bioglraphy
| Board Administrator (View posts) | Posted: 8 Mar 2003 8:12PM GMT |
Classification: Biography
Surnames: Coppock, Cobb
This is not my family and I have no further information.
from reprint of “Clarke County Historical and Biographical Record†by Lewis Publishing, 1886. p. 178.
BENJAMIN COPPOCK, one of the leading and influential citizens of Woodburn, and of Clarke County, is one of the pioneers of this sub-division of Iowa. He is a native of Columbiana County, Ohio, born March 18, 1831, and is the son of Aaron and Amy (Cobb) COPPOCK, both natives of Virginia.
The family resided in Ohio until 1842 the father owning 1000 acres of land there, but engaging in the disastrous speculation of buying $10,000 worth of butter and shipping the same to Cincinnati, Ohio, and Little Rock, Arkansas, lost every cent of the venture through the fault and dishonesty of others. He sold out his property, and paying his indebtedness, with some $1,800 in 1842, came to Iowa, and locating in the town of Salem, Henry County, opened a store, but after about three years failed at that.
In 1849 the gold fever broke out and Benjamin and his father joined a party who went across the plains to the new-found Eldorado of the West, on the golden shores of California. They landed at Hangtown, now Placerville, during the summer of 1849, and opened a small store, but three months later sold out and removed to Sacramento, where the elder Mr. Coppock purchased a lot and started a small store in a tent. In company with another party he purchased a schooner, and loaded it with goods at San Francisco, they having gone there for that purpose. On their way back they encountered a gale and were wrecked, losing everything except their lives and the clothes they had on, only pants and shirts. Seeing a whaleboat floating by they secured it, and sold it to the first passing steamboat for their passage to Sacramento as they had not a dollar in their pockets.
On arrival at the latter city, Aaron COPPOCK was so disheartened that he would not stay there, but leaving Benjamin in charge of his place started back to Hangtown, fifty-five miles distant, afoot, and then went to mining. Three months later Benjamin closed out the business and joined his father and engaged in the same, digging. When the Gold Lake excitement broke out in June,1850, the younger Mr. Coppock started for that camp with fifty-five pounds of provisions on his back, but when part way there met the returning prospectors and stopped to prospect, and on the Yuba River struck a rich find, paying two ounces to the man per day, although they had to carry the dirt some distance to wash it. His father started to join him, but missing his road, wandered around a while and spent the winter in Donnersville, near the head waters of the Yuba River, where he died about the 1st of May, 1851, and was buried on Big Rich Bar. Benjamin in the meantime was looking for him, and at last, at Shasta, heard the mournful tidings of his father’s death, and at once proceeded to Donnersville, and commenced mining operations. Here he was joined by his brother, Lindsay, in 1852, and after having spent three years there and at Pine Grove returned to Iowa.
In March, 1854, Benjamin and Lindsay COPPOCK came to Clarke County where they entered land, the former 200 acres at what was afterward Ottawa, the latter 160 acres adjoining. They commenced breaking land in the following month, and raised, that summer, a large crop of corn from the sod. Their nearest neighbors were four miles away, and between them and Osceola, then but a little hamlet, there was but one house.
from reprint of “Clarke County Historical and Biographical Record†by Lewis Publishing, 1886. p. 178.
BENJAMIN COPPOCK, one of the leading and influential citizens of Woodburn, and of Clarke County, is one of the pioneers of this sub-division of Iowa. He is a native of Columbiana County, Ohio, born March 18, 1831, and is the son of Aaron and Amy (Cobb) COPPOCK, both natives of Virginia.
The family resided in Ohio until 1842 the father owning 1000 acres of land there, but engaging in the disastrous speculation of buying $10,000 worth of butter and shipping the same to Cincinnati, Ohio, and Little Rock, Arkansas, lost every cent of the venture through the fault and dishonesty of others. He sold out his property, and paying his indebtedness, with some $1,800 in 1842, came to Iowa, and locating in the town of Salem, Henry County, opened a store, but after about three years failed at that.
In 1849 the gold fever broke out and Benjamin and his father joined a party who went across the plains to the new-found Eldorado of the West, on the golden shores of California. They landed at Hangtown, now Placerville, during the summer of 1849, and opened a small store, but three months later sold out and removed to Sacramento, where the elder Mr. Coppock purchased a lot and started a small store in a tent. In company with another party he purchased a schooner, and loaded it with goods at San Francisco, they having gone there for that purpose. On their way back they encountered a gale and were wrecked, losing everything except their lives and the clothes they had on, only pants and shirts. Seeing a whaleboat floating by they secured it, and sold it to the first passing steamboat for their passage to Sacramento as they had not a dollar in their pockets.
On arrival at the latter city, Aaron COPPOCK was so disheartened that he would not stay there, but leaving Benjamin in charge of his place started back to Hangtown, fifty-five miles distant, afoot, and then went to mining. Three months later Benjamin closed out the business and joined his father and engaged in the same, digging. When the Gold Lake excitement broke out in June,1850, the younger Mr. Coppock started for that camp with fifty-five pounds of provisions on his back, but when part way there met the returning prospectors and stopped to prospect, and on the Yuba River struck a rich find, paying two ounces to the man per day, although they had to carry the dirt some distance to wash it. His father started to join him, but missing his road, wandered around a while and spent the winter in Donnersville, near the head waters of the Yuba River, where he died about the 1st of May, 1851, and was buried on Big Rich Bar. Benjamin in the meantime was looking for him, and at last, at Shasta, heard the mournful tidings of his father’s death, and at once proceeded to Donnersville, and commenced mining operations. Here he was joined by his brother, Lindsay, in 1852, and after having spent three years there and at Pine Grove returned to Iowa.
In March, 1854, Benjamin and Lindsay COPPOCK came to Clarke County where they entered land, the former 200 acres at what was afterward Ottawa, the latter 160 acres adjoining. They commenced breaking land in the following month, and raised, that summer, a large crop of corn from the sod. Their nearest neighbors were four miles away, and between them and Osceola, then but a little hamlet, there was but one house.