TOPE FAMILY PAGE

     Levi Tope, son of Abraham Tope and Elizabeth Roop, was born 5 June 1811 in Holmes Co., Ohio and died in 1891 in Ohio [note 1].  He married Susanna Kreiger on  19 September 1830 in Holmes Co., Ohio. One source says she was born in Bavaria, Germany, and was the widow of Jacob Kreiger. Another source shows she was born in New Bedford, Ohio.
    Levi had lived in Bedford, then moved outside of Nashville near Glenmont, Ohio.  He lived on an 80-acre farm in Holmes County [note 2].  The garden was in neat beds with paths between. The onion rows had radish or beet seeds as markers.  It was very neat and pretty. They had a spring house in which they kept pickles in a barrel.  In the winter, they had to chop them out of ice.
    Levi was stout man, not very tall and with broad shoulders. He had red hair and a long red beard. He was a jack-of-all-trades. He made sorghum, pulled teeth, half-soled shoes, and was a farmer with a one-horse cultivator. He used to deliver the mail between Nashville and Lakeville [note 3].

    Levi and Susanna had four children:

1. Elizabeth Tope was born in 1831 in Holmes Co., Ohio.
2. Abraham Tope was born in 1834 in Holmes Co., Ohio, and died 13 February 1865 in  Washington, D.C.
3. Jacob Tope was born in 1835 in Holmes Co., Ohio, and died in Minnesota before 1900.
4. Isaiah Tope was born in 1838 in Holmes Co., Ohio.

    Susanna Kreiger and Jacob Kreiger had one child;  Anna Marie Kreiger, who was born in 14 June 1821 in Holmes Co., Ohio, and died 15 May 1911.   She is buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery, Nashville, Holmes Co., Ohio [note 4].

    Susanna Kreiger Tope, while dying in childbirth, asked her daughter, Anna Marie Kreiger, to promise to help Levi raise the baby and the other children [note 5].
    To keep the gossip down and to make things seem proper, Levi married his step-daughter, Anna Maria Kreiger in 1850.  Anna was born in 1831 and would have been about 19 years old at this time of marriage [note 6].  Anna Marie Tope lived with her daughter, Caroline Schwire in 1910 [note 7].
    Levi and Anna had ten children:

1. William Tope.
2. Caroline Tope was born about 1846 and died before 1911. She married Michael Schwire [note 8], who was born about 1834 in Germany and immigrated to America in 1850.
3. Sophia Tope was born 14 October 1849 and died 5 December 1928.  She married David Collier, son of Henry Collier and Letitia Wells [note 9], on 3 May 1874.
Sophia and David had seven children:
1. Irene Collier was born 30 December 1876, and died 1 March 1888.
2. Clyde F. Collier was born 28 Sep 1878 and died 8 May 1947.  He married Bertha Ethel Losier on 22 Feb 1898. He was born 2 July 1879.
3. Wayne Collier was born 19 Feb 1880. 
4. Clavert Collier was born 11 Sep 1881.
5. Vernon Collier was born 9 May 1883.
6. May Collier was born 20 May 1885 and died 29 Sep 1885. 
7. Charles Collier was born 13 Mar 1887. 
4. Rebecca Tope married Will Snyder, who was previously married to her sister, Matilda Tope.
5. John Tope died in Hammond, Lake Co., Indiana.  He married Ida Wolf.
6. Isabella Tope was born 2 November 1852.  She married George Chandler on 12 Jun 1873.
   Isabella and George had three children:
   1. Dora May Chandler was born 25 March 1874 and died in 1881.
   2. Carmi David Chandler was born 28 May 1877.
   3. Doster George Chandler was born 1 April 1879; d. 12 May 1967.
7. Amanda Tope was born in 1869, and married Samuel Lille Anderson.
8. Matilda Tope was born about 1855 and died before 1911.  She married Will Snyder.  After Matilda's death, Will married her sister, Rebecca.
9. Belinda Tope was born 26 April 1856 and died 26 November 1939.
10. Jonathon Tope was born in 1850, and he married Margaret (Maggie) ?.

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Notes:

1. Except as otherwise noted, all information is from The Tope Family History, 1983, Becky Darr, p. 15-16.  [Return to text]
2. Levi and Susannah Tope of Holmes County, Ohio, deposited certificate No. 1731 at Zanesville, Ohio that indicated full payment or 80 acres in the West half of the South West Quarter of Section Eight in Township Eight of range five.
   Signed under the hand of President John Quincy Adams on 30 July 1828.[Return to text]
3. 1860 United States Federal Census Record  [Return to text]
4. Tope History  [Return to text]
5. Ibid, p. 12. [Return to text]
6. Ibid. [Return to text]
7. 1910 United States Federal Census, Clinton Township, Wayne County, Ohio Roll: T624_1239 Page: 2A Enumeration District: 164 Image: 745. [Return to text]
8. Ancestry.com, One World Tree (sm), Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., n.d., Online publication - Ancestry.com. OneWorldTree [database on-line]. Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc.  The History of the Tope Family gives this name as Mr. Swiers. [Return to text]
9. Ibid, ob sit.  [Return to text]

Updated October 23, 2009
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