A photo of a George W. Copley was included in the papers of James Allen Noyes and Caroline Atwell Noyes. Because the name of the studio is included I’m able to say that the photo would have been taken between some time from the 1860s to 1890s at the studio of the Ensminger Brothers in Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa. Based on this, I hazard that the photo is of a George W. Copley who was a school teacher in Washington, Buchanan, Iowa in 1880. His parents appear to have been a Benjamin and Catherine Copley, who were living in Harpersfield, Delaware, New York in 1850, which is possibly where George was born. A couple of letters located in 1920 show him as, at the age of 86, ready to return home to Delaware from Galveston, Texas, where he waas then living, and he was hoping for someone to assist him on arrival.
What the relationship was to the Noyes or how he was a friend is unknown.
* * * * * * * * *
1850 Harpersfield, Delaware, New York
115/126 Benj Copley 33 farmer $5000 b. NY
Catherine 27
Elizabeth 12
Frances 5
Chloe Jean 1
Joseph 69 laborer
William N. 27
George W. 16 b. MA
* * * * * * * * *
1870 Homer, Benton, Iowa $4000 $1761 b. NY
34/33 BURNESON A W 50 farmer
Emeline 43
Andrew 18
GREEN Orville 3 farm laborer
Eselle 23
COPLEY George W. 36 farm laborer
GREEN Virgil 34 farm laborer
* * * * * * * * *
1880 Washington, Buchanan, Iowa
184/184 Copley George W. 46 school teacher b. NY parents b. MA
* * * * * * * * *
1920 Galveston Ward 3, Galveston, Texas
2019 207/293 COPLEY George W. Lodger 85 b. NY Father b. CT. Mother b. illegible (but it’s not American)
* * * * * * * * *
The Evening Telegram New York, Monday, May 10, 1920
KNOW OF NONE BETTER
Editor of the Evening Telegram:
I see that the Hon. Lafayette B. Gleason, commonly called “Lafe” comes forward as the “good, true reliable, dependable person” required by a former denizen of Delaware county to take him home. Is not this George W. Copley of Galveston, Texas, a native of “pretty and progressive Delhi,” as it calls itself officially?
James Thompson
New York, May 5 1920
* * * * * * * * *
New York Tribune May 8, 1920
To the Editor of the Tribune,
Sir: The Tribune published a letter Tuesday from George W. Copley, of Galveston, Tex., aged eighty-six, who desires to return to his home in Delaware County, New York, and who said he would like to have “some good, true, reliable, dependable person” meet him in New Ork, and asking if The Tribune could not refer him to “some kind Christian person” who would do this for him.
I have written Mr. Copley, modestly admitting that I possess all these characteristics and that I will gladly undertake to see that he safely revisits Delaware County.
There is a saying in Egypt that “He who drinks Nile water must return,” and this sentiment is more than true of one who was fortunate enought to have been born in Delaware County.
Lafayette B. Gleason
New York, May 6, 1920
Leave a Reply