Census Facts

1900 Census showing the Copeland family in Independence, Montgomery County, Kansas. Note that names were mispelled by the enumerator (counter). Ostin should be Austin, Claracy should be Clarissa, Danil should be Daniel. (These mispellings were probably due to the fact that Abner was from North Carolina, and this was the way that he pronounced his children's names to the ennumerator!) This was an invaluable census because it provide information on the family members, as well as an insight to Abner's 'accent'! NOTE that his 2 eldest sons (Samuel Gilbert and Elbert Epps) do not appear on this census because they had already moved from the family farm to their own farms.

The census is a great place for finding family information. So, I thought I would participate in the 2010 census. I went through the training as a census enumerator (counter) and actually went on one census visit with 3 colleagues. Then I was offered a position back at my old employer, so I left. In a way, I'm glad that I did.

Because of anti-government feelings and fears from illegal immigrants, this year's census takers faced dangers that previous census takers did not. I read stories of people being shot at, dragged into homes against their will (census takers are advised to stand outside the home), having dogs set on them, and so on.

I had a friend who worked within the census headquarters. I asked her about these stories. She said that in Santa Clara Valley, a census employee (not a census enumerator) was visiting an area. When he knocked on the door, a woman answered and told him to get off her property and pointed a gun at him. He left and called the police, as required by the census policy. The police arrived and knocked on the door. The woman answered again with the gun pointing at them. They had to shoot her dead.

Census results are not revealed to the public for 72 years. So until then, we won't know whether this was a successful census at all. By law, all households were supposed to return their forms by April 1st. But due to anti government sentiment, fear and ignorance of the process, and the lack of members in the household who spoke/ read English - the U.S. Government had to spend millions training census enumerators and other census staff to process results of the door-to-door census. In addition, translators and translation materials had to be provided in 47 languages. This shows a great commitment by the U.S. Government to account for its population as well as to ensure that federal funds reach the city governments that need the money for community programs.

I hope you all answered the Census when it came to your homes, or that you were polite to the census enumerators who came to your door if you didn't.

Book Publication Delay

Good grief! I finished this book back in April. Luckily, I did a pre-release publication run with a different publisher. The 20 of you that got books from that run were the lucky ones!

My 'regular' publisher merged with another company this past year and I have suffered nothing but heartache with these new folks. So much so that I refuse to name their company, and did not include their name as publisher on my publication page.

I don't know if it's a matter of people who just don't understand the oldfashioned principles of attending to their customers or who don't care about customer service or quality of the end-product. I refused to accept their shoddy results when they sent me the proof copy.

The cover had a PINK cast to it. It made me ill. Maybe it wouldn't bother some people but it did bother me. The book cover was supposed to reflect a brown photo holder and a brown sepia image as you would have in your own collection of old photos. This is what it looked like. You can see my original cover in the 2 sides, and then a scan of the pinkish covers superimposed in the middle.

The interior of the book had a type of cream paper that looked as if it were very old, and the images did not have sharp focus. I spoke to a company representative and she told me "we haven't changed the cream paper." Well, I have a copy of my former student Fumio Toya's book "Musashi Battles the Atomic Assassin" and I beg to differ. His cream page almost matches the page from my first publication run with the other publisher. I told them to change it to their black and white page. It won't look as old-fashioned as I had hoped, but the idea was that the photos were the "stars" of this book and deserved to be seen. The photos reflect hundreds of hours of work on my part.

So you see, dear audience, that being an author doesn't stop when you finish the book. You still have to work to ensure that a decent book reaches the hands of you dear readers!

Because of this delay, it looks like I will get my new proof at the end of June and the book will be available from me and amazon.com in mid-July 2010. Thanks for your patience!

July 1 - will the delays never end. I got my revised Proof copy and the cover was corrected (at least it's better) but the inside images were faded. This book is loaded with photos - it should be a photo album that each reader can have forever - not a shabby photcopy! So I have rejected the proof. Here's the sample that I sent back to them as to why the image quality was unacceptable.

R.I.P. - Arlene Copeland

Early this morning, Arlene Copeland passed away in Coffeyville, Kansas. She was 87 years old.

I was fortunate enough to have met Arlene this past October, and to have corresponded with her and talked to her on the telephone. She was a sweet, gentle, Christian woman who was married to Ralph Copeland for 57 years.

She was the only child of Roll Elmer Webb and Stella Cleveland Price. She was born, raised, and lived in the Caney and Coffeyville Kansas area for all of her life.

When her Mother died, her aunt invited her to California. Arlene was afraid to go because she heard that they had live music and dancing at restaurants in the Bay Area. When she arrived, she found out that they did! She was fortunate that her aunt took her on a trip from the Bay Area all through California and all the way to Tijuana Mexico.

She worked at Kress Department store for 28 years, and was later a secretary for the local branch of the A.A.R.P.

She will be missed by her beloved husband Ralph, her friends, her church community, and all who knew her.

Happy Father's Day!

Copeland family by the house 1893 CLOSEUP (look at the size of that rooster!)
George Copeland sent me another wonderful photo.

I think this one is from 1893. There is the Father of the Copeland family - Abner Copeland in a suit with a bristly beard, his wife Samantha with a white apron covering her pregnant belly. Then 3 boys. I believe the boys are from left to right - 6 ear old Ezra Copeland, 8 year old William Copeland (my grandfather), and on the ground is 3 year old Emery Copeland (George's father).

I think Samantha is pregnant with Charles Orien Copeland, who was born in March 1893.

Happy Father's Day to all of the wonderful Father's in our family and in yours!

A 1914 Visit to the Copeland Relations in Indiana

On June 13, 1914 Pearl and Clarissa Copeland (sisters) and Anna Allen (cousin) departed from Montgomery County Kansas to Rockville, Parke County, Indiana. They traveled by train and visited their Copeland, Finney, and other relations. They visited old farm sites, the homes of their cousins and second and third cousins, and many others.

I have 2 photos from that period and am trying to identify the people in them.

The elderly gentleman is John Copeland - brother to Abner Copeland (Pearl and Clarissa's father). Ladies marked 1 and 2 are - 1 Pearl Copeland and 2 Clarissa Copeland

In the 1914 diary, among the names mentioned are Crete Cory and Malinda De Baun. These would have been cousins of the Copeland girls - and descended from Ashcroft Copeland's son Andrew Jackson Copeland - a cousin of Abner Copeland.

If you can help, please let me know! Thank you!

Happy Birthday, James Delos Copeland

June 2 would have been my Dad's 81st birthday. It's still hard to believe that he's not around, even though he died in 1972. His family still miss and love him.

James Delos Copeland was the last son of William Quincy Copeland and his wife Agnes Elizabeth McKay. He was the only one of the sons born in Medford Oregon. His brothers were born in the Copeland farm house in Montgomery County Kansas.

James' life was a sad and hard one. His mother died in 1933 when James was 3 years old. His brother Pearl Dewey was 1 year older than James. Pearl died of a stomach ailment in 1939. His father never remarried and became a recluse, raising his boys alone at a ranch in the Upper Applegate area of Oregon. James left school and home as a teen, during WWII when his brother Donald joined the service.

In 1948, James entered the service and went to Japan where he met young Shuko Mine, a Japanese young lady. They fell in love, and by 1952, they married. Before that James went in and out of the service, and was sent to Korea, where he fought in the Inchong battles and later contracted hemorraghic fever. This illness nearly killed him at age 22. It weakened his immune system so that he began having heart attacks at 35 and eventually died from this at age 43.

James was in and out of the service for 13 years. James and Shuko lived in Ft. Benning GA, a base in W. VA, and Fort Ord, as well as Medford OR and Monterey CA. They moved to the Santa Clara valley in 1961. During that time, James and Shuko had 2 daughters - Cousette and Francis Ann Copeland. By 1963, they moved to Santa Clara after their son Stuart Justin Copeland was born.

James worked as a draftsman at Stanford Research Institute (SRI), working on numerous top secret projects including the Apollo 11 mission and other NASA related projects. He left SRI in 1970 and began his own drafting business. He was 43 when he died of his last heart attack.

James never gave up on life. He loved his family and did everything for them, trying to provide the family life that he did not enjoy. He also pursued his own interests as an outdoorsman - he loved fishing, camping, and diving. He was artistic and he was handy, working on his own boat and the family cars. He had a low deep voice, a kind nature, and the brightest turquoise eyes and blue black hair that I've ever seen. No man was as handsome as Daddy!

James was a kind, gentle person - a true gentleman. He was much admired and much loved by those who knew him.

Happy Birthday Daddy!