Person:Anna Buttermore (1)

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Her obituary spelled her name Caup, which may have been a printer's mistake or might have been one of the steps in Anglicizing to name; Kaupp, Caup, Coup.

She always wore a black lace cap on her head and a black bonnet when outside. According to Aunt Anna, the caps and bonnets were provided by William Marshall Coup. According to her obituary, she had been a member of the United Brethren Church, Geyar's Chapel, for many years before her death.

These notes and comments were made by Virginia Spearman to William A. Coup.

What follows are memories of some of her great grandchildren, grandchildren of her daughter, Sarah Florinda Coup, who married twice, Samuel D. Sinclair and George Sonnedecker.

OUR GRANDMAS.

Chapter One - Maudes's version (Anna Maude Weimer English).

Our Great-grand mother Coup was born and grew to womanhood in Pennsylvania. Our Great-grandfather, John Coup, was born and lived until almost grown, in Germany. He was not in America long until he became interested in Ann Buttermore. She was the oldest child and her father said he needed her at home and forbade her to have any interest in that "Dumb Dutchman Coup". As a little girl, I can remember well of Grandmother Coup telling of their courtship. Since he was newly come to America he could not talk much English. Great-great-grandpa Peter Buttermore was a large man and his would-be-son-in-law was slightly built. One night they were both in a tavern near their homes when Grandpa Peter picked Grandpa John up and threw him bodily out of the tavern. One day when Grandpa Buttermore was away from home for some time, Great-grandmother Ann and her intended, John, eloped. Neighbors helped them make a safe get-away. He followed them but they crossed the river and were married. They stayed away for a couple weeks before returning home. By that time he was glad to see them. Later he was very fond of John Coup and and learned to depend on him heavily in his later days. I asked Grandma Coup how she knew he wanted to marry her when they couldn't speak the same language. She said, "that, little girl, a woman can understand without words. You will know some day". She laughed and looked quite smug and her smile was not for me but for by-gone times and people. Many days later when their daughter Sarah, our Grandmother, and Grandmother Coup were both widows and rather alone and helpless in their Pennsylvania home, the boys, Great Uncles Joe, William and Harry Coup wanted them to come to Ohio so they could help them more and they felt all would be better. So they came to Wayne County bringing our Mother who was very small, uncle Ellsworth, a few months old, Uncle Harry and Uncle John Sinclair, Mother's brothers and Grandmother Coup's daughter Mary Trump Coup. They first lived in a little house near the Philip Worth farm. Uncle Joe Coup lived a short distance from them. Grandmother kept house and cared for the children and Grandmother Sade did sewing for a living. She was a very fine tailor. Before long she met and married George Sonnedecker. He took them to live in Wayne Township, in his old ancestral home. In short time he decided Grandmother Coup would be happier and feel better cared for in her own quarters. So he built her two rooms adjoining the big house and facing the garden. To the east he built a large old buttery. These were very pleasant and sunny rooms and warm in the winter. There were three windows to the west, one in the bedroom and two in the little living-kitchen room. We were allowed to visit her if we had behaved properly, a really highlight in a visit to Grandma Sonnedecker's. She often sat at her table and gave me paper and pencil and I would copy pictures. One of her red tablecloths had white pansies on it and I tried to copy them. I thought I had done them beautifully and I am sure now they were a mess. Grandmother Coup was a fine looking little old lady, with a happy smile and expressive eyes. She often wore a blue sateen dress with white polka dots, a little black lace cap and a white apron. I wanted to grow up to look like her and have a dress, cap and apron just like hers. Then I felt I could sit by a sunny window, too. So far life hasn't quite turned out that way. Probably because I have never gotten a blue sateen dress, a black cap and white apron. As we grew a little older she would tell us stories about her Grandfather, Col. Crawford. I remember very clearly her look of horror when she told of his being burned at the stake by Indians. She told of his little daughter, Ann, who cried nearly all that fearful day, insisting to her Mother that they "burning papa at the stake". As the years passed she became increasingly frail but she never lost her twinkling eyes and pleasant smile. When I was just ten years old she was very ill with pneumonia and had lain in a coma for several hours when she suddenly sat bolt upright and said, pointing upward, "There's Charley, There's Charley, can't you see him". Then she fell back on her pillows and our Great-grandmother Coup was with her beloved ones who had gone on before her, Charley was her son who died at 14 years of age. Our sister, Erma, was a small baby at this time and Mother left her at home while she went along to Orrville with the family to lay Grandmother to rest. The Baby, six or so months old, got hungry before we returned and the woman fed her mashed potatoes and she like them! Poor mother was horrified and it was several days before she felt the baby wouldn't killed by such treatment, wonder what she'd think about the modern methods of infant feeding! After Grandmother Coup was gone those two little rooms were just two rooms. They lost their charm. Later Grandpa and Grandma Sonnedecker moved into them, which eased life considerably for them, they no longer had to crawl upstairs after a hard day's work, for their rest. This was Grandpa's refuge, when the place was too over-run with kids, for the poor old man. After they were married, Grandpa Sonnedecker took Grandma to visit some of his family. Next morning at breakfast Grandpa was asked to say grace. He looked at Grandma and said: "You do it, Sade, you are better at it than I am". That was a fore-shadowing of things to come. Whenever anything went wrong or troubled him he would appeal to "Sade" and she'd fix it. Some of my earliest memories are of this old home and the happy hours spent there. There was this great old rambling house with ten rooms and large attic, the bake oven, cave and wood house. A little way down the lane were the hog pens. From them came some of the grandest hams anyone ever tasted. Much of his time was spent by Grandpa in caring for his grapevines. He crawled all over the arbors pruning and training them to his liking. Finally, one day he slipped and fell, hurt his head and was quite stiff and stoved up for some time. From then on he was not allowed to climb up on the arbors. The grapes he raised were beautiful big clusters and very sweet and good. He had gone west in 1849 in the California gold rush but came back without a fortune. He was injured in some of the Indian skirmishes and carried arrowheads in his back the rest of his life. When Uncle Harry and Uncle John were youngsters they were naughty one day and Grandma sent them to bed as punishment. They found her dried fruit and ate quite freely of peaches and apples. When she allowed them down stairs again they filled up on water, the fruit swelled and there were two very sick boys. Grandma thought they might die, they were so sick for several hours. In telling of it later she said: "I sure scutched them good." and then she added "but not until I was sure they would get well." Grandma's word was law around the place and when an argument reached the place where she could think of no answer she said "well!!" and if you were smart you let it go at that. That was the end!! She was a grand person and gave us ideas and ideals to live by that we would do well to still observe. She never had much money to spend but the things she gave us could never be bought with money. I can still taste the grand slices of bread and butter covered with brown sugar - then there were those big apples and pears and grapes from the cave. They kept perfectly into the late spring. I can remember when they used the old outdoor oven. Baked twenty leaves of bread and as many pies at one baking. All the preachers in the country could smell them and come running. Grandma had been a Quaker in Pennsylvania but there were no Friends Churches around here so she joined the United Brethren at Geyer's Chapel. Said the regulations were more like the Quakers than many other churches. Grandpa was a member of the old Lutheran order at Madisonburg. But while he was able he trotted off with "Sade" to Geyer's Chapel. Grandpa told me one day "my eyes are getting so dim I can neither see nor hear." When we listened to his stories about the huge vegetables they raised in California we were sure he forgot the truth and left it in the west; but to our surprise we learned later he was telling the truth. Those cabbages out there are large!!! One day several of the younger generation went to visit Grandpa in the little room. Vernon, being the smallest of the group insisted on occupying the largest rocker - he rocked a little too vigorously and chair and boy landed on the floor with chair on top. He laid there yelling "open the door, open the door." Grandpa said "help him up, Maude, before he hurts himself yelling." Grandmother told me one day that the saddest and most tragic day of her life was the day she was forced to acknowledge that Uncle Charley would never be normal. And that surely was a bad day for that poor woman had many sad, tragic and hard days in her life. But she overcame her difficulties one by one and kept her faith in God and her sense of humor never deserted her. That was what kept her going. The nearest I ever knew of her being backed down was when she was having trouble with her feet. her bunion were infected and walking was very hard. Poor old Mrs. Farmer, whose mind was badly disturbed came to visit her one day and made Grandma sit on a rocker while she applied poultices of fresh cow manure to said feet. She was afraid to refuse to sit as Ma Farmer had a violent temper. The result was, her feet improved. I am not sure whether it was the rest or the cow's donation.

Maude Weimer English.

Chapter Two - Ruth's version (Ruth Lydia Weimer Mowery).

I like to think of the little white parlor in Grandma's house and the bedroom joining it, perhaps because it was in contrast to the dark kitchen-living room and perhaps because it was the only place where Grandma rested in one of the little rocking chairs from her endless journeys between cave and smoke house or summer house and spring house, peaceful little rooms with curtains at the windows of white dotted mull. Grandma Coup's rooms remind me always of one of the good traits of Grandpa Sonnedecker's - his unfailing respect for her and he always called her "mother". I believe he built those two rooms for her. I don't think Grandpa Buttermore intended that she ever marry for she was his oldest child, and he needed her, he thought, and Grandpa Coup was a stranger and an alien but in his last sickness, Grandpa Coup was the one to whom he turned and upon whom he depended. Grandma's working days began before daylight and never ended before midnight, flying along with her little candle wood carrying wood from the old wood house, heating water to scrub clothes in huge old iron kettles over an open fire in the yard, tending the garden with the bed of old fashioned herbs and flowers that had been grandpa's mother's. She never planned for the next day without adding "if the good Lord lets me live"; and she struggled ceaselessly with Uncle Charley and his profanity. He described the potato field with weird and forceful words and said the best course would be to pull the stalks all up by the roots and fling them on the bonfire and in distress she told him, that because he was so wicked, if the good Lord let even half a potato grow for him, it would be more than he deserved. Sometimes his conscience caught up with him as once he came hurrying across the fields from a neighbor's after dark, puffing and breathless, with the brim of his cap turned backwards. He had remembered the minister reading about the fate of disobedient and ungrateful children and he thought that the whirr of a night bird's wings were the eagles of the air coming to peck out his eyes. I remember the savage old dog biting you Maude right at your eye and leaving scars for a long time and Aunt Mayme bustling around bathing your eye. He must have been kept tied after that at his dog house when the family gathered for I remember Earl Sinclair in his little white dress being determined to pat him holding out his little hand and coaxing "dodie, dodie" and someone frantically plucking him back before the dog could reach him. I wonder how she would have kept house now with automatic washer and push button controls. "The Lord meant us to work with our hands" and she even viewed a sewing machine with disfavor and preferred to make tiny little stitches by hand. When Sylvia Steiner came to help, there was much hesitation because she asked $3.00 a week, unheard price for a hired girl, but Uncle Harry insisted that she must have help and paid part of it and that girl milked cows, scrubbed the upper floors, the lofts, we called them, of spring houses and wood houses on her hands and knees, washed clothes on a wash board, gardened, canned, made soap and cleaned house with grandma working along beside her. What would a maid say now-a-days? Grandma's sense of humor was keen, unless the joke was on her. We were washing dishes at our house one day and she remarked about our plates, but when we told he gleefully that she had given them to us, she was quite put out because we laughed. Also when she was going to show us how to set the table quickly and broke the sugar bowl and, when we asked if that was how to set it, like Queen Victoria, she was not amused. Above all, was her deep religious faith, Little Geyer's Chapel was her church home and from there in every conference, the visiting ministers gladly came to sleep in her house and to feed abundantly. I wonder if she learned to rest in the next world. It is much easier to picture her bustling along to see if the white robes are spotless and the crowns and the golden streets and even the golden gate are all polished bright. Perhaps St. Peter permits it. Uncle Charley had a terrific temper and his tantrums were quite frightening. He and his father never got along well. The men were putting in a new watering trough at the barn when Grandpa said Uncle wasn't digging deep enough. He was outraged and said I will bury you so deep, if you don't shut up, that the place that knew you will know you no more for you won't ever hear Gabriel blow his horn. He whirled his shovel down and looked so menacing that Grandpa turned without a word and plodded off into the house. He likely fet that the only safe place for him then with "Sarry".

Ruth Weimer Mowery.

Chapter three - Naomi's version (Naomi Weimer Mong McDavitt).

There are so many things that I can remember about Grandma Sonnedecker's place, but some stand out more prominent than others. Grandma's garden was a work of art to me - the garden was laid out in beds all boarded up, and flowers planted around the edges and some trailed down and almost covered the boards, not a weed anywhere, even in the walks between the beds. Each bed was planted with one kind of flower or vegetable, and they were set in exact rows. When the blooms came on it sure was a beautiful sight to look over that plot of ground. She sure was proud of her garden, she would ask any visitors: "Do you want to go out and see my garden before you leave"? Then Grandpa with a cane in each hand and a pillow under each arm goes tottering along out the gate into the garden and weed under the Grape Arbor which was made in a triangle with a rather steep peak, and never a weed under the Arbor either. Once in a while he would crawl along and clean the paths out if Grandma was too busy. It was rather hard work for Grandpa I thought for he was bent over nearly to his waist but he would hobble along and weed anyway with a pillow under each knee, on his hands and knees. In the summer when the cows gave a lot of milk and we were helping grandma, we would make cheese, one every second or third day of the week, for several weeks. There would be about (18) eighteen cheese or so on the swing shelf in the spring house. And for three weeks or so we would wash each one off with salt water and turn them over every day. Each morning that would be the first thing we would do and then cover them with mosquito netting, and I do not know where she stored them to keep them for future use. There was a water trough in the spring house where the crocks of milk were set to cool and each morning there would be so many we would have to skim off the cream - such rich cream. Then there was butter to work and form into rolls for the grocery man when the wagon came around. The dough tray stood in the spring house too and on bake day, out it would come and stand near the old stove at one end of the summer house, the flour was always in the dough tray and when it was used up, another sack of flour would be dumped into it, ready for the next bake day. The new loaves of bread would be cooled and wrapped in a tablecloth used just for that purpose, and placed in the dough tray till they were all used. In the winter, the dough tray stood in a large closet of the main kitchen, where fruit and potatoes, which were brought up from the cave and stored in this closet till used. This cave was really something, a wooden room with dirt floor and covered on three sides and on top with ground to keep it cool and still not freeze potatoes, apples, turnips and all such vegetables, along with the rows and rows of canned fruit were stored in this cave. Everything was clean and dry and the floor was smooth and hard and swept out every week and shelves of fruit wiped off too, so even in there it was spotless. The house itself was a wonderful place, the rooms were large, some like the kitchen were dark and hard to light, but some of the rooms were papered with white flowered wallpaper and painted light too, the little bed rooms down stairs and up stairs were treasures to see. Grandma kept her fancy dishes and glass ware on the old Bureaus in the little room, and there were trunks and boxes of old bonnets (they called them) that were so much fun to get out and dress up with all those old, old, things, and we would be so careful not to tear or soil any of the old things therein. What fun our grandchildren would have if they could have had those things just to look at and touch. I think one thing I will never forget in all my life and this - when we girls would gather in the little sitting room Grandpa used as his own, we would only go there when he felt like talking and then he would tell us about his trip to the West Coast in the gold rush of '49. He would get the little chamois bag out of the old Bureau and show us the gold nuggets he kept there, which were worn smooth as marbles, not round but of all shapes and sizes but all worn as smooth as glass. He would get so excited and relive the times again for us, and then he would seem all exhausted and we would slip out very quiet and let him alone and when we would look in soon after he would have his bag of gold in his hands and be sound asleep. He was a good grandfather to us all I think and he was good to grandma too I believe. They were a wonderful couple and I think our lives have surely been richer and better for having them to help us along the way of life. One thing Grandma always said: "if you cannot say good of anyone, never say anything at all". And I think if that saying was held up along with the Golden Rule, that the world would be a much better place to live in and everyone would profit much by it. I know if I can leave behind me when I leave this land, just a few of the wonderful memories, like I have of Grandma, for my grandchildren, I will be satisfied, only a few memories are a wonderful legacy to leave behind. I fully believe this is so. So I thank God for the memories of our wonderful grandmother and grandfather Sonnedecker.

Naomi Weimer Mong McDavitt.

Naomi, the cheese was moved from the spring house to the buttery - outside grandma Coup's rooms. I remember going in there every few day's, Wednesdays and Saturdays, to rub them all well with butter. This not only kept them fresh and clean but added to the flavor.

M.W.E.

Chapter four - Mae's version (Mae Weimer Drushel).

Grandma's wonderful flower garden instilled into us a love of flowers and I can see it yet, all kinds, never a time from spring to fall that flowers were not blooming. And no one ever went away without a bouquet and vegetables and probably cookies or cheese or other things to eat. She had a little square room off the kitchen, with shelves, where she set her prepared food. Then off the little back porch was a long narrow room she called the buttery and there she kept dried fruit, cornmeal, flour, all the dry supplies for the winter which were not suitable to be kept in the cave where it was damp. It always smelled of cornmeal and good things to eat. She cooked on a stove after I can remember, but it sat in front of the huge, old, brick fireplace, which was large enough for all of us grandchildren to run in and out and play. We liked to play upstairs too, in the rooms where the stove pipes went up through the floor and heated the upstairs rooms. Once it rained so terribly hard and so many of us stayed over night that some of the kids slept on the floor - more giggling than sleeping for awhile - a highlight in our stay - at - home horse and buggy days! Grandma always tried to make us laugh at the table, just to see what Grandad would say, as he didn't approve of much giggling and talking at the table. Once when Anna Farmer and Naomi were together and Erma and I were there, too, Anna talked constantly and we laughed at the table and Grandpa said " 'pears to me you talk a good bit for a little gal like you." She just said, "Ohio, do you think so?" and kept right on, she wasn't afraid of his opinion like we little kids were. The grocery wagon came to the house in the country, then, and grandma always kept Mary Ann cookies and pink peppermint candies in the big cupboard for us. The last few years Grandma lived partly with Uncle Harry Sinclair's and part of the time with us. She helped Erma and I piece quilts and helped quilt them. During the 'flu' epidemic, she had 'flu' and pneumonia and passed away. Her funeral was the day after New Year's 1919. It rained so hard all day. We had to go from Uncle Harry's home near Golden Corners to Orrville for the burial. The undertaker tried to go with his motor hearse, got stuck in mud, had to go back to Smithville to take his horses to go to Uncle Harry's and back as far as Smithville. Then he stopped and changed to his motor hearse, as the road was paved to Orrville. Platte and Uncle Harry had cars, then, but roads were too muddy to use them. It was an all day trip. We stopped at our home in Smithville to eat dinner, on our way to Orrville. Maude was overseas nursing at that time and was so very ill with 'flu' and then sent home. She did not know until she arrived home that Grandma had died, and I remember how shocked and lost she was without Grandma.

Mae Weimer Drushel.

I think one of the real shocks in my life was learning of Grandma's death. She had asked me after I had taken up nursing if I would take care of her if she ever was taken sick. When she needed me I was not there to help.

Maude.

Chapter five - Platte's version (Elias Platte Weimer).

Platte says he does not remember much of the family life around Grandma's. That is a pity as it was a great leavener in our lives. Perhaps to the men, the home and people looked different than to me. He does remember at Grandma's funeral he was to have been a pallbearer but when the undertaker got stuck in the mud, not too far out of Smithville, he volunteered to stay there and get the hearse back to town while our parents and sisters went on to Uncle Harry's for the funeral. When they got back as far as our home, the hearse was in town and all ready for the trip to Orrville. These are some of the things that came to our minds when thinking of times gone by. The old place is a shambles now and no one but us and Uncle Harry's children to remember or mourn. Many more stories could be told but some are best forgotten. We hope any one who reads this will enjoy it and be helped to remember "Our Folks".

Maude Weimer English.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Coup Genealogical Chart by Lucy Hall Pancoast, May 1959. Copy in the possession of William A. Coup, Boca Raton.
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Buttermore Genealogical Chart by Lucy Hall Pancoast, May 1959. Copy in the possession of William A. Coup, Boca.
3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Anna Coup Death Record. (Name: Ohio, Wayne County, Record of Deaths, Volume 2, page 119;).
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 United States Government, Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census. 1850 Census, Pennsylvania, Fayette County, Bullskin Township - John M. Coup. (Name: 1850 Census, Series M432, Roll 780, Page 438; Pennsylvania, Fayette County, Bullskin Township, Page 438, 7 September 1850, Line 41, Dwelling 55, Family 55;).
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4} United States Government, Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census. 1860 Census, Pennsylvania, Fayette County, Bullskin Township - Ann M. Coup. (Name: 1860 Census, Series M653, Roll 1110, Page 474; Pennsylvania, Fayette County, Bullskin Township, Pennsville Post Office, Page 239, 8 August 1860, Line 19, Dwelling 1786, Family 1661;).
6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 United States Government, Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census. 1880 Census, Ohio, Wayne County, Wayne Township - George Sonnedecker. (Name: 1880 Census, Series T9, Roll 1077, Page 345; Ohio, Wayne County, Wayne Township, Page 19C, Supervisor's District 6, Enumeration District 23, 10 June 1880, Line 27, Dwelling 180, Family 183;).
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2} Heal, Elizabeth, Vance Family File
   Vance Family File containing verified members of the Vance family.

   Descendants of John Vance of Frederick County, Virginia

8. ↑ ^8.0 8.1 Coup Family Bible Record in the possession of William A. Coup. (Name: Bible, Published by C. Alexander & County, Philadelphia, 1834;).
9. ↑ Tombstone record, Orrville Cemetery, Orrville, Ohio.