Uncle Ed & Uncle Charlie Coppenbarger in the News

My last post was about “Uncle Ed & Uncle Charlie Coppenbarger” and their vehicles: a Model T & a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Newspaper stories tell us a little more about these two uncles.

Uncle Charlie in the News

Photo of “Uncle Charlie,” his wife, Agnes (Seanor) Coppenbarger, and two of their children: “Little Clay” and Orville. Photo used with permission from Teri Head.

In November of 1912, just a couple of years before this photo was taken, Charlie’s youngest son died at the young age of 2. His name was Clay, but his headstone remembers him as “Little Clay.” The newspaper said his “cause of death was a complication of diseases.” [1] Charlie and his wife, Aggie, had also lost their first child as an infant. Their only child to survive into adulthood was the middle son, Orville Camdon Coppenbarger, who lived to be 94 years old.

Uncle Ed in the News

A 1900 newspaper article tells about an accident involving
14-year-old Ed. At such a young age, this was his third runaway accident! The article reads as follows:

Edward Coppenburger [sic], a son of J. R. Coppenbarger, was seriously
injured in a runaway accident last Monday eening [sic]. He was driving in a
buggy at the time and ran into town, striking a hitching post near Berkey’s
store, throwing the young man out. During the mix up the young man’s face
struck a wheel and a number of his teeth were knocked out and his face badly bruised. This is the third runaway accident that the young man has been in recently and at each time he was driing [sic] the same horse. At one of the former times the young man’s arm was broken besides other injuries. The accident of Monday was a evry [sic] unfortunate one, as it may result in the face of Mr. Coppenbarger being disfigured. [2]

This photo shows my great grandmother, Myrtle (Coppenbarger) Peters, and her brothers, “Uncle Charles” and “Uncle Ed.” I didn’t have Al or Jennings on my tree, but I’ve figured it out with some help from my Great Aunt Beulah’s notes. Charles was married to a second wife, Nola, who had two sons from a previous marriage: Al and Jennings. Beulah’s notes also said that they lived in Sweetwater, Texas, which is where I found them in the 1930 census.

People in Photograph