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Matilda
(Miner) Culp |
Matilda and
grandson Charles "Dutch" Culp
Matilda
(Miner) Culp was born on either Feb. 8 or March 12, 1835 in Kingston, Pickaway
County, OH, the daughter of John and
Lucretia (Morris) Minor.
On Nov. 15, 1855, at the National Hotel in Circleville, Pickaway County, Matilda married farmer Charles William Culp (1833-1913). He was born on July 7, 1833 in Salt Creek Township, Pickaway County, the son of Peter and Susanna (Braucher) Culp Jr. She was age 20 and he 22 at the time of their nuptials.
The Culps together produced a brood of 11 children -- Cephas Nelson Culp, Diantha Adaline Culp, Jennie Victoria Culp, Lucretia Ann Culp, Laura Ella Goulding, Lewis Mortimer Culp, Minnie Belle Bowers, Mary Blanche Missouri Culp, Mintia Clona "Minchie" Culp, Fannie Mabel Culp and an unnamed infant son.
Of the total number of their children, Matilda outlived seven.
Both sons married and had families of their own, but only two of the daughters entered into the rite of marriage.
Infant daughter Diantha died in November 1858 and is buried at the Stump Cemetery in Salt Creek Township, Pickaway County. It's possible that infant daughter Lucretia, who died in July 1863, and an infant son, who died in March 1869, are buried there also, but none of the graves is marked.
In 1870 and 1880, Charles and Matilda lived south of Tarlton, and to the northwest of the village of Adelphi, in the extreme southern section of Salt Creek Township, Pickaway County, near the northern border of Ross County But in 1876, for reasons not yet known, Charles was forced to give up ownership of their 35-acre farm. Perhaps his crops failed, or he may have not been able to keep up with the finances. The 1871 Atlas of Pickaway County shows the exact location of that tract, a short distance from a tollhouse, with their neighbors including I.R. Lesher, J. Bausher and Solomon Piegel.
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Site of the Charles Culp farm in Salt Creek Township, circled, northwest of the village of Adelphi, from the 1871 Atlas of Pickaway County |
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Charles is known to have written a letter on Jan. 22, 1907 in response to an inquiry about family history, and spelling out more of the difficulties of his life. This letter was saved and eventually reprinted in the 1911 book Monnet Family Genealogy, authored by Orra Eugene Monnette (Los Angeles, Calif.: C.E. Bireley Company):
Atlas of Pickaway County, Ohio
My mother's name was Susannah Braucher and my father's was Peter Culp. She was a sister to Catharine, wife of Abraham Monnett. There were six Braucher girls. They and the Monnetts lived in the south east corner of Salt Creek Township, Pickaway County, Ohio. There was a grave-yard on the Monnett farm there. The house was built of brick on a hill. The cemetery was on another hill near by, in what we then called Pike Hole prairie. I do not go down there often, I am too poor. I failed in 1876; lost all but a family of eight children... I was 73 yrs. the 7th of last July... I despize to write a letter. I bought this paper a year ago to write a letter and have not wrote it yet.
Later, the Culps moved to Lancaster, Fairfield County, where they resided for many years, including for long time at 130 Fair Avenue. While in Lancaster, Charles earned a living as a railroad laborer.
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Above: Circleville, 1836. Note the Ohio Canal at far right. Below: Lancaster's Main Street, 1886 |
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Lancaster
Eagle, 1922
In about 1905, they bore great heartache when their married daughter Ella Goulding died, leaving a widower and two young girls. The Goulding survivors moved in with the Culps in Lancaster, and were together under one roof in 1910 when the federal census was taken.
Just a few years later, Charles passed away, on Nov. 28, 1913, caused by "paralysis and infirmities of old age." In a eulogy, the Lancaster Daily Eagle called him "venerable."
Culp house, Lancaster
In her later years, Matilda resided at 115 Arnold Avenue in Lancaster's Ward 1, making her home with her widowed son-in-law John Goulding and unmarried daughter Jennie Culp.
She made news in January 1917 when helping her granddaughter Laura Goulding entertain the W.W. Club. Said the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, "Upon entering the house the guests were greeted by Mrs. Culp aged 81 years, the grandmother of the hostess, who is a very happy and dear old lady. Her presence was greatly enjoyed by the club members."
Matilda outlived her husband by nine years, and during that time suffered from senility. After suffering a cerebral hemorrhage, she was swept away by the Grim Reaper on July 31, 1922, at the age of 87. She was buried at Forest Rose Cemetery in Lancaster. Daughter Jennie signed the official Ohio certificate of death, but erroneously gave the name of her father as "Adam" rather than "Charles William."
Today, the graves of Matilda and Charles, along with daughters Mintia, Blanche, Fannie, Jennie and Minnie, are marked with a single large monument.
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Seven Culps buried together in Lancaster's Forest Rose Cemetery |
| Copyright © 2000, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2016, 2022, 2026 Mark A. Miner |
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Sketches of Circleville and Lancaster from Historical Collections of Ohio (1888) by Henry Howe. |