Preston County, West Virginia    Biography: Fred COPEMAN

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook@earthlink.net>, March 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 383-384

FRED COPEMAN.  By his industry and integrity Fred
Copeman has long since earned a place of special respect
and esteem in Preston County. His career is interesting for
its varied experiences, particularly those that led him to
this section of West Virginia and to America as well.

He was born in the town of Ratten, Hanover, Germany,
April 19, 1849. He was six weeks old when his father,
Augustus Koopmann, as the name was spelled in German,
died. Augustus Koopmann was a butcher by trade. He
married Sophia Koopmann. Fred Copeman was the only
son of his father.  He had four half-brothers by his
mother's second marriage, William, Carl, Dietrich and
August Parson, all of whom remained in Germany. Sophia
Koopmann lived to old age and kept in communication
with her absent son as long as she was able to write.

Being the chief reliance for his widowed mother, Fred
Copeman was exempted from the regular school duties of
a German boy, but he attended night school and mastered
the common branches. For a time he worked at the black-
smith's trade, but disliked that, and his chief experience
was on a farm. While in Germany he had two employers.

He was approaching the age when he must respond to the
enforced military duty of the German Empire, and he be-
came restless and determined to avoid the military training
if possible. He was scheduled to report in Berlin on the
17th of April, 1869, to join the colors. On the 3rd of that
month he began the trip which led him to the United
States. He had been advised by companions who had come
to America before how to get out of the country. Follow-
ing these instructions he reported to a certain tailor of
Bremerhaven, who placed him in a hotel, where he tended
bar and there poured his first liquor for human profit. He
was told that the government was less watchful on Sun-
day than during the work days of the week. He provided
himself with bedding and tin utensils for use on his pas-
sage over the ocean. When the moment came for his
departure the tailor sent a boy to carry his baggage, while
Fred sauntered along behind smoking his cigar. He walked
right through a bunch of officers who had made prisoners
of seventeen men who were attempting to leave the coun-
try that morning. At the docks he got into a small boat,
and it took him out to a big ship in the harbor where
a rope ladder was thrown out and he reached the deck,
somewhat relieved. It was the ship Baltimore, and when
it sailed out of the harbor and the land of Europe faded
from sight the captain lined up his passengers and called
for their passports. Fred Copeman was in the line, and
he was in great trepidation as to what might be done to
him without a passport. Suddenly he remembered that
the tailor had slipped a paper into his pocket when they
separated, and this he took out and handed the officer,
with the result that the official merely put his hand on
his shoulder and shoved him on, thus relieving the refugee
of any further anxiety. No important incident occurred
on the voyage to Baltimore, Maryland.

Mr. Copeman did not remain in Baltimore, but at once
took passage over the Baltimore & Ohio for Kingwood.
However, he was taken on to Wheeling, passing through
Tunnelton in the night, and was brought back and put off
the train the next day. The only English he knew was
Kingwood, and with this word he was directed by some
children to the road to that town. He walked the distance
from Tunnelton to Kingwood, and on the 24th of April
knocked at the door of his uncle, Henry Copeman, who had
become a citizen of Preston County some time before.
This Henry Copeman was a brother of Sophia Koopmann,
mother of Fred Copeman.

With his knowledge of farming Fred went to work as
a farm hand for his uncle. He spent almost two years at
that, and in the meantime made diligent practice of the
English tongue and with this acquisition he courted a
young lady who became his wife. His first home was
established in Pleasant District, on a farm belonging to
Amos Cale, his father-in-law. He began farming without
a team, and after about three years he bought or con-
tracted to buy on payments a piece of land in that dis-
trict. From his wage earnings and from his crops he paid
out on the land. He regained in that district with in-
creasing prosperity for a dozen years, and then moved to
the vicinity" of Masontown, where he bought another tract
of land. He lived there only a year, when his wife died,
and he sold out and returned to the old locality. For three
years he worked for Levi Cale on a farm, and then acquired
by court sale another tract, the farm where he lives today.
About that time he married his second wife, and in 1888
took possession of his farm, to which he has contributed
nearly all the improvements. He paid $530 for 115 acres.
This land had been greatly neglected by its former bache-
lor occupant, and Mr. Copeman was busy for a time
cleaning up and getting ready for real farming. He has
since added seventy-eight acres more, and for many years
has been a prosperous grain and stock farmer, and now
in the evening of life is abundantly blessed with the sub-
stantial things of the world.

Fred Copeman was ready for American citizenship as
soon as he landed, having determined to shut out Europe,
and especially Germany, from hia life for all time. He
took out his first papers for citizenship, completed naturali-
zation and cast his first presidential ballot for Samuel J.
Tilden in 1876. Since then he has steadily voted the demo-
cratic ticket and has been satisfied to perform his duties
of citizenship as a voter. He is a director of the Farmers
Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and has been identified
with that since its organization. He was reared in the
Lutheran Church. Mr. Copeman is a charter member of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His father and his
step-father were both members of that order in Germany.
When he left home his mother told him that she would
feel easy as to his future if he became affiliated with this
great fraternity.

Elizabeth Cale, the first wife of Mr. Copeman, left three
children at her death: Isa, wife of R. B. Spiker, of Pres-
ton County; Henry F., a farmer near his father; and
Rheua, wife of Gay E. Wilson, of Kingwood. His second
wife was Sabina Cale, a cousin of his first wife and daugh-
ter of John Cale. She was the mother of two children:
Martha, wife of Harry Orcutt, of Akron, Ohio; and Lloyd,
who died in infancy. For his present wife Mr. Copeman
married Mrs. Virginia J. Miller, daughter of William Wolfe.
She is a native of Preston County and member of the old
and prominent Wolfe family here. By her first husband,
John Miller, she has two children: Bessie, wife of Bruce
Ringer, and Oliver S. Miller. Mr. and Mrs. Copeman have
a son, Frederick Paul, bom February 2, 1896. He grew
up on the farm near Bruceton, was educated in the Oak
Grove School, and on February 14, 1918, enlisted at King-
wood for the Aviation Sectional Signal Corps. Instead he
was placed in the Spruce Division, getting out airplane ma-
terial, being sent to Vancouver Barracks, Washington, but
in his real work was in a camp sixty miles from Seattle
and the same distance from Mount Rainier. He and his
companions cut the logs and hauled them thirty miles on
trucks to the railroad, whence they were transported to
the mill at Enumclaw and there cut up and made ready for
further working in the plant at Vancouver, which had a
capacity of 1,500,000 feet a day. After the signing of the
armistice Paul Copeman left the Pacific Coast, January
31, 1919, and received his honorable discharge at Camp
Sherman, Ohio, February 13th, after one year in the
service. He has since lived at home and is in active charge
of his father's farm.