Tope Family Page

Chapter IV

Of course, it will be understood that this is the first George Tope,---one of the three brothers of whom we have been speaking. There have been many Georges in the family since, but they must be distinguished otherwise. George was not so fortunate in settling on his first new farm in Ohio as his brother John; for, after he had lived on it a while, fixed up some and got some crops out, a Dutchman, it is said, came along and ordered him off of it. Tope remonstrated, but the Dutchman said, "Eel you don't geld off, I villa boost you off." He had a previous claim on it, and would not give it up. So the matter of crops, etc, were adjusted and he moved off. This seemed rather tough at the time. Who has not had trials of as great or less extent? But it all worked out for the best, as we shall see. May it not have been that Providence used that Dutchman for good? At least, those of us who are perplexed and provoked by unfavorable circumstances may learn a valuable lesson here.
This farm from which George Tope moved was an adjoining one on the east side of his brother John's, if we have been rightly impressed. Certain incidents indicate that he occupied it for something over a year. We presume it was of the same size as that of his brother--a quarter section.
    When he moved from this farm he located about a mile and a half west of Richmond, in the same county. For a time he run a distillery, that being a very common business in those days. But not liking the business, he leased a farm on what was called Big Creek, or Yellow Creek, at a place called Town Fork, in the northern part of Jefferson county, and followed this occupation which was more congenial to his nature and taste.
We are now nearing the time when a very important event in the history of this gentleman was to take place. While he was meeting with reverses and disappointments in some measure, his mind was active and alive in reference to the future. It was he who was to establish the Tope's Mills, famous to this day among many people.
These mills consisted of a saw-mill and a grist-mill,---the former having been started in 1815, and the latter in 1818. George himself went over from Yellow Creek and entered or squatted on 160 acres of land and put up a little cabin that was afterward used for a spring house. This was probably in 1814 sometime, for Barbara McQueen has said that they moved in 1815, when she was ten years old, she having been born March 16, 1805. They lived in this cabin for years. The nearest neighbors they had for a long time were at Wolf's Tavern, four or five miles north of them. In those days it was a common matter, however, for people to travel long distances, and it is said that some of the women would take their babies and carry butter and split brooms afoot to Steubenville to sell.