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This photo was taken around 1897 in front of the Topper home several miles southwest of Stillwater, OK, left to right: Lorenzo (Rand) Sligar, brother of Mary Sligar Topper, Joseph A. Topper, William A. Topper, William H. (Will) Topper, Roy Alfred Topper, Mary Topper, Mary Myrtle Topper, Arva Matilda Topper, Rose Topper Eyman, sister of William Topper, and a cat named Tickle Britches.
The history of the Toppers in Oklahoma, skillfully written by Richard Topper’s wife, Margaret Elizabeth (Marsh) Thomas Topper (who was born in Llandudno, Caernavon, Wales), is what genealogy is all about. It’s the telling of a fascinating story of life, history, reality and pain, told with both humor and pathos.
William H. Topper and his wife Mary Malinda Sligar, surrounded by their children: Arva Matilda, William Albert, Joseph Adam, Rose Emma, Alfred Roy, Mary Myrtle, Pearl, Minnie Luella, and Charles Henry.
It begins with (1) Joseph Topper, 1800 – 1885 and Francisca Catharina Appolonia Obold, his wife, 1800 – 1860/61; to (2) Joseph Adam Topper, 1830 – 1863 and Elizabeth Matilda “Betsy” Saterlee, his wife; (3) William H. Topper 1859 – 1939 and Mary Malinda Sligar, his wife, 1865 – 1961; to Lee Kenneth Topper 1905 – 1957 and Lowney May Craig 1906 – 1989 to (4) Richard Topper and his wife Margaret, today.
Their stories are related in the text of Margaret Topper in the Rootsweb narratives that accompanies the description of each of the individuals herein.
From a tavern owner from Frederick County, Maryland, to folks working in and around the vineyards of the San Joaquin Valley, California, with stops in between, traversing both time and geography from Allen County, Indiana; to Grundy County, Illinois; Bates County, Missouri; Kansas City, Johnson County, Kansas and Payne County, Oklahoma, we learn of Topper’s genealogical history. We have Joseph Topper who is a tavern owner in Fredrick, Maryland, and who ends up later life as a judge in Grundy County, Illinois. We have his son, Joseph Adam Topper, who is murdered by the ilk of the Quantrill marauders in Bates County, Missouri, because of his Union sympathies during the Civil War. We have farmers struggling with an unforgiving land in Oklahoma. And we have folks returning to Oklahoma to build a life there.
Topper genealogy, as related by Margaret Topper, displays the reasons why we each search out our history, pursue our roots, learn our stories and relate them to our kin so they will know something of who and what we are.
(The photographs herein were provided by generosity of Richard and Margaret Topper and Keith and Jeanie Hayes, other Topper descendants.)
Will and Mary Topper, sit is the rear of their first car driven by their youngest children,Charles and Lee, in 1916.
Row 1: Charles Henry and Lee Kenneth.
Row 2: Alfred Roy, William Albert, and Joseph Adam.
Row 3: Pearl, Mary Myrtle, Rose Emma, Arva Matilda, and Minnie Luella.
This photo is also taken in Oklahoma in the early 1900’s , in the buggy is William H. Topper and his sister, Rose Topper Eyman. Standing next to the buggy is her husband, Tom Eyman.
The photo, taken in the early 1900’s in Mehan, Oklahoma, in the doorway left to right is Dave Lewis who was a blacksmith married to Arva Matilda; next to him is Alfred Mehan, whose family the “town” is named after. Standing at the side of the building is William Topper and an unidentified child.