The Fighting Quakers

What does, Harpers Ferry, W. Va., Winona and Salem, Ohio and Springdale Iowa have in common? – “The Fighting Quakers”

A program titled, “The Fighting Quakers” will be presented at the Salem Federation of Women’s clubs – Smucker House tea at 271 S. Broadway, Salem, Ohio on November 16th at 11AM. Tickets are $25 and reservations must be made by calling 330-207-6031 or emailing ccaldwell663@icloud.com

The high tea will be prepared by Cordon DE Blu Chef Sara Baer and American Culinary Institute of New York Chef, Ashley Foster from Due Dorelle Food Imports. Where does one have the opportunity in Salem, Ohio to enjoy a tea prepared by two master chefs?
The program, “The Fighting Quakers” will be presented by Melissa Carchedi a 2003 West Branch Graduate.
Her interest in Edwin Coppoc, (Coppock) all started over a family Easter Dinner when Edwin’s name was brought up by Melissa’s brother. From this point she has interviewed several who are associated with Edwin’s history. She traveled to Iowa to visit the site where the brother’s joined with John Brown’s Army .

Edwin and Barclay Coppoc (Coppock) were born in Winona. The sons of Samuel Coppock and Anna Lynch. When their father passed away, there mother arranged for the boys to live with other Quaker families. Barclay went to live with John Stanley and Edwin to live with John Bulter who was a benevolent Quaker for nine years. John Butler met with President Lincoln on three occasions to exempt Quakers from fighting in the Civil War. He also went to Pa Pa Island, Mississippi to bring back orphan slave children whom stayed at his house until he found suitable families for them. Butler, being a dedicated Quaker and Salem being the home of the Anti-Slavery magazine – “The Bugle”, was a strong foundation for the brothers to be against slavery.

Living in Damascus until their teen age years, the bothers, when their mother remarried, moved to Springdale, Iowa, where their mother was living. It was here that they met John Brown in Iowa as he passed through in early 1859, transporting people who had been enslaved in Missouri to freedom. That summer, the two boys bade their mother goodbye, despite her fears of the violence they would encounter, and traveled to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, to meet Brown’s growing army.

Edwin was captured at Harper’s Ferry was tired and convicted of treason,murder, and fomenting a slve insurretiong and was hanged with John Brown in Charles Town, West Virginiga. The body was laid out three nights The body was laid out three nights, with armed guard; the guard was to prevent anti-abolitionists from stealing the body to prevent the funeral. Attendance was described as “immense”; hundreds came for the funeral and to hear the “eulogistic speeches”. The body was moved to City Hall. His remains were first buried in the Friends Burying Ground, New Garden, Ohio. Attendance at the burial was estimated to have been from two to three thousand.

By 1888 he had been reburied in Hope Cemetery, about 10 miles (16 km) away in Salem, his grave marked by a plain brownstone monument some 12 feet (3.7 m) in height, marked only with his name and his birth and death dates.
This monument was erected through the liberality of an eccentric old Scotchman named [Daniel] Howell Hise, who was at that time living near Salem, and to his honor be it said, was a prominent “Conductor” on the “Underground Railway,” helping many a runaway slave on his way through Ohio to Canada and liberty

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