Uncle Buddy

​To his children he was Papa.

To his brothers he was Buddy.

To nieces and nephews, he was Uncle Buddy.

To his wife, Mr. Joe.

A man known by many names, each one stitched to a different part of his life.

Joseph was the son of Allen Davis, age 49 when Uncle Buddy was born on February 12, 1885 and Francis Tyson “Ticyanne” or “Ticy” Choplin, age 39. A day he shared with his brother Albert ‘Luico’ Choplin who was born on February 12, 1888. 

Uncle Buddy was 13 years old when he first shows up on an official record in the 1900 census, He lived in Brassfield Township in Granville County, North Carolina with his mother and 5 of his 7 brothers, worked as a farm laborer, and also attended school. 

It’s not known when, but not long after this census record was taken he moved north toward Henderson where he continued to working as a farm laborer.

Work of His Hands 🌾🏪

After Uncle Buddy moved to Warren county in his late teens and he worked as a sawmill hand, farmer, and grocery store clerk. It was on one of his trips to the town of Henderson for supplies that he met Ms. Elizabeth Jane Abbott, or Lizzie as she was known; his future wife. 

                                              Left: Joseph Presley Choplin and wife Elizabeth "Lizzie" Jane Abbott                                           Center: Albert "Luico" Choplin and wife Ella Ayscue                                                             Right: Walter James Choplin and wife Lela Smith                                                                 Front: Twins Billie & Betty Choplin; Walter & Lela Choplin's daughters

A Wedding in a Buggy 🚜💍

On January 21, 1906, Joseph married Elizabeth Jane “Lizzie” Abbott in a way no courthouse could ever outshine. According to their daughter Effie Choplin Wright, Uncle Buddy and Ms. Lizzie were administered the Rites of Matrimony while seated in a horse drawn buggy parked along Shepherd’s Road between Sandy Creek and Vicksboro in Warren County, near where their future home would stand. I can’t help but to wonder if this was a spur of the moment wedding; it just felt like the right time? Or was it a romantic moment Uncle Buddy had planned in front of the property they would one day call theirs? I think it would be perfect either way, but it will remain a moment only Mr. Joe and Ms. Lizzie experienced, a moment in time that only belongs to them. 

                         Joseph Presley Choplin and wife Elizabeth "Lizzie" Jane Abbott Late 1950s

In 1958 the couple made the local newspaper when their children had a celebration for their 52nd wedding anniversary seen below. A milestone fewer while make. When Uncle Buddy passed away in 1965, they had been married 59 years! 

A Household Full of Life 👶

Uncle Buddy and Ms. Lizzie first bundle of joy would arrive in March of 1907. Eleven more would follow over the next 24 years.

• Sadie Elizabeth Choplin — March 25, 1907
• Joseph J. Choplin — February 15, 1909
• Effie Green Choplin — March 3, 1911
• Melvin Thomas Choplin — September 21, 1913
• Linwood Allen Choplin — June 20, 1917
• Oliver “Ollie” Johnson Choplin — September 6, 1918
• Clemon Barden Choplin — March 10, 1921
• Infant son
• Marvin Peter Choplin — June 9, 1925
• Mary Joseph Choplin — July 26, 1926
• Hunter Duke Choplin — September 1, 1929
• Dorothy Louise Choplin — September 27, 1931

A household that size does not stay quiet. It hums, it rattles, it breathes. Joe loved his children deeply and was a present, steady father. They loved him just as deeply in return. Perhaps his aim was to be the kind of father he himself may not have had, creating in his own home the security and care he believed a family deserved.

The family’s life was rich, but it was not without sorrow. On May 17, 1910, Uncle Buddy lost his only son at the time, three year old Joseph J. Choplin. The cause of death is unknown. Baby Joseph’s resting place, marked with the words “Asleep in Jesus,” can be found in the Community Cemetery in Vicksboro.

Tragedy visited twice more; in 1917 when their son Linwood Allen Choplin passed away in infancy. The circumstances of his death are also unknown. And in 1923 with the loss of another baby boy at birth. These quiet losses, so common in that era yet no less devastating, were part of the unseen burdens Joe and Lizzie carried while raising the family that followed. 

The Day the County Held Its Breath 📰

On March 10, 1921, Mrs. Lizzie and Uncle Joe were living with her parents. Mrs. Lizzie had gone down to the spring near their house and was returning home with water when a man, George Marshall, grabbed her from behind and held her at gunpoint. He eventually released her, and she ran home, telling her husband and father, Jack Abbott.

Jack went searching. Joe went to fetch the police.

Jack found Marshall at his father’s house. Gunfire erupted as Jack approached the house. Jack Abbott was shot in the face and side, left in critical condition. When Sheriff Davis and a group of arrived, Marshall fired again, wounding the sheriff and some of the men with him, though not fatally. A standoff followed through the night. The next morning, Marshall’s own father and brothers disarmed him and held him down so the sheriff could arrest him.

The county was in uproar. Officials feared lynching mob would storm the jail. Marshall was tried the next day in Warren County, found guilty after ten minutes of deliberation, and sentenced to death. He was transported to Raleigh to await electrocution on October 20, 1921. 

Through it all, Uncle Buddy’s role stands steady and clear. He sought law, not vengeance. 

                                                          Franklin Times 1920

                        

Faith, Family, and Reputation ⛪

 Uncle Buddy would purchase a farm on Shepherd’s Road where he moved his family. They raised cash crops such as tobacco, corn, and cotton. During the 1930s and 1940s he opened a grocery store next door to his home in rural Warren County and owned several rental houses in Henderson. By every account, Uncle Buddy was a successful businessman who built his life with steady hands and long days.

                            Joseph Choplin's farm house located on Shepards Road in Warrenton

Uncle Buddy was a proud Christian and an active member of Sulphur Spring Baptist Church, attending regularly and encouraging others to do the same. He was known as a loving father, respected husband, and well liked man in the community.

Final Resting Place

It seems that Uncle Buddy moved to Henderson when he retired from farming. The address listed on his death certificate is 324 Arch Street in Henderson. 

Joseph “Uncle Buddy” Choplin is buried in Warrenton at Sulphur Spring Baptist Church beside his loving wife. At the time of his death he had 26 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren. A number of Henderson Police officers and Firefighters attended his funeral. What an amazing legacy to leave! 

If you are connected to the Choplin, Abbott, or Davis families, or have photographs, documents, or stories about Uncle Buddy and Mrs. Lizzie, please share in the comments! 

The Story of Ollie Choplin

       

I can vividly remember going with my grandmother to visit her friends when I was younger. One of those friends was Luzelia Jones, who lived on Woodland Church Road in the Granville County side of Wake Forest. I can still hear her voice. I only wish I had known then who she truly was to me, and how many questions I would one day wish I had asked. I have since learned that she was the daughter of Ollie Choplin, the brother of my great grandfather.

Ollie Choplin’s life was rooted in that same community, in the same soil and along the same roads I traveled years later without realizing I was moving through my own family’s history.

Ollie was born February 11, 1890, in Brassfield Township, Granville County, North Carolina, and he would never stray far from that landscape. He was the youngest son of Allen Davis, who was fifty four when Ollie was born, and Ticyanne Joplin or Choplin, who was forty four. Ollie entered the world at the tail end of a large, blended family. He had six full siblings, including my great grandfather James Walter Choplin, and eight half siblings. Ollie was the baby of them all, growing up in a household where older brothers and sisters had already begun carving their own paths.

The 1900 census gives us our first official glimpse of the Choplin brothers together in Granville County. Ollie appears as a young boy among his siblings, in a home led by their mother, Frances Choplin. As discussed before, it’s unclear if the Choplin boys ever had a relationship with their father. It’s suspected they stayed hidden from record takers so Allen and Ticy could avoid getting the courts involved with a Bastardly Bond. It was a working family, and like most children in rural North Carolina at the time, Ollie’s childhood would have been shaped by farm labor, church life, and the steady rhythm of the land.

A Young Marriage and a Fractured Start

On September 12, 1909, in Wake County, nineteen year old Ollie married Rosa Lee Wilke, who was only fourteen. Their early marriage reflects the realities of that era, when adulthood often arrived quickly and options were limited.

Together they had three children:

• George Allen Choplin, born October 25, 1910
• Lonnie Bland Choplin, born March 17, 1912
• Alfrid Choplin, born 1912, who likely did not survive infancy

By the time of Ollie’s World War I draft registration, it appears the marriage had broken down. The record indicates that he and his wife were living separately and that he did not support them. In the 1920 census, Rosa Lee and her two surviving sons were living with her parents in Henderson, where she worked in a cotton mill. Whether Ollie remained an active presence in his sons’ lives is unclear.

Ollie registered for the draft in June 1917. He was inducted on May 25, 1918, and sent to Camp Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. He served in Company L, 322nd Infantry. While I have not yet found documentation of his voyage to France, records show he departed St. Nazaire, France, on June 7, 1919, sailing home aboard the U.S.S. Matsonia and docking at Newport News, Virginia. According to his niece Effie Choplin, Ollie was sprayed with mustard gas while serving during World War I and suffered from its effects the rest of his life. 

Like many soldiers, he returned to the same fields he left, trading a uniform for work clothes and resuming life as a farmer in Granville County.

Family Ties Close to Home

By 1920, Ollie was living with the family of his half brother Pressley Davis, who had died in 1916. He likely helped his widowed sister in law with farm work. On December 27, 1920, Ollie married Pressley’s daughter, Meta (Mee-da) Davis, his half niece. In isolated rural communities with limited travel, marriages within extended family circles were not uncommon.

Meta became pregnant soon after their marriage, and they had two known children:

• Follie Choplin: born August 14, 1921
• Louvenia: known as Luzelia, born July 20, 1924
• Eugenia: born about 1924, didn’t survive infancy. May have been Luzelia’s twin
• Infant: 1934-1934

The 1930 census shows Ollie, Meta, Follie, and Luzelia living in Brassfield Township, most likely on what is now know as Woodland Church Road; still anchored to the same community.

A Glimpse of His Life Beyond the Records

During Ollie’s lifetime every event made the local newspaper. The Creedmoor Times had several portions dedicated to community gossip. Bailey Items, Grissom Items, New Light Items, and Pernell Items. Ollie’s name showed up mostly in the Bailey Items section visiting his mother, visiting friends “until bed time.” 

The most noticeable newspaper mention of Ollie comes in March 1920. The article places Ollie in Raleigh at a carnival with friends. Police searched the group on suspicion of alcohol. During the search police located bottle of alcohol. All four men were arrested for carrying a concealed weapon after a gun was discovered under the car seat. A bond of $300 was set for the 4 men. Ollie and a friend paid $100 each towards the bond while the other two contributed $50.  

The Land Then and Now

I remember visiting his daughter Luzelia Choplin when I was young, going with my grandmother. At the time, I did not understand exactly how we were related, only that she was a Choplin and kin. Luzelia lived beside the house she grew up in, where her mother remained after Ollie’s death.

Ollie’s home was modest, unpainted, and worn, with no electricity or running water. A long dirt driveway, fields stretching toward the road, and only the roof visible from Woodland Church Road. Today, those houses are gone. In their place stand tightly packed houses in a neighborhood with homes so big the families that live in them don’t even know each other. The land that once held tight knit generations of Choplin life now tells a very different story about change (unwanted to most locals) in our community. 

His Final Chapter

Ollie Choplin died on the morning of June 24, 1930, in that same modest home in Granville County, at only thirty-nine years old from a heart issue. Ollie’s death certificate showing no record of his birth date, mother nor father. His life was not long, but it was full of family, hardship, service, and deep roots in the same soil my ancestors walked for generations.

Ollie Choplin now rests at Good Hope Baptist Church, known today as Covenant Hope Church, back in the same community where he was born, lived, and worked the land. If you are ever in the area, consider stopping by to visit his grave and leave a few flowers. Small acts of remembrance help keep stories like his from fading, and honor a life that was deeply rooted in the soil of Granville County.

Much of his life still sits between the lines of records. If you are connected to the Choplin or Davis families or have stories, photos, or information about Ollie Choplin, please share in the comments. Every detail helps bring him out from the margins and back into the family story where he belongs. 🌳

        

To better picture a small part of Ollie's military experience, I've included a video below showing images and footage connected to life aboard the U.S.S. Matsonia, the ship that carried him home from France in 1919. While these are not personal recordings of Ollie, it will help use visualize the environment he would have lived in during that long journey across the Atlantic.  Scenes like these give context to the transition soldiers faced as they left the war behind ad returned to the lives waiting for them back home.