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. 🌳
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