Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 971
PETER R. SHUPE

Peter R. SHUPE, a resident of section 17, Calhoun Township, came to Harrison County in January, 1851, and located on section 22 of Raglan Township, where he claimed a quarter-section of land before any survey had been made, and before scarcely anyone inhabited the county.

He was born in Virginia in 1830, the son of Peter and Sarah (Wright) Shupe. Peter Shupe left Virginia with a family in 1842, and went to Brown County, Ill., and remained until the spring of 1846, when he went to Nauvoo and started for the West, and got as far as Council Bluffs (Kanesville). This was in the time of the Mexican War and the Government demanded a Battalion and they made up about five hundred men, among whom were two brothers of our subject -- Andrew Jackson and James. After the men had gone, the rest of the party went into winter quarters, on Kegg Creek, Mills County, where they found rush-beds and there they pitched their tent, and his father and mother died the same day of ague and congestive chills. The same evening his brother came and took the children and started for Farmington, on the Des Moines River, but upon reaching the Soap Creek he died, and Peter, also sick, was taken back to their former camping place, while the remainder of the family went on; one of the children dying near Farmington, and within a short time every member of the family died at Farmington except Thurza, now of Woodbine.

Our subject, Peter R, remained at the house of Franklin Steward until July 4, when they started to Holt County, Mo., for provisions, and on the way there he found a place to work out at $4 per month. He remained in that locality over a year and the following summer worked for the Government, hauling freight to Ft. Laramie, and was thus engaged until 1851, when he came to Harrison County. He was married in Harrison County in May, 1851, to Sintha Lockling, a native of Vermont.

Mr. and Mrs. Shupe have no children of their own, but have adopted four. Politically our subject voted with the Democratic party, but now votes for the best man regardless of party lines.

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