For
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 328
COPELAND RABE....At the age of eighteen years Copeland Rabe came to Muscatine county. That was in 1855---fifty-six years ago---when the ox team and the prairie schooner were daily in evidence and when the hand reaper was in use in the fields and the hand loom for weaving cloth in the homes. Time has wrought vast changes and today he sees the locomotive, telephone and the automobile, while the entire system of farming has been revolutionized. Mr. Rabe has reason only for congratulation when he reviews the past, for years ago he became one of the prosperous farmers of the county and today is living in comfort and ease.He was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1837, a son of William and Drusilla ( Copeland ) Rabe, both natives of the Keystone state. The parents died in Jefferson county, Ohio, leaving three children : Copeland, of this review ; T. F., now of Ohio ; and W, W., of Bloomfield, Ohio.
Copeland Rabe received his early education in the district schools of his native county and continued at home until 1855. Feeling like many young men of that period that the great west offered more favorable inducements than could be expected in the older states of the Union, he bade farewell to his relatives and friends and at the age of eighteen years started westward, coming as far as Muscatine county, Iowa, where he readily secured work as a farm hand. In 1858 the gold excitement, which began in Colorado, swept over the country and thousands of men started for the Rocky Mountains in eager pursuit of wealth. Among this number was Copeland Rabe. He drove an ox team from Omaha to the Pike's peak region, but after prospecting for a few months in the sands of the streams and along the foot hills of the mountains he became convinced that his destiny lay in other pursuits rather than in mining. Accordingly he returned to Muscatine county and after renting land for a few years purchased eighty acres in Wapsinonoc township, which he cultivated to such good advantage that later he became the owner of a fine place on one hundred and sixty acres---one of the most productive farms in the township. In 1904 he removed to West Liberty, where he lived for four years, but has since resided in Pike township.
In 1861 Mr. Rabe was united in marriage to Miss Lydia Ann Fletcher who was born in Muscatine county in 1844, a daughter of Samuel and Rebecca ( Pickering ) Fletcher, both of whom were natives of Ohio. Eight children were born to them, namely : W. F., of Marshall county, Kansas ; Samuel and John, deceased ; E. S., of Louisa county, Iowa ; Jesse, now of Colorado ; Alpha, who now has charge of the home farm ; Zelpha, the wife of Charles Monroe of Wapsinonoc township ; and Lela, now Mrs. Chester Grigg, of Pike township.
Mr. Rabe gives his support to the republican party and although he has never sought public honors he served with great acceptance for nine years as school director. He is a consistent member of the Methodist church and his wife was reared in the Quaker faith. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Rabe has ever been a welcome haven for friends, and one of the leading objects of their lives has been to contribute to the happiness of their associates and acquaintances.
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