Edwin Coppock Memorial at Hope Cemetery, Salem
Hanged in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia) the afternoon of December 16, 1859.
Buried at New Garden, now called Winona, Ohio.
Reinterred at Hope Cemetery in Salem, Ohio on December 30, 1859.
Hope Cemetery
1015 N Lincoln Ave
Salem, OH 44460
(330) 332-5314
Historical Collections of Ohio
By Henry Howe
It was this early teaching that “all men were created equal” and endowed with inalienable rights of life and liberty, that induced Edwin COPPOCK, a near-by farmer’s boy, born of Quaker parents, to shoulder his musket and go forth to join the immortal John BROWN in opening the war for freedom on Harper’s Ferry. There with his old chief he fired a shot that made slavery tremble to its fall. COPPOCK was captured and hanged at Charlestown, Virginia.
The following letter to his uncle, living within a few miles of Salem, was the last he ever wrote. It will be read with interest. It is full of prophecy, very long since fulfilled to the letter.
He wrote it two days before his death, and spoke of the coming event with the nerve and fearlessness of a true man. His grave is in Hope Cemetery, Salem, and marked by a plain sandstone shaft, erected to his memory by the late Howell Hise. It bears only the simple inscription – “Edwin COPPOCK.”
Charlestown, Dec. 13, 1859.
Joshua COPPOCK:
My Dear Uncle – I seat myself by the stand to write for the first and last time to thee and thy family. Though far from home and overtaken by misfortune, I have not forgotten you. Your generous hospitality towards me, during my short stay with you last spring, is stamped indelibly upon my heart, and also the generosity bestowed upon my poor brother who now wanders an outcast from his native land. But thank God he is free. I am thankful that it is I who have to suffer instead of them.
The time may come when he will remember me. And the time may come when he may still further remember the cause in which I die. Thank God for the principles of the cause in which we were engaged will not die with me and my brave comrades. They will spread wider and wider and gather strength with each hour that passes. The voice of truth will echo though our land, bringing conviction to the erring and adding members to that glorious army who will follow its banner. The cause of everlasting truth and justice will go on conquering and to conquer until our broad and beautiful land shall rest beneath the banner of freedom. I had fondly hoped to live to see the principles of the Declaration of Independence fully realized. I had hoped to see the dark stain of slavery blotted from our land, and the libel of our boasted freedom erased, when we can say in truth that our beloved country is the land of the free and the home of the brave; but that cannot be.
I have heard my sentence passed, my doom is sealed. But two more short days remain for me to fulfill my earthly destiny. But two brief days between me and eternity. At the expiration of those two days I shall stand upon the scaffold to take my last look of earthly scenes. But that scaffold has but little dread for me, for I honestly believe that I am innocent of any crime justifying such punishment. But by the taking of my life and the lives of my comrades, Virginia is but hastening upon that glorious day, when the slave will rejoice in his freedom. When he can say, “I too am a man,” and am groaning no more under the yoke of oppression. But I must now close. Accept this short scrawl as a remembrance of me. Give my love to all the family. Kiss little Joey * for me. Remember me to all my relatives and friends. And now farewell for the last time.
From thy nephew,
Edwin COPPOCK
* "Little Joey" = Joseph Coppock &mdash Joshua Coppock and Jane Hoyl's son Joseph b. Oct. 7, 1855.
(Graphic and text from Historical Collections of Ohio By Henry Howe Vol. I ©1888 COLUMBIANA COUNTY
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~henryhowesbook/columbiana2.html)
Photo in the Ohio Historical Society Collection -- Collection Number: State Archives Series 741 AV
Photo taken 1940-1949
These three color images are by James Edward Hodges at Find a Grave.com
