Born- 1816 

At- Hoyles Creek, Lincoln County, North Carolina

Died- abt 1880

At- Paris,

Buried- Unknown

(1) Married- Martha Owens

Marriage Date- 15 Oct 1822

Born- North Carolina

Died- 16 May 1858

At- Mississippi

(2) Married- Rebecca F. Hardwick

Marriage Date- 27 Sep 1859

Born- Tennessee

Died- Unknown

At- Mississippi

ORIGINS
Philip Stroup, Jr., was born c1816 or 1817, son of Philip Stroup, Sr., and his second wife, Catherine Master (LeMeister) of upper Hoyle’s Creek, Lincoln (now Gaston) County, N.C., on a large farm that faced “the Old Road to Lincolnton”, at that time a village about six miles to the northwest.
The farm he was raised on was almost surrounded by the large families of his aunts, uncles and cousins. He was about eight on Saturday, Jan. 24, 1824 when they gathered next door at the home place of his grandfather, Philip Stroup, Sr. for a family funeral with Lutheran Rev. David Henkel officiating. At a birthday dinner for his grandfather, they set up long tables across the lawn and “marveled at how many there were to sit down together.”

FATHER’S DEATH
Philip was twenty-one when his father died at age sixty-two on April 13, 1837 leaving nineteen children by two wives, and a will that stipulated “after the youngest child comes of age”, his farm be sold and the proceeds divided between heirs. This farm sale was in the early 1850’s, by which time most of his children had other plans, some migrating to where their inheritances would buy more because vacant land in Lincoln - Gaston was scarce and expensive.

FIRST MARRIAGE
Philip Stroup was twenty-two on April 13, 1837 when he married Martha Owens in Lincoln County, N.C., apparently by Publication of the Banns in a Lutheran Church on successive Sundays. 

HIS SISTERS
As a young man, Philip Stroup, Jr. was closely associated with his older sisters Joanna (Jo Ann, Joan) Stroup (14 May 1814, 8 Jan 1892) and Roxanna who married two sons of John & Rebecca Phillips. 
From The Yorkville, S.C. Compiler: “Married on Tuesday evening last by M. W. Abernathy, Mr. Silas H. Phillips of Union County, S.C. and Miss Joan Stroup of Lincoln County, N.C.” They married by Lincoln Marriage Bond dated 14 Sep 1840, Daniel Hoover, Bond Surety.
Silas H. Phillips was brother to Isaiah W. Phillips who married at an unknown date Joan’s sister Roxanne (Rosanna, Rose Ann) Stroup.

TO MISSISSIPPI c1848
Reputedly in 1848 Philip Stroup, Jr., his sisters Roxanna, Joanna and their nephew Ephraim Stroup removed their families to Benton (Tippah) County, Mississippi accompanied by Ephraim’s in-laws, the Queens.
They reputedly traveled together from central North Carolina into Central Tennessee, and settled near each other in Benton County, NE Mississippi near the Tennessee State line. A common western migration route from central N.C. was to follow the Yadkin River road to the Blue Ridge mountains, crossing the Continental Divide at the Swannanoa water gap, then following the French Broad River road SW through Knoxville, but when that river went toward Kentucky, switching to the road heading SW beside the Tennessee river toward Memphis. 

These young married couples settled In Benton County where they remained neighbors and close friends. Joan Stroup and her husband Silas H. Phillips taught school in Benton County, and were members of Mt. Pisgah Methodist Church, where both are buried.

1850’S BENTON COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Philip’s wife, Martha (Owens) Stroup died at age thirty-six. Her tombstone in Mt. Pisgah Methodist Church cemetery, Benton County, Miss., is near the grave of her sister-in-law, Joanna (Stroup) Phillips, and reads: “Martha Stroup, Wife of P. Stroup, Oct. 15, 1822 - May 16, 1858”. 

REMARRIAGES
Some say Philip Stroup, Jr. married 2nd Nancy McClure, but if this is true it was a very short marriage, because on September 27, 1859, sixteen months after the death of his first wife, Martha Owens, Philip Stroup, Jr. married Rebecca F. Hardwick in Benton County.
This point his life diverged from his sisters in Mississippi and their relatives in North Carolina.
Philip was now forty-three years old, and it was a turning point because from then on his life diverged from that of his sisters and the Queens. After marrying Rebecca, he decided to leave his home of twenty years in Benton County and go to Texas, a move that made his sisters and older children very unhappy. 
“When he and his new wife moved to Red River, Texas, part of his older children, including sons John and Dolph Stroup, refused to go with him and stayed in Mississippi.”

PHILIP STROUP, JR. AND THE IMMIGRANT’S BIBLE
Philip Stroup, Jr. had inherited the German Bible that his grandfather, Jacob, brought to N.C. from Maryland c1770, “with family records in German to the 1600's”. Having taken it by wagon from North Carolina to Tippah County, Mississippi, it remained there for about twenty years until he remarried and moved again. “He took it to Texas, practically stepping over the bodies of his sisters Rosanna and Susanna, who objected strongly, fearing it would be lost. They begged him to leave it with them, but he would not.”

TO RED RIVER, TEXAS
Again Philip’s exact route is unknown, but he may have gone down the Tallahatchie River to the Yazoo, then south to the Mississippi and crossed it from Bolivar County. He settled in Red River, Texas, but when the 1880 Federal Census was made, Philip Stroup, Jr., was listed in Gregg County in NE Texas, near the Louisiana border. 

PHILIP’S WESTERN ROUTES
His sister, Rose Anna (Stroup) Phillips told her great-grandson, Whipple T. Black, that Philip Stroup, Jr.’s family “Settled in a Texas county adjoining the county where his mother’s sisters [Phil’s mother was Catherine Masters] lived...in or near Waco, Texas.” (Waco is in central Texas, and is the seat of McLennan County.)
“Aunt Mallie (Mallie Masters b c1870 who was “near 90” in 1957) replied that was true, but the family moved away before she and her sister moved to Waco...” (Phil’s mother was Catherine Master.) 

TO ARKANSAS
Philip Stroup’s last migration was up the Arkansas River to Ft. Smith, Arkansas, on the Oklahoma border. “He moved to Arkansas, to be near one of his sons”.
This is reputedly where he gave the immigrant’s German Bible to a distant cousin, Alexander Stroup who had moved from Cass County, Georgia to Ft. Smith, Sebastian County, Arkansas. (Alex’s descendants destroyed it in modern times, according to the late Jesse Ardell Stroupe of Texarkana, Arkansas, who said his father was its last owner.)
Philip Stroup, Jr. died in Paris, Logan County, NW Arkansas. 

PHILIP STROUP, JR.’S CHILDREN
Philip Stroup, Jr. married in 1838, but his first known child was born six years later, hence one or two of his older children are unidentified. At one time he lived in Red River Co., Texas, where in 1900 a Belle Stroup, b. 1840, N.C., was perhaps widow of his eldest son. Red River County is in NE Texas, bordered on N by Oklahoma, and on the East it’s near Texarkana, Ark. where lived Jesse Stroup, the German Bible’s last known owner.

Philip Stroup, Jr.’s children by 1st wife, Martha Owens:
1. (John?) Stroup (c1839 N.C. - d. before 1900 Tx). Perhaps married Belle --- (?) b. Nov. 1840, N.C. 1900 Red River Co., Precinct #7, Tx.: Belle Stroup, age 59, b. Nov. 1840, N.C., home of Frank B. Puckett, relationship “sister-in-law”, believed mother of: Robert B. Stroup, b. Oct. 1875, Tx., age 22, “son-in-law” in home of Frank B. Puckett.

2. Noah F. Stroup, b. c1844, N.C.; to Red River Co,, NE Texas. 1900 census, Red River Co.: “Nor” Stroup, b. Dec 1839 N.C., age 66, no wife listed; daughter Etta H. Stroup, b Mar 1889, Tx., age 11; son Philip O. Stroup, b. Dec 1873, Tx., age 6

3. Joan Stroup, b. c1845, N.C. (m. Frank B. Puckett?)

4. Stephen Stroup, b. c1847, N.C.

5. Sylvester Aheart Stroup (c1851, Miss. - 24 May 1885) m Ancy Belle Rogers. 
Sylvester Aheart’s son: Willie Aheart Stroup, b 31 July - Leslie, Ark. (From: descendant Margarett Stroup Derrington, Sonoma CA 95476.)

6. Israel E. Stroup, b. c1852, Mississippi. (At one time lived Erath County, central Texas, up the Brazos River from Waco.)

7. Dolphus Philip “Dolph” Stroup a.k.a. Philip Dolphus Stroup (1854 Ms - 7 Mar 1922); m 11 July 1878 Willie Leona Mitchell, and lived in Shady Grove, Tippah Co., Miss. His wife, Willie Leona Mitchell (9 Nov 1862-14 Oct 1950) was d/o Green Willis Mitchell & Rachel Phillips. “John and Dolph Stroup refused to go to Texas with their father.” (From descendant: Grace Floyd, RR 1, Box 240, Ripley MS 38663.)
8. John E. Stroup b c1857, Tippah Co., Miss. “Refused to go to Texas with his father.”

Only known child by 2nd wife Rebecca Hardwick:
8. George Sidney Stroup, b. Dec. 1863, Mississippi. Moved with parents to Red River, Gregg County, Texas.

1900 Federal Census, Swisher County, Precinct #1, Texas: (Swisher Co., NE Texas “panhandle” between Oklahoma and New Mexico.) Household: George F. Stroup, age 36, wife Martha M. (Sanderson?), 32, b. Sept 1867 Alabama. Philip L. Stroup, b. Jan 1886, Texas, son. Adah Stroup, 12, b. Jan 1888, daughter. Arnold Stroup, 11/12, son b. July 1899, Texas. Philip Sanderson, brother-in-law, b. Sept 1870, Texas.

Also in Swisher Co., Texas, 1900 Census, a man 15 years younger than George Sidney Stroup, possibly related: William T. Stroup, b July 1878, age 21, b. Arkansas, wife Vera P., b. Oct. 1883, Tx., Lottie M. Stroup, b. Apr. 1899, Texas. (However, in the 1980's I phoned Stroups in Swisher Co., Texas, and learned that some there descend from a man who moved there from Oil City, Pa., so they did not seem related to the N.C. line.)


Philip Stroup, Jr. died in Paris, Logan County, NW Arkansas. 
After moving at least twice in Texas, in his old age Philip Stroup, Jr. moved up the Arkansas River to the Oklahoma border, again taking the ancient Bible with him to Fort Smith, Arkansas. Before he died in Fort Smith, he inexplicably gave it to Alexander Stroup b 1807, Georgia, a cousin to whom he was not closely related.


Compiled by Ethel Belle Stroupe, Laguna Woods, CA 92653
Aug 15, 2002.

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