Along about the middle of the 15th century along the river Thames, a man had a small shipbuilding yard. It was getting late in the afternoon and the owner decided it was late enough to call it a day. He left the yard and followed a well beaten path along and up from the river. He came to a cottage which nestled there in a glen. Following the path he came up to the back of the house. On the back porch was a wash basin and a table where he laid his hat and prepared for his evening ablutions. He then entered the house.

The cottage was small like those of the better class. A smug chimney corner with two seats, an old carpet on the hearth, an old flint gun and some spurs over the fireplace, a dresser with some shelves on which were arranged bright pewter plates and crockery ware, an old walnut table, a few chairs, a bookcase with some dozen volumes. On the walls were flitcbes of bacon and other stores hung to the ceiling.

In the kitchen the mistress of the house and a helper with her daughter were busy preparing the evening meal. The man asked how long until dinner. His wife said: I thought we would wait until Burton came home. They all seemed to be worried about something. While awaiting the arrival of Burton, I will introduce you to these people.

The man was William Fitzpenn. At one time the Fitzpenns belonged to the nobility, but their ancestors had been younger sons of younger sons, and becoming poorer each year until it became necessary to engage in some lucrative employment.

William’s wife and daughter were in the kitchen when they heard someone coming in. They all rushed to the door to meet Burton who had been called up before the authorities. When he came in he had a beaten look and upon questioning he told them about the day. He told them because of religous differences he was being banished. The family were plunged into deep sorrow but began to make preparations for his departure.

After dark, in a boat from his father’s yard, he sailed for France. On darkened waters he sailed down the Straits of Dover and entered the English Channel, stopping when he reached the Port of LeHavre. He entered the city and upon in vestigation, found it just right for his purpose. He could have a place for his boat and plenty of shipping to insure him a living. So he settled there.

After a couple of years he married a French girl and in time they raised a family.

Burton was happy in his marriage but still had the idea of civil rights for man and did not altogether approve of the way they were treated in France. All his life he preached the doctrine of equal rights to men. His son had the same ideas.

After the death of his father and mother, he thought a lot about America and the trouble they were having with England. As his wife agreed with him, he and his family set sail for America.

After a long and stormy voyage they entered Chesapeake Bay and up to Baltimore where they made their home. He was able to get much shipping there and could easily support his family. He became very enthusiastic about his adopted country and when they had trouble with England was one of the first to enlist in her defense. When Paul Jones formed his Navy, Mr. Fitzpenn offered his vessel to him. Jones took the ship and offered my grandfather a commision in the Navy. But as be was getting along in years and had lived a very stressful life, he refused the offer.

After all this time, due to lack of spelling amongst the people, his name was gradually changed to Fippen as it was easier to say and spell.

After the revolution there was a great movement west over the Alleghenies to take up land in the Ohio Valley. Ebenezer Fippen talked of it and his son, Samuel, decided to go and look the situation over. He went on horseback to Indiana. He signed up for a farm at Union Church, 6 miles East of Atlanta, Indiana, He immediately started to fell trees and with help, was able to begin the erection of a log cabin. He felled enough trees to make a corduroy road so be could make the journey with a wagon.

He notified his family who immediately began making preparations for the trip. In the meantime, Samuel west back to Ohio and married Mahala Ann Foutch who was helping her Uncle Torn Foutch in the eating place where be had stopped on his way West. They had fallen in love and decided to get married when be came back for her. In 1847 be came back and they settled down in their home in Indiana.

Meanwhile, Ebeneezer, his wife, two sons and a daughter were getting ready to take the trip in a covered wagon. All plans being completed, they started their trip to the beautiful, rich lands of Indiana. When they completed their journey, there was Samuel and his bride awaiting them. They unloaded their furniture and arranged things temporarily for the night. There was plenty of work to be done. Daddy (that’s what they all called their father) and the boys had put out the spring crops and finished Daddy’s house. By late summer the crops were all in and growing. So Daddy, his wife, daughter and two sons moved into their new home and left Samuel and his wife in their home.

Mahala was a good wife for Samuel for she could weave and piece quilts and cook and was very good help in the fields, planting corn and doing anything that came to hand.

We pass over two years that were busy but prosperous. The house was furnished plain but comfortably with woven rugs and decorated with all kinds of handwork.

It is time for the third Thanksgiving and there is a great stir and excitement about Daddy’s house for there is to be a wedding this evening. People began arriving about noon for they were all going to help. The pigs were to be barbecued and all helped. There were fires to be kept up and the women were busy getting other parts of the dinner ready. Everybody near was invited and also the people from Atlanta, where Jevan Mount, the bridegroom, lived. He was to marry the only daughter, Elizabeth.

About four o’ clock everybody was there; three fiddlers came and soon there was the sound of tuning up and in the barn several couples lined up and the fun began. They danced and with much laughter the party got under way. Between eating and dancing, by eleven o’clock all were tired and started their way home. Elizabeth and Jevan rode horsebadc back to Atlanta, where he had a home ready for his bride. After four years had passed, they had two little boys wham they named Burton, called Burt, and Isaiah.

Samuel Fippen had a boy and a girl, George W. and Ardilla Jane; and later they had James Madison, Ebeneezer and John William.

Burton married and became the father of two boys, Will and Jesse.

Ardilla married a man named Oliver Jayne and had one daughter, called Pearl.

George and Ebeneezer started a tile factory and ran it successfully for several years.

George married Rachel Thurston and had three daughters, Jennie, Athelola and Alice.

James M. who wanted to be a lager, came to Tipton, Indiana. After a few years he married Olive Emazette Bunch, the eldest daughter of one of Tipton’s leading citizens, Luther T. Bunch. To this union five children were born, Frank Bunch, Katherine, Mark Luther, Stella and Hugh Jay.

Ebenezer marrked Lucy Fisher of Tipton and had one son, Cletus who married May and had Norma, Elise, and Richard.

Frank Bunch married Sadie Dot Colwell of Salem and to this union five children were born: Martha Jean, Frank Bunch Jr., Wayne Colwell, John William, and James Mark. Wayne died in infancy and James Mark went down in World War II on the Submarine, Cisco.

Hugh married Susan Padgett and had two daughters, Maxine and June.

Stella married Metellus Thomson, Jr. and had three children, Katherline, Metelius III and Jane, all living.

Shortly before bar death in 1952, My Aunt Katherine. asked me to visit here. She gave me what she had written about the Fippen family, but had some other facts in her mind that she wanted a to write, down.

James Madison Fippen (Aunt Katharine’s father) had made arrangements, in the early 1900’s, for Columbia Univ. to trace the Fippen family history. The actual records of the Family Tree, as produced by Columbia U. were lost, but Katherine had some of the facts.

The family was traced back to the early 1500’s to Connemara, Ireland. This is, and was always, a rocky, barren coastline of Western Ireland, where few people can exist, but those who do are ship-builders. Fitzpenn was a name found there. It is believed the the Fitzpenns of Connemara migrated to England, along the Thames, were they could continue their shipbuilding trade, and where life was easier.

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