Among Pekin’s pioneer families, one of the earliest to arrive was the Copes family, who were related by marriage to Pekin’s first settler Jonathan Tharp. Robert Teal Copes (1799-1844) and his wife Mary, Jonathan Tharp’s sister, arrived at the future site of Pekin during the 1820s. Here Robert established a hat-making business, but soon after moved to Bloomington, which was then a part of Tazewell County. It was there that Robert’s son William Fletcher Copes (1828-1906) was born. Robert conducted his hat-making business in Bloomington for two years, after which he returned to Pekin, where he died in 1844.
Robert’ son William was often known as “W. Fletcher Copes” or “W. F. Copes,” and not uncommonly was respectfully addressed as “Squire Copes.” Charles C. Chapman’s 1879 “History of Tazewell County,” page 18, provides the following short sketch about Squire Copes:
“William Fletcher Copes, farmer, sec. 35; post-office address, Pekin; born in McLean county, Ill., in 1828. He is the son of Robert T. Copes and Mary D. Tharp, of Ohio. Was brought to this county when a child of two summers, where, in the common schools, he received his education. He has held the offices of Deputy-Sheriff, Constable and Town Clerk for about twenty years. Mary Woodrow, his wife, and to whom he was married in 1851, has born him six children — Laura A., born in 1853, Clara E., born in 1855 ; Ira O., born in 1857; Mary A., born in 1859, since deceased; Adaline A., also deceased, was born in 1861 ; Ella A., born in 1863. Mr. C. united with the Methodist Church in 1844. He votes with the Republicans.”
The most memorable moment of his long career as Constable and Tazewell County Deputy Sheriff came in the summer of 1869, when he and other law enforcement officers were ambushed by the Berry Gang at Circleville. Deputy Sheriff Henry Pratt was shot to death by Ike Berry and Tazewell County’s jailor George Hinman was wounded, but Constable Copes narrowly escaped with his life. In the aftermath of the ambush, the Berry Gang’s ringleader William “Bill” Berry was killed by a lynch mob, who hanged his body from a gallows tree in front of the Tazewell County Jail in downtown Pekin. Bill Berry was then buried in an unmarked grave in Woodrow Cemetery south of Pekin.
A longer and more detailed biographical sketch of W. Fletcher Copes’ was published in Ben C. Allensworth’s 1905 “History of Tazewell County,” page 989, as follows:
“William Fletcher Copes is a son of Robert Teal and Mary D. (Tharp) Copes. His father, born September 10, 1799, was a native of Maryland, and the mother, born January 16, 1808, was a daughter of Kentucky. The parents were married in Zanesville, Ohio, and moved to the site of the present city of Pekin. Here Mr. Copes engaged in making hats, but shortly afterward removing to Bloomington, where for two years he operated a hat-manufacturing establishment. He subsequently returned to Pekin, where he died in 1844, the death of his wife occurring in 1892. Mr. Copes’ grandfather, Robert, lived to the advanced age of one hundred years and six months.
“The subject of this sketch, William F., was born near Bloomington, then a part of Tazewell County, September 20, 1828, and educated himself during his leisure moments. He was sixteen years old at the time of his father’s death, and was left as the supporter of his mother, five brothers and four sisters, for whom he continued to provide until he was twenty-one years of ago, when his mother again married. Mr. Copes purchased land just south of the old homestead, and there he continued to reside for forty-four years, when in 1895 he moved into Pekin and retired from business life. he is a member of the Methodist Church, in which he is a steward and has been for forty years class-leader.
“Mr. Copes’ first Presidential vote was cast for John C. Fremont, and he has since been an energetic worker in the Republican ranks. He was elected Justice of the Peace to fill a vacancy and held the position for five years; has been Deputy Sheriff for sixteen years, under T. C. Reeves and Edward Pratt; was Town Clerk of Cincinnati Township for ten years; Constable for a quarter of a century, and is a Notary Public. Socially, Mr. Copes is a Royal Arch Mason, having joined that fraternity in 1873, and also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has taken all the degrees. When the Old Settler’s Society was organized in 1885 he was elected its Secretary and Treasurer, and still retains those offices.
“On October 30, 1851, Mr. Copes was united in married to Miss Mary Woodrow, in Tazewell County, and the following six children were born to them: Laura A., deceased; Clara E.; Ira O.; Mary A. and E. Adeline, both of whom died in infancy, and Ella A., wife of Charles Abbott. Mrs. Copes was a daughter of Hugh and Amanda (Swindle) Woodrow, and was born October 30, 1843. Her death occurred October 30, 1903, and she was buried on the anniversary of her birth, October 30, 1903. The maternal grandparents of Mr. Copes were Jacob and Phoebe (Weimers) Tharp. Mr. Copes has eleven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.”
Squires Copes’ wife Mary died in Pekin in 1903 and was buried in Woodrow Cemetery. Three years later, Squire Copes himself passed away in Pekin on 29 Sept. 1906 and was buried by Mary’s side — 37 years after his close brush with death in the Circleville ambush, and in the same cemetery where Bill Berry lies in an unmarked grave.
