Peter Culp
ID # 8460, (1804-1872)
| Birth | Peter Culp was born on 13 April 1804 at Clinton Twp., Niagara District. |
| Marriage | He married Susannah Rittenhouse, daughter of Michael Rittenhouse and Barbara Hunsberger, on 21 April 1830 at Clinton Township, Niagara District. For the following see the work of W. Craig Burtch, The Niagara Gleaner, January 1823 - July 1835, Global Heritage Press, 2012, page 33. This is said to be from the May 8, 1830, edition of the Gleaner. It relates that Peter Kulp, weaver, and Miss Susannah Rittenhouse, both of Clinton, were married on the 21st inst., which we must believe to be April 21st, 1830. The clergyman was Rev. Jacob Moyer. A liberty is taken here. The newspaper notice does not specifically locate the place of marriage of the couple, but as Peter and Susannah were living in Clinton Township at the time and Jacob Moyer was buried at Vineland Mennonite Cemetery in Clinton Township, also known as Moyer's Burial Ground, we locate the marriage in Clinton. |
| Death | He died on 19 May 1872 at South Cayuga Twp., Haldimand Co., at age 68. |
| Burial | He was buried at South Cayuga Mennonite Cemetery. |
| Note | The page of the 1851 South Cayuga census, begun in January of 1852, rather unusually, tells the place of birth of those enumerated. It locates the birth place of Peter and Susan in Clinton township. It also locates the place of birth of their first three children in Clinton. Sarah Culp was born in Clinton in approximately 1837 and Isaac was born in South Cayuga in approximately 1840, so it may be said that they moved from Clinton to South Cayuga during this very approximate time frame. We gain some confirmation of this when looking at the abstract index for lot 12 on the 6th concession of South Cayuga. This tells that Peter Culp was granted a patent by the government for all 122 acres, so described, on June 28, 1838. This index is limited in the transactions shown, but does show the sale of two portions of the lot, both a quarter acre each for purposes of a school. The first transaction was in 1839 and the second in 1845. The entire agricultural census for the year 1851 for Haldimand County has not survived, but has done so for 1861. This tells that Peter Culp was in possession of lot 12 on the 6th concession of South Cayuga Township. Death reg. 017224-72 South Cayuga Twp., Haldimand Co. Peter Culp died 19th May, 1872. Age 67. Farmer. Mennonist. Born Clinton Twp. No certificate. Said to have been heart disease. Dropped dead in field. Informant Michael Culp, weaver, South Cayuga. Some notes for Peter and Susannah's land, namely lot 12, concession 6, in the Township of South Cayuga, Haldimand County. An Abstract Index (AI) is to be found for this lot. (See Onland.ca, Haldimand (18), South Cayuga, Book 1, pages 1 thru 173, images 121 and 122.) The first entry tells that Peter Culp was granted a patent to this property on June 28, 1838. There are two more entries on this AI that relate the conveyance of a quarter acre of this property to trustees for a 'common school'. There will, no doubt, be another AI page to be found relating to later transactions, but for the moment these have not been pursued. Some of the paperwork found refers to Cayuga as being in the Niagara district and we should consider that 1838 is a very late date for a Crown grant or patent to be issued in this part of Upper Canada. Sufficient information has been found to say that the property had a history prior to Peter Culp's patent. For this, refer to a recent addition to the available files on Familysearch.com. They now have available for study Ontario's Township Papers files. These reside with the Archives of Ontario (AO). At the AO, the files for Cayuga are to be found on microfilm MS658 reel 70. With Familysearch, the film number is 008126216. The folder of interest begins at image 574. Note that lot 12 on the 6th Concession of Cayuga (South Cayuga) is also referred to as being on the Port Dover and Dunnville Road. Before diving into this file (only six pages), it should be noted that the handwriting on everything, mostly, is atrocious. An earlier owner, pre 1838, was said to be a Jacob Ort, or Orp. He does not appear in any list of original petitions and it is apparent from attempting to decipher the handwriting that he obtained the property by way of government sale (someone's failure to pay taxes might be one explanation. If the local sheriff had a hand in it the available paperwork might well be uninformative.) Somewhere, not yet found, there will be a Patent Book for Cayuga that might tell who held the original grant. The file goes on to say that somehow M. (Michael) Rittenhouse came to hold an interest in the property and he wished to transfer ownership to his son-in-law Peter Culp. That this became a patent does show that there was government approval for the transaction. Also, for some reason, Samuel Street (who we must believe to be the younger) had some hand in it for he writes a commendation for the character of M. Rittenhouse, though stating that he was not familiar with the son-in-law, Peter Culp. Street died in 1844 and is buried in Drummondhill Cemetery in the present day city of Niagara Falls. Street was heavily into land transactions and had contacts with land offices that had to do with quite a number of places in Upper Canada, particularly in the Lakes Ontario and Erie area. Just why Street might have been involved in a commendation for Michael Rittenhouse is difficult to say and certainly not documented, though abstract index information shows that Street purchased numbers of properties that were the result of sheriff sales. Past that, why does the Abstract Index for C6-L12 not have transaction information prior to Peter Culp gaining a Crown patent? Because the clerks writing up the AI pages (which did not come into existence until 1867) disregarded any transactions done prior to the last issuance of a Crown grant or patent. |
| Last Edited | 13 Mar 2021 |