1822. Isn't it incredible to think how different her life was from the life we lead today. It's interesting to imagine the things she would appreciate, and the things she would be shocked and horrified by!Fanny was born to Edward and Mary (Young) Chope in Barnstaple Parish, England. In 1837 the family emigrated to the United States. That year the population of New York City was 270,089. Martin Van Buren was president and the country was still talking about the recent massacre at Alamo, Texas. The telegraph was introduced that year and the daguerreotype photograph came on the scene two years later when Fanny was 17.
On Jan. 13, 1848, when she was 26, Fanny married Emerson Bowerman in Oakland County, Michigan. The following October the couple welcomed daughter Orilla Agnes who was born in Detroit. Orilla died just 20 days later. Ella Augusta was born July 26, 1850, also in Detroit. She was joined by a brother, William Emerson, on Oct. 21, 1854. William and his father Emerson died the following August from unknown causes.
Sometime later Fanny married George C. Godfrey. He died Aug. 5, 1869, in Omaha, Neb. On
June 30, 1878, Fanny married Greengrove Dudley. The couple lived next door to daughter Ella and Charles Southmayd in Humboldt County, Calif. at that time. Fanny died June 20, 1890, in Ferndale, Calif.While researching the family history we uncovered an interesting story about Fanny's third husband, Greengrove Dudley. I discovered that "[Perkins] family tradition says he died about 1851 on the way to California, before marriage to Esther Perkins, apparently not knowing she was pregnant; his travel trunk supposedly washed up on shore." Greengrove's descendants contacted me after seeing my blog post about him. They shared that the family never knew if he had drowned, or simply left to seek his fortune. Greengrove had apparently been married twice before as well, once to an Indian woman with whom he had five children, and two another woman with whom he had two daughters.
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