Blanche Powers	close-up taken from photo of Blanche Powers as shown below.	photo courtesy of Anne Cope at [email protected];
Born: 28 March 1858 Louisville, Jefferson Co., KY	Charles E Cope and his wife, Blanche Powers Cope  photo courtesy of Anne Cope at [email protected];	Birth records Jefferson Co., KY 1857
Died: 23 Feb 1933 Jefferson Co., KY		Death record Jefferson Co. KY Address given as 4220 W. Broadway, Louisville, KY  Informant was Miss Blanche E. Cope at same address.
Buried: Care Hill Cemetery, Louisville, KY

FATHER

Andrew J. Powers

MOTHER Louisa F. Countess b. 01 Aug 1826 France d. 15 Oct 1866

Death Record Louisville, Jefferson Co., KY

HUSBAND

Charles E. Cope b.16 Mar 1856  England d. 26 Apr 1923 Jefferson Co. KY

Jefferson Co., KY death records

CHILDREN

1. Emma Louise Cope     b. 26 Aug 1880     d. 28 Jan 1918	Emma Louise Cope
2. Robert James Cope     b. 21 June 1882     d. 25 Feb 1967	Robert James Cope
3. Blanche Elmira Cope      b. 14 Jan 1884      d. 05 Sep 1968	Blanche Elmira Cope	Blanche is shown above with her mother's cousin,  Lula (Presh) Jones
4. Charles E. Cope     d. Oct 1887	Charlie Cope
5. Annabelle Cope     d. Aug 1888
6. Archer Leroy Cope     b. 08 Mar 1889     d. 12 Jul 1945	Archer Leroy Cope
7. Frank I Cope     b. 1891     d. Mar 1896
8. Ruth Jane Cope     b. 18 Jun 1893     d.  12 Oct 1976	Ruth Jane  Cope Otto
9. Samuel Avery Cope     b. 31 Jul 1902     d. 25 May 1970	Samuel Avery Cope is said to have looked much like his grandfather, Andrew J. Powers	Avery Cope and his sister Blanche

Biography of Blanch Powers
by Susan Brooke

May 2013

Blanche Powers was only eight years old when her mother died.  She and her sisters went to live with their aunts.  Blanche was taken in by her aunt,  Susan Powers Jones.  Thus she and , Lula (Presh) Jones, later Ridgeway, grew up in the same household.  Much of the information on this family was passed down through Lula Presh Jones Ridgeway.

She loved music and could play the piano by ear.  She and Lulu (Presh) both played the piano   Blanche also played the organ at the Lutheran Church which is where she met her husband, Charles E. Cope.    He had come to the United States around 1875 when he was 17.  He had been apprenticed as a printer in London and soon found employment with the Robert Rowell Electrotype Co.  In 1877 he was in the Louisville City Directory as an electrotyper boarding at Bourbon House.  Her favorite song was the Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker Suite. His was "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls."

They married in November 28,  1878 and in the 1880 census they are listed as married and Blanche's sister, "Annie" (Anna Belle) was living with them.  They were living at 266 Franklin.  Together they had 9 children in the next twenty some years, but three of them died young.

Charles E Cope stayed with the Robert Rowell Electrotype Co for 47 years and was foreman by 1895 as noted in the 1895 city directory.  He was mentioned in a souvenir issued on the occasion of the Louisville Board of Trade in 1923.  A partial quote from that publication is noted below.*

The young couple moved around until they built their home on Broadway.  The 1910 census lists them at 4023 West Broadway in a home that they owned.  In 1920 they were at 4220 Broadway, again in a home that they built and  owned, and it was free of a mortgage.

Blanche was very small, about four feet nine. She was extremely talented in sewing, did not need a pattern to make things. She and her daughters did tons of embroidery of all kinds and it was beautiful. She and her husband loved to play cards and had a pinochle club. They loved Christmas and gave many gifts which were delivered to folks on Christmas Day.  After she became a widow she had all her presents distributed by her daughter Aunt Blanche and son, Samuel Avery. (Oral history from Anne Cope at [email protected]; )

Charles died in 1923 at the age of 67.  Blanche lived another ten years with her daughter, Blanche and  son, Samuel Avery Cope.

*  The history of the Robert Rowell Electrotype Co. begins immediately after the civil war. The first Robert Rowell of English ancestry, was born in Canada, but grew up in Cincinnati. When war was declared between the States, he entered the army as a Union soldier.
After the war he came to Louisville in 1865, and started the first foundry of this kind south of the Ohio river. His foundry was located on Jefferson Street between third and Fourth, just about the site of the old Buckingham Theatre. His first product was steretoypes, but as advanced methods in electrotyping were developed, he took up this method of manufacturing printing plates, which the firm still continues to this day.
Later on the plant was moved to the upper floors at Third and Market, over what was then known as the clothing store of Julius Winter and Co. Here it continued for thirty-three years, later moving to Fifth and Main, adjoining the National Bank of Kentucky. the plant is now in operation at Number 122 South First Street, under the direction of Robert T Rowell, his son.
It is an interesting historical fact that while this firm has continued the same product under the same name for 57 years, the foreman of this plant, Mr. Charles E Cope, has been connected with this company for 47 years. For this reason, the Robert Rowell electrotype Co. certainly ought to know how to make first-class electrotypes.
 

Much of the information on Andrew J. Powers and his daughter, Blanche Powers Cope, has come from Anne Cope at [email protected]