The Life and Times of L.S. "Doc" Stroup

Lawson Sidney "Doc" Stroup was born on 27 Dec 1879 [south of] Cherryville, Gaston County, North Carolina, and died on 30 Mar 1924 in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida. He was the great/great grandson of Jacob Stroup, settler of Lincoln County, North Carolina.

Like many Southerners in the decades following the US Civil War, Doc Stroup's early life was marked by intense poverty. "Dirt-poor", Doc was determined to have a better life for his family than was afforded him as a child. His first business venture, around age 25, was opening one of (if not the first) “pool halls” in Cherryville. It was a financial success but carried a steep price … public admonishment from the “preachers” in town and loss of his Baptist church membership.

Around 1910 Doc heard the calling from South Florida ---- cheap land, warm weather and bountiful crops --- ideal for a young, adventurous entrepreneur who didn’t relish the thought of becoming just another “hand” in the North Carolina cotton mill industry. Over the next 10+ years Doc moved his family of six children annually between Cherryville and Fort Lauderdale as his new businesses rapidly grew. His career as a merchant and farmer in South Florida was notable.

At the time of his death at age 44, Doc owned his home on George Avenue in Cherryville, had 'paid down' on a soon-to-be constructed four-bedroom home in Florida and accumulated roughly 50 acres of real estate in Broward County --- half of which was sold by his wife Essie, at Doc’s death --- for $30,000 (1925 dollars!)

It’s been said that Doc Stroup often displayed his self-depreciating “Stroup” sense of humor. His relaxed pose alongside two of South Florida’s most vicious “gators” (see picture), is typical “Doc”. Recently Lula Beam Mauney, age 106, of Cherryville recounted a personal story to me about my Grandfather … “One time Doc brought one of them alligators home (to Cherryville), strapped to the back of his car!” According to Lula, once home, Doc tied it to an old oak tree in the backyard behind his house. Lula laughed about how curious and scary that alligator was to all the family and friends --- most of whom had never heard of (much less seen) such a creature!

Doc Stroup died in Fort Lauderdale during the family's "winter stay" in the spring of 1924. My Aunt Soonie Stroup, about 22 at the time, described the overwhelming sadness that enveloped the family and friends in south Florida at Doc's sudden death. A day or so before the family was to return by train to North Carolina for burial, the Seminole Indians (Doc had a lucrative fur-trading and shipping business with them) visited the Stroup home in the early evening and assembled silently in the front yard. As the sun set in the West, the Seminoles built a large bonfire in front of the home place, praying [as was their tradition] for Doc's swift entry into the Heavens.

Originally, Doc's headstone at Shady Grove Church in Cherryville was engraved "STROUPE" --- the “terminating e” having been a popular addition to the surname during the early 1900s. Subsequently Essie, his wife, had it removed --- under “pressure” from several very opinionated relatives of her husband Doc Stroup!