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Manuscript Group 514
RUPP FAMILY PAPERS
1790-2000
(10 cu. ft.)
Papers of five generations of the
Rupp family of Mechanicsburg in Cumberland County, some of whom once lived in
the great stone mansion of Jonas Rupp that still stands at 5115 Trindle Road.
(John J. Rupp who was born im 1844 fled from the mansion with his family to
Lancaster during the Confederate invasion of Cumberland County in 1863 and in
their absence Confederate Brigadier General Albert G. Jenkins used that home
as his headquarters. His troops fought the northernmost engagement of the Gettysburg
Campaign at nearby Sporting Hill on June 30, 1863. The General Jenkins Monument
has been placed at the Rupp House to commemorate the Confederate invasion of
Cumberland County and the Union defense of Harrisburg in June 1863.) The progenitor
of the family was Johanes Jonas Rupp who was born October 23, 1729 O.S. in the
Duchy of Baden and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1751, first settling near present-day
Annville in Lebanon County (then part of Lancaster County. In 1772 he purchased
the "Providence Tract" in Cumberland County from George Thawley for
400 pounds. At that time, the tract included a log cabin and a log barn and
included 15 acres of cleared land that was enclosed by a brush fence and saplings.
In 1773 Jonas Rupp erected a new 1 1/2 story log house that continued to stand
until at least 1875 and he also cleared an additional 100 acres of land over
a ten year period. He initially joined the German Reformed Church at Trindle
Springs in 1774 and the Lutheran congregation in 1775. He erected a new stone
mansion across the road from the log house that had a central chimney in the
traditional Germanic style in 1787. His new mansion also served religious gatherings
of a variety of denominations, reflecting Jonas Rupp's latitudinarian religious
proclivities. In 1798-1799 he contributed toward the German Reformed Peace Church
where he served as an elder for the rest of his life. He and his wife Elizabeth
had nine children named Jonas, John, Martin, George, Jacob, Mary, Catharine,
Elizabeth, and Margarette. Among these, George Rupp was born in Lancaster County,
now Lebanon County, on May 21, 1772 and worked on his father's farm until 1789
when he learned the trade of tailoring from Simeon Heilman of Cumberland County.
George Rupp provided supplies to troops dispatched to put down the Whiskey Rebellion
in 1794 and also served in Indian hostilities on the western frontier. George's
son, Jonas Rupp, was born in the Rupp stone mansion on March 26, 1805 and his
son, George Rupp, married Elizabeth Barnhart. The Rupp Family Papers originally
resided in the attic of the Trindle Road house until they were removed to the
elegant brick home numbered 215 East Simpson Street in Mechanicsburg that was
originally built for George Rupp and his young bride Elizabeth Barnhart during
the 1840s. George Rupp was related to the noted historian Israel Daniel Rupp
who published The History and Topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin,
Bedford, Adams, and Perry Counties in 1846 as well as other distinguished
early county histories for Lancaster, Lebanon, Northampton, and York counties.
The line of descent for the East Simpson Street house is from George Rupp of
Mechanicsburg, who died after the Civil War, was through Albert B. Rupp, a railroad
surveyor, to his son Guy Rupp, to a daughter named Pauline who married William
Warner. One of Pauline and William Warner's daughters named Elizabeth Rupp Gallucci
still resides in the house.
These papers include photographs, receipts, correspondence, day books, shipping logs, pamphlets, account books, postcards, school book records, stock certificates, estate records, legal papers, land drafts, tax records, and newspaper clippings, . Surnames other than Rupp that appear in the papers include Fisher, Baumgardner, Koller, Moll, Keys, Titzel, Edwards, Barnhart, Freesley, Kimmel and Comfort.
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