The Hangman's Ropemaker: The Homes in Butcher's Run and Wood's Run

*This blog post is one in a series of blogs on my famous ancestor, Jacob Bupp, the Hangman's Ropemaker- click the page tab above labeled "The Hangman's Ropemaker" for more information and the blog series*

On 1 May 1866, Jacob Bupp purchased land from Henry and Dorothea Rosenfelder in a new subdivision that was laid out in Ross Township. The deed was recorded as stating that the land was “lot no eight in a plan of subdivision laid out by John C. Fleiner of the Daniel McKeever farm...containing four acres and ninety one perches and it being part of the same farm which Daniel Morganstern and wife by their deed of Oct 8th, 1863 recorded.” Daniel Morganstern’s farm was on the border of Ross Township along Perrysville Plank Road. It was bought for $2500, which equated to over $41500 in 2016 currency.

The area in which Jacob Bupp owned his land was known as Butcher’s Run, as a creek by the same name ran through the area before heading down towards Allegheny City. The creek, also known as Saw Mill Run, gained notoriety in 1874 when it flooded a part of Allegheny City around what is now known as Spring Garden Avenue.

There was a rope-walk in the area, situated on Butcher’s Run Plank Road, and it is likely that Jacob worked there. However, since he was not living in Allegheny City or what was considered surrounding area at the time, as Ross Township was a distance away, he was not listed in the city directories for the time he lived there.

This is likely the home in which son John was born, though a birth date for the boy is not known.

For the Bupp family, the area was also the place for a sad memory. A local paper ran this news story one summer day:

"Fatal Accident: Saturday afternoon, a little son of Mr. Jacob Bopp, residing on Butcher's Run, near the rope-walk, was killed by pulling over on himself a harrow which was placed on a wheelbarrow standing in front of his father's house. The child was immediately taken from under the harrow, when it was found that one of the teeth had entered his heart. An inquest was held, and a verdict rendered as above."

It is not known which of Jacob and Caroline’s children was the one fatally killed on 15 June 1867, as the boy was not named in the article and no evidence can be found of his name. Family lore and a biography done on one of their sons-in-law list a son named Charles, who likely died young, so it is probable that Charles was the youngster’s name. Unfortunately, coroner's reports from that era are difficult to find.

On 2 November 1867, a few months after the death of their young son, Jacob and Caroline Bupp sold the land in Ross Township to Jacob Baeckert for $3400, or a little more than $59000 in 2016 currency. Where they moved next is a mystery, but the assumption is that they stayed in Allegheny County. By 1867, the Spring Garden Valley area was being absorbed into Allegheny City, so it is possible that the Bupps were wanting to stay out of the city.

The 1870 Federal Census enumerated the family in McClure Township, but listed their post office as being in Dixmont, two townships away. McClure Township was just south of where Jacob Bupp had just sold land, and the area in which Jacob was enumerated was known as Pleasant Valley, which was just outside the city limits of Allegheny City. Other men enumerated around him were rich landowners, so it is possible that Jacob worked for one of them as a gardener, for this is the only time he is listed as having such an occupation. There is also the possibility that he was raising hemp for ropemaking, as he continued to ply his trade as well.

Jacob was enumerated as a male citizen of age 21 or over who had $200 worth of personal estate and no real estate. Caroline was listed as having an occupation of keeping house and born in France. Son William, who was twenty at the time, worked as a laborer, while daughters Emma, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary attended school in the previous year. Son John was too young to go to school at age 3, and a daughter, Ella, had just been born in April of that year. It appears that Ella was the last of the nine known children born to Jacob and Caroline.

On 14 June 1871, Jacob’s eldest son William bought two lots of land in F. J. Melaney's subdivision of lots in Wood's Run, in what was soon to become the 11th Ward of Allegheny City, as Allegheny City had annexed a great deal of land by the end of the 1870s. According to the deed, the land was comprised of acreage "beginning at a pin on Cliff Street where it intersects with land belonging to John B. Bond, thence along the line of said Bond's land northward by 134 feet more or less to the land owned by John Seiling, thence along said Seiling's land westward by 50 feet 8 inches more of less between lots nos 12 and 13 southward 134 feet and by 43 feet more or less to the place of beginning." It was purchased for $500, or a little over $10300 in 2017 funds.

Jacob and family occupied one of the lots, as William and his family later occupied the second lot. The lot, which was in the vicinity of Shady Avenue in the soon to be created Eleventh Ward of Allegheny City, changed street names a couple of times over the next eight years, as the area came to be built up and street names were created and then changed as more and more areas of Allegheny City came to be populated. The lot however, remained in the same place, though its address changed from Cliff Street to McClure Avenue and then back to Shady Avenue. When the city of Allegheny was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1906, the street was again changed to Shadeland Avenue.

Sources Referenced and Used

"1870 United States Federal Census," database online, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 August 2016), Entry for Jacob Bupp and family, Year: 1870, Census Place: McClure Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Roll: M593_1294, Page: 131A, Image: 337018, and Family History Library Film: 552793.

Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Deed Book 197: 339-340, Deed of indenture from Grantor Henry Rosenfelder and wife Dorothea to Grantee Jacob Bupp, recorded 1 May 1866; FHL microfilm 1498045.

Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Deed book 223: 599-600, Deed of Indenture from Grantors Jacob and Caroline Bupp to Grantee Jacob Beckert, dated 2 Nov 1867; FHL microfilm 15095329.

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Deed Book 273: 505-506, Deed of indenture from Grantor Fred J Melaney and wife Sarah to Grantee William H. Bupp, dated 14 June 1871; FHL microfilm 1509878.

Beers, F. W. and Beers, S. N. Map of Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania : from actual surveys (Philadelphia: Smith, Gallupp and Hewitt, 1862); digital image, Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division (https://www.loc.gov/item/2012592151/ : accessed 20 February 2018), viewed the farm of D. Morganstern, which would become eventually the subdivison in which Bupp bought a lot.

"Fatal Accident," Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 17 June 1867, 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 25 September 2017).

“The Gazette says Pleasant Valley is a nice place. Was the writer ever there?," opinion, Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 1 December 1868, page 8; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 February 2018).

Mellon, Steve. "Butcher’s Run Flood devastates O’Hara Street in 1874," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Digs, 11 March 2013 (https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/thedigs/ : accessed 20 February 2018), information on Butcher's Run.

Miles, Lisa. Resurrecting Allegheny City: The Land, Structures & People of Pittsburgh's North Side. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: L. A. Miles, 2007.