The Hangman's Ropemaker: The Nicely Brothers

"Sheriff Isaiah Good, of Somerset county, yesterday gave Alderman Bupp, of Wood's Run, an order for two ropes, to be used at the execution of the Nicely brothers on April 2. The ropes will be shipped next Monday. Alderman Bupp will also be present at the execution."

~"Ropes Ordered for the Nicely Boys," Pittsburgh Dispatch (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 7 March 1891, page 9

*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*

27 February 1889 was a deary, rainy day in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.  Snow had fallen previously in the week, but was only evidenced by a few remaining drifts. Two miles north of the borough of Jennertown sat the farm of Herman Umberger.  The elderly farmer lived on his farm on the Somerset Pike with his wife, great-granddaughter Nannie Horner and a domestic by the name of Ella Stern.

Herman Umberger's likeness, from page 11 of The Umberger Tragedy: With a Criminal History of Somerset County, Pa. by Edward H. Werner, published in 1890.  Found on The Internet Archive.

On that cold, rainy night, two men knocked on the door while the family sat around the stove of the sitting room, trying to keep warm in the late winter evening.  The two men, who had covered their faces to shield their identities, asked to come in and get warm.  They then claimed they were constables from Bedford who had a search warrant and said they were looking for jewels that had been stolen from a peddler.  Herman Umberger gave them permission to search the house, and in the process of that search, his pocketbooks were discovered.  Since Umberger didn't trust banks, he had kept his life savings on his person in his pocketbooks, and there was an estimated fifteen to twenty thousand dollars within them.  Umberger put them into the pocket of his vest.  The "constables" demanded the pocketbooks be handed over, and when Umberger refused, he was shot several times and left to die.

Almost as soon as the men left, Mrs Umberger sounded the alarm by ringing her dinner bell as loudly as she could and several men gathered at the Umberger home to try to catch the criminals.  A man named Collins Hamilton fell under suspicion after money and the wig one of the men wore were found in his home, but it was later determined both were planted to throw off suspicion.  Evidence soon came to light that caused Joseph and David Nicely to become the suspects and the two were arrested 6 March 1889.

The Nicely Brothers, from pages 18 and 26 of The Umberger Tragedy: With a Criminal History of Somerset County, Pa. by Edward H. Werner, published in 1890.  Found on The Internet Archive.

Joseph and David Nicely were two of the four sons of Anthony Nicely, a respected farmer that lived outside the town of Ligonier, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Joseph was the eldest son, and was married to a woman named Harriet.  The couple had seven children.  David was the youngest son, and was married to a woman named Elizabeth.  He had three children.  According to some news accounts the tow men were known criminals, but other newspapers painted them as industrious and well known and respected men.

The two were put on trial in June of 1889.  At the trial, testimony from Ella Stern and Nannie Horner was the only concrete evidence, although circumstantial evidence from other witnesses was also presented.  It came to light that Umberger had to have been shot with a center-fire revolver, and Joseph Nicely had purchased such a revolver the previous fall.  The overcoats that Ella and Nannie remembered the men wearing when Umberger was shot matched the two overcoats the men owned, and Umberger's distinct pocketbook was found empty at the home of Anthony Nicely.

The Nicelys' defense, led by two former Congressmen, called witnesses that testified to seeing the men elsewhere during the shooting, and tried every trick they could to dissuade the jury from finding the men guilty.  However, after a tumultuous trial, the jury came back with a verdict of guilty of first degree murder.

Due to some irregularities in the verdict however, the defense immediately motioned for a new trial, which was argued on the 13th and 14th of August 1890.  The motion however was overruled and a new trial was refused.  The men were sentenced to death by hanging.

The zealous defense appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, who agreed to hear the appeal in their October term.

However, during this appeal process, the Nicelys tried to take securing their liberty upon themselves.  The Nicelys quickly became the "lords of the jail" so to speak and became friendly with the other prisoners who were housed at the Somerset jail.  In August it was revealed that they tried to make an escape via bed sheets when another prisoner took to having a supposed fit of epilepsy.  Yet Joe Nicely refused to escape via the window, as he wanted to leave the jail by walking through the door.

On 16 September 1889, the two brothers made their second attempt to escape and dashed through the door of the jail.  They scuffled with the prison guards and in the scuffle Joe got his hands on a guard's pistol, firing it several times.  One guard was shot twice and nearly died  The two prisoners were quickly caught and a lynch mob almost did them in.  However, the mob was persuaded to return the men to jail to see through their sentence.

The Supreme Court did hear the arguments in their October term, and on 10 November 1889 the court handed down their decision that the verdict was upheld, as there were no errors in it.

On 29 November 1889, another escape was attempted, and this one was more successful for the brothers.  They escaped the jail with three other men, sliding down a rope with a drop of about fifty feet.  One of the prisoners died in the fall.  Dave Nicely was injured, breaking both a leg and an arm.  He was found a couple of days later, almost dead from exposure.  Joe Nicely was found hidden in a barn, complaining of a broken ankle.

Both men insisted they tried to escape the three times because they were innocent of the crime they were convicted.  The Nicelys' defense tried to argue the case in front of the Board of Pardons four different times, and each time the Board of Pardons denied to pardon the men.

Harry Marsh followed the Nicelys' fate very closely from his own jail cell in Cambria County.  In early January, after his death warrant was signed, he asked his jailers if theirs had been signed as well.  According to the article "Death Warrant Read to Harry Marsh the Murderer," in the 15 January 1891 edition of Pittsburgh Daily Post: "When told that the time for their execution had not yet been fixed he bitterly remarked that he was not like them, and had no money to appeal to the board of pardons" (page 3).

On 20 January 1891, just one day before his term expired, Governor James A. Beaver signed the death warrants for the Nicely brothers, setting their execution date at 2 April 1891.

About a month before the executions, Joe Nicely began to complain of headaches that were severe.  By the end of that week, he was acting like a crazy man, and was able to convince a doctor that he was insane. (Coincidentally, he "snapped out of it" the morning of the hanging, leading everyone to believe it had been faked, and wrote a letter to his wife Harriet dividing his belongings amongst all of his seven children)

Jacob Bupp made both of the ropes, having received the order for them in March of 1891 while still alderman of the Eleventh Ward of Allegheny City.  He charged the county of Somerset his usual fee of $25 per rope, and mailed the ropes to Sheriff Isaiah Good, expecting his payment in cash on delivery.  However, Good refused to pay and sent the package to the County Commissioners' office.  The County Commissioners were reported as also dragging their feet in paying for the ropes, because it was not set in stone as of 19 March 1891 that the Nicelys would not be pardoned. 

According to an article in The Pittsburgh Press on 19 March 1891 (page 7), Jacob became angry when he heard of the commissioners trying to refuse to pay for the rope Good ordered.  He had this to say in an interview with a Press reporter:

"Every hangman's rope that I have ever made I received $25 for it, and any good rope maker in the country would charge the same price.  I have the order from Sheriff Good telling me to ship two ropes 15 feet in length for the Nicely brothers.  I sent two ropes which were 25 feet in length.  I will hold the sheriff responsible for the money, as he understood my charges before ordering the ropes."

Jacob  was finally paid for the ropes on 23 March 1891.  He expressed that perhaps the article that reported the Commissioners were refusing to pay for the ropes was a fake.  He was invited to attend the execution, and it was mentioned that he had already witnessed 65 executions (making this execution his 66th).

On 2 April 1891,  Joseph and David Nicely were hanged in the Somerset County Jail.  The gallows had been erected inside the Somerset Jail with the traps built into the floor.  While only thirty to forty people were actually admitted to witness the execution, the jail was surrounded by curious crowds of people waiting to hear of the execution.  The trap was sprung, it was reported, at 1:37 pm, and by 2 in the afternoon the men were pronounced dead.  Their bodies were taken by their families to be buried in Ligonier.

Sources Used and Referenced
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