The Hangman's Ropemaker: Obituaries

"Jacob Bupp, the famous maker of hangman's ropes, is dead."

~Line from a syndicated newspaper article that ran in several newspapers 

*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*

In my last blog post, I wrote about Jacob Bupp's death at the Soldier's home in Dayton, Ohio on 21 February 1899.  I also mentioned that several versions of obituaries made their rounds throughout the world.

There were two major versions of notices of the death of Jacob Bupp that were printed in newspapers around the world (including newspapers in Australia, France, and Spain).  These two notices often went through minor changes depending on the newspaper that printed it, but the bulk of the notice stayed the same.  What makes them different is that Jacob's place of death is vastly different in the two.

Homewood Version

One of the versions of his newsworthy obituary erroneously lists his place of death as Homewood, Pennsylvania.  This obituary was the first such one, which came from Pittsburgh (and was, coincidentally, the first obituary that I ever found on Jacob Bupp, so you can imagine my confusion when I found out that even in the 1890s, reliable news-reporting wasn't always the case *wink*):

Jacob Bupp's Obituary as it appeared on page 4 of the 24 February 1899 edition of the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette 
(Now Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).  Found on Google News Archives 

It is unclear how this version of the obituary made its rounds.  Jacob Bupp did spend some time living with his daughter Emma in Homewood, but he had moved back to Allegheny City and then on to Dayton, where he resided in the Soldier's Home until his death.  Perhaps some of the family from Homewood had visited Jacob just before his death and reported back to the family and the message was mixed up in the reporting to newspapers?

To cover bases in research, a search was done of Beaver County Registration of deaths from 1893-1907 for Jacob Bupp, but it was a negative search.

A shortened version of this obituary appeared elsewhere in later months:

"General Entertainment," syndicated news column, The Bradford Star (Towanda, Pennsylvania), 11 May 1899, page 4

This version ran in several newspapers worldwide.

Dayton Version

Untitled article that ran in syndication.  This version was found in Catoctin Clarion (Mechanicsburg, Maryland), 9 March 1899, page 2, located on Chronicling America

The Dayton version of Jacob's obituary/death notice also went worldwide, and was more correct in its reporting, as Jacob did die at the Soldier's Home.  Several newspapers printed their own version of this article, so there are minor variations depending on the newspaper... usually in which cases they chose to highlight as Jacob making ropes for.

Over thirty obituaries and death notice write-ups have been located for Jacob Bupp, the Hangman's ropemaker, and had it not been for them, this blog series may not have had been conceived, as many of those who hangings Jacob made rope for were listed in a number of the accounts, which lead to the research that became this blog series.

Up next is the final blog post for the series, the post on what happened to Jacob's widow, Caroline.

Sources Used and Referenced:
"Annual Memorial Service: Lieut. James M. Lysle Post No. 128 Remembered Its Dead," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 11 December 1899, 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 March 2019).

"Around the County," syndicated news column, The Central News (Perkasie, Pennsylvania), 2 March 1899, page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 21 September 2017).

Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Volume 2: B8-B12, negative search for death record of Jacob Bupp; FHL microfilm 7619706 item 2.

"British and Foreign Mems," Albury Banner and Wodonga Express (Albury, New South Wales, Australia), 4 August 1899, page 33; online images, Trove (trove.nla.gov.au : accessed 18 November 2019), Newspapers; citing National Library of Australia.

"Bupp's Ropes Famous," The Iola Daily Record (Iola, Kansas), 10 June 1899, page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 5 September 2019).

"Bupp's Ropes Famous," The Saint Paul Globe (Saint Paul, Minnesota), 7 May 1899, page 7; online images, Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ : accessed 21 September 2017). 

"Died," death notices, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 25 February 1899, page 5; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 21 September 2017).

"Died," death notices, The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 26 February 1899, Page 13; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 August 2016).

"Échos Et Nouvelles," Le Petit Parisien (Paris, France), 8 June 1899, page 2; online images, Gallica (http://gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/ : accessed 21 September 2017).

"Famous Rope Maker Dead," Altoona Mirror (Altoona, Pennsylvania), 24 February 1899, page 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 21 September 2017).

"He Made Hangman's Ropes," The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California), 13 March 1899, page 6; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 25 June 2019).

"General Entertainment," The Bradford Star (Towanda, Pennsylvania), 11 May 1899, page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 21 September 2017).

"Jacob Bupp," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 24 February 1899, page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 August 2016).

"Jacob Bupp," Le Stéphanois (Saint-Étienne, France), 10 June 1899, page 1; online images, Lectura Plus (http://www.lectura.plus/Presse/ : accessed 21 September 2017).

"Jacob Bupp's Death: Friends of the Deceased Will Have AN Investigation Made," The Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 24 February 1899, page 8; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 August 2016).

"Made Hangmen's Ropes," The Mail (Hagerstown, Maryland), 3 March 1899, page 14; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 18 September 2017).

"Made the Rope That Hanged Guiteau," The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), 25 February 1899, page 6; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 16 September 2017).

"Random Comment," Cleveland Leader (Cleveland, Ohio), 4 April 1899, page 4; online images, Genealogy Bank (www.genealogybank.com : accessed 21 September 2017), Newspaper Archive.

"Stadt und Umgegend (City and Surroundings)," Der Freiheits-Freund (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 24 February 1899, page 1; online images, Google Newspapers (https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2hszv8GT5-sC&dat=18770713&b_mode=2&hl=en : accessed 20 January 2018), Google Newspaper Archives.

Sykes, Edward C. "I Remember," Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 20 July 1936, 27; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 11 November 2019).

"Un Cordier Yankee," La Presse (Paris, France), 10 June 1899, p 2; online images, Gallica (http://gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/ : accessed 21 September 2017). 

"Untitled," The Black Hills Union (Rapid City, South Dakota), 27 July 1900, page 7; online images, Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ : accessed 21 September 2017). 

"Untitled," Beaumont Enterprise (Beaumont, Texas), 11 March 1899, 4; online images, GenealogyBank (www.genealogybank.com : accessed 18 November 2019).

"Untitled," Catoctin Clarion (Mechanicsburg, Maryland), 9 March 1899, page 2; online images, Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ : accessed 21 September 2017). 

"Untitled," The Columbus Journal (Columbus, Nebraska), 10 May 1899, page 4; online images, Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ : accessed 21 September 2017)

"Untitled," The Leavenworth Weekly Times (Leavenworth, Kansas), 9 March 1899, page 5; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 17 September 2017).

"Untitled," The McCook Tribune (McCook, Nebraska), 5 May 1899, page 7; online images, Chronicling America (http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ : accessed 21 September 2017), 

"Untitled," Le Mémorial Artésien (Saint-Omer, France), 15 June 1899, page 2; online images, Bibliothèque Numérique (http://bibliotheque-numerique.bibliotheque-agglo-stomer.fr/ : accessed 21 September 2017), Presse.

"Untitled," Tyrone Daily Herald (Tyrone, Pennsylvania), 2 March 1899, page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 18 September 2017).

"Untitled," Xenia Daily Gazette (Xenia, Ohio), 27 February 1899, page 3; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 18 September 2017).