John Rupp II

[Eric Kettenburg]

I've been digging fairly seriously into Johannes / John Rupp "the elder" i.e the guy that's Herman's brother, but while doing some digging, I found some interesting information relative to John Rupp II who made all those fancy-a$$ rifles that look an awful lot like Kuntz rifles.

For some reason, most sources I've seen online and at KRA shows, Dixon's displays etc list his birth date at 1786.  Not so.  He was born and baptized in 1791, christened Johannes:



Son of George Rupp jr (another brother of Herman) and one sponsor was Johannes Rupp (certainly the elder), the guy I'm currently researching.

This is from records of the Jordan united congregation in Allentown.

ALSO:  John Rupp II is frequently noted as "Weisenberg township" but I have him in Macungie wth Herman at least up through the 1830 census, so it would appear that he spent the majority of his working life in Macungie.


Details, details, for those of us who are clearly nerds.

[WESTbury]

So, once again Eric, you are trying to confuse everyone by actually introducing factual documented information into the conversation. Excellent work, thanks! 

I would encourage anyone that has not already read Eric's papers available on his website, to do so. They are very definitely worth the investment of time.

[Lucky R A]

 Eric,    When I was stationed at Fogelsville, our barracks was on Rt 100 just south of US 22 (now I-78) .  South 3 miles was the village of Trexlertown at the intersections with PA 222.  Just south of the intersection was the 1760 house.  A stone structure adjacent was always said to be the location of Herman Rupp's gunshop.  The village of Macungie where you indicate Rupp worked is 5 miles further south on Rt 100.   This area was in upper Macungie Twp.   Weisenberg Twp. is much further north in the direction of New Tripoli.
        A few more nerdy details to consider--thanks for your research  Ron

[Eric Kettenburg]

I don't mean the current town of Macungie, I'm just indicating that the census puts him in Macungie township up through the 1830 census, where is also where Herman was always noted.  At the time, that covered a larger area because Macungie didn't split into upper/lower townships until 1832, which was right after Herman died.

Didn't know you were down there - it's always been an interesting area!

[Shreckmeister]

When you get to the part where the Rupps Move west to Armstrong County, I’ll be curious what you learn

[Eric Kettenburg]

Now I have to make a bit of a correction.  Going to have to dig further, because I've also found a baptismal entry from the records of the Trexlertown Union congegation.  Rupps were apparently involved with both the Trexlertown congregation (to the south) and the Jordan reformed congregation (to the east).

May 24, 1789, Trexlertown Union, Johannes Rupp (elder) sponsor to nephew Johannes, son of Andreas Rupp and wife Maria.

SO:  just to summarize briefly, Johan George Rupp Sr. had 4 documentable sons - Herman, George Jr., Andreas (Andrew) and John (Johannes).

George jr. names a son Johannes (John) in 1791, but now I see Andrew *also* named a son Johannes (John) in 1789.

So which one is the gunsmith John Rupp II?  Did both survive to adulthood?

There is only one John Rupp of the right age in Macungie ca. 1810-1830.  Which one was he?  Going to have to dig around in adjoining townships, primarily Weisenberg and South Whitehall.

I though the Angstadts were tricky with the constant recycling of male given names.  I am finding the same thing with the Rupps on both the male and female sides.  And it doesn't help that Rupp and variations of this name were a LOT more common in SEPA than Angstadt!