John Ambrose Ruppel Born: 16 March 1826 Principality of Kurhessen Died: 27 May 1908 Vincennes Township, Knox County, Indiana

A message for Anna Marie McClellan

John was the son of Ambrose Ruppel and Elisabetha Weber. He was baptized in the parish of Flieden on 17 March 1826 on the day after his birth. (His death certificate and funeral card give a birth date of 13 March.) He lived in Laugendorf, and may have been born there.

In Fulda, on 2 March 1854, John was granted a six-month passport to travel to America. He was recorded as being 5 feet tall, with brown hair and gray eyes. He and his future wife were passengers on the bark Sophie, which sailed from Bremen with 172 passengers in March 1854. Off the Grand Banks, a large quantity of drift ice and a number of icebergs were seen. The Sophie arrived at New York City on 1 May 1854, after a 42-day voyage.

John married Victoria Neumann on 7 November 1854 at St. Joseph's in Rochester, Monroe County, New York.

According to the June 1855 census of Monroe County, he and his wife were living in Brighton, New York at that time. They were boarders, and John was working as a laborer.

Between 1856 and 1859, John and Victoria had three children, including Elizabeth (May) Ruppel.

After Victoria died in April 1860, he remarried on 9 October 1860 at St. Joseph's in Rochester. His second wife was Miliana (Amelia) Vogt (25 October 1840 - 29 June 1909). She was born in Steinbach, Hesse-Darmstadt. She was granted a passport to travel to America in 1858.

Between 1861 and 1879, John and Amelia had eleven children:

1. John Ambrose (b. 1861/62)
   He married M. Victoria Ravalette (b. 1868)
2. Mary (23 Apr 1865 - 25 Jan 1935)
   She married Charles Steimel (1863-1931)
3. Catherine (Katie) (9 Jul 1867 - 14 May 1905)
   She married Frederick (Fred) Vieck (1859-1936)
4. Ameliana [twin] (19 May 1869 - 14 Apr 1903)
   She married Andrew Clauss (1846-1914)
5. Philomena (Mary) [twin] (19 May 1869 - 21 Nov 1950)
   She married Alexius Bauer (1859-1947)
6. Milly Anna
   She married {unknown} Snyder
7. Joseph (Joe) (30 Nov 1872 - 13 Oct 1956)
   He married Mary Agnes Halter (1875-1928)
8. John C. (9 Sep 1874 - 1 Apr 1941)
   He married Nellie M. Hawkins (1885-1946)
9. Theresa (12 Jan 1875 - 1 Oct 1933)
   She married Lambert Halter III (1877-1958)
10. Henry Dommon (1 Jul 1875 - 1 Mar 1933)
    He married Marie Elizabeth Halter (1881-1945)
11. Regina (27 Nov 1879 - 19 Jun 1959)
    She became a nun (Sr. Mary Pierre)

John and Amelia left New York soon after their wedding; their first child was born in 1861/62 in Ohio. John and his family were living in Providence Township, Lucas County, Ohio in 1870. In 1880, the census taker recorded the following next to the family entry: "Will not send to school for reasons would not tell. Neighbors say Protestant are not fit place to raise Good Citizens."

The family moved to Vincennes Township, Knox County, Indiana after 1880. John bought 80 acres of land from Dennis Kane on 26 November 1888; the price was $550. The property was in section 23 of Vincennes Township, bordered to the north by present-day County Road 950 S and to the east by Swan Pond Ditch. It was just southeast of St. Rose church.

John died at age 82 from a concussion as the result of a fall at his home, and was buried in the Saint Thomas cemetery.

In a will written in Knox County on 22 Aug 1887, John left all his possessions to his wife. The will was probated on 14 July 1908. Amelia died the following year in Johnson Township at age 68.

Contact was maintained for a time between the Ohio descendants of May Lumbrezer, the daughter of John's first marriage, and the family in Indiana. A granddaughter of May's and her husband, Francis Noe, visited the Ruppel descendants in 1932 on their honeymoon. Their daughter remembers visiting the Ruppels with her grandfather and grandmother at Thanksgiving around 1948.