To understand the drive of our grandfather, General William “Bill” Rupertus, we need to set the stage of our grandfather’s paternal side. Our father’s side of the family.
Way back in 1980, for our father’s 40th birthday, our mother hired Ginny Hunt, a genealogist, to do a Rupertus family history for our dad Patrick Hill Rupertus. Wow, did she work hard. She delivered the detailed report in a red folder along with a family tree we still have.
Years before ancestry.com, she was able to trace our family back 200 years to Johannes Rupertus in Kirchheim, Germany.
Germany.
The Rupertus’s came from a family of entrepreneurs and community leaders with a strong German work ethic who emigrated to America. Gen. Rupertus’s grandfather, Gottlieb Rupertus, and great uncle Henry Rubertus, who emigrated from Germany, also served in the Civil War.
Johannes Rupertus, his great-grandfather, was a master shoemaker who lived and worked in the riverside town of Kirchheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He married Magdalena Siefert, and they had two sons, Gottlieb and Henry.
Gottlieb (our great, great grandfather) was named for his Godfather, Gottlieb Lange, the Oberbürgermeister of Kirchheim at the time and dear friend of Johannes. When Gottlieb’s wife Magdalena died in her 30s, Johannes remarried, and his sons set their sights on creating a new life in America.
America.
When Gottlieb turned 21, he left Kirchheim by ship and landed in Baltimore City, Maryland in July 1851. Gottlieb eventually moved to Washington, DC, to join the large German American community to look for work and a German wife.
His brother Henry followed Gottlieb to America when he turned 21 but settled further west in Harrison County, Indiana. Interestingly, at customs, the agent wrote his name as Henry Rubertus vs. Henry Rupertus, which for some reason, he did not challenge. As a result the Rupertus family is also part of the Rubertus family.
Washington, DC.
Gottlieb applied for U.S. citizenship under his preferred middle name of Herman on July 15, 1854 (Though, everyone still called him Gottlieb).
While waiting for his naturalization date, he met his beautiful bride, who had emigrated from Hesseldorf in Hessen, Germany. They were a handsome match. He was 5’6 with a light complexion, crystal bright blue eyes, and a mess of silky dark brown hair. Marie Kramer, his future wife, was six years younger, slim, 5 feet tall, with blonde hair, a heart-shaped face, shiny blue eyes, and a cute dimpled chin. In 1855, this young German couple was happily married and quickly started a family.
Their first son, Henry Rupertus, was born in December 1856. Gottlieb gained his U.S. citizenship a year later in November, 1857. Their second son, William Henry Rupertus, was born in July 1858. During this time, Gottlieb’s father, Johannes Rupertus, died, so Gottlieb traveled alone to Germany to close out the family responsibilities and say a final goodbye to his previous homeland. He was now an American citizen.
The Civil War.
When Gottlieb returned, the drumbeat of a US Civil War was beginning to get louder. He arrived in time to welcome their third son, General Rupertus’ father, Charles Rupertus, who was born on December 3, 1860.
Four months later, Gottlieb enlisted as a sergeant in Washington’s 8th Battalion of the District of Columbia Volunteers and served for three months before being honorably discharged for fulfilling his duty.
Meanwhile, his brother Henry Rubertus joined the famed 23rd Indiana Infantry Regiment and served for three years.
Henry Rubertus
Gottlieb and Maria lived at 1326 6th Street in Washington, DC. After Gottlieb returned from war, he used the inheritance he saved from his father Johannes to buy, own and manage a luxury goods store in Washington for many years. This store carried premium embroidery materials, Berlin Zephyr Worsted wool, Genilles Headdresses, fans, sofa cushions, slippers, purses, floss and tapestry silk, crochet cotton, canvas, beads, and sultry items from Paris, including patterns for braiding and embroidering.
President Lincoln is assassinated in Washington, DC.
In 1860 the Washington National Monument was opened. And in 1865, days after the end of the Civil War, President Lincoln was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC, shocking the country and Washingtonians. A huge funeral procession took place that the Rupertus family may have watched from the sidelines.
Raising three boys and running a retail store was a blessed handful. Yet, their family grew. Gottlieb and Marie’s fourth son, John Frederick Rupertus, was born in May 1870.
I imagine Marie loved her precious boys, but secretly hoped for a girl. Her prayers were answered four years later. Gottlieb and Maria’s baby girl arrived healthy, happy, and cooing into the family. Mary “Mamie” Rupertus was born in November 1874.
Maria had seven children with Gottlieb, but only five survived—the four boys and Mamie.
The patriarch, Gottlieb Rupertus, dies at 51.
Sadly, Gottlieb died of a heart attack on January 1, 1886, at the young age of fifty-one.
Maria loved Gottlieb dearly and chose never again to remarry. Luckily, she was surrounded by family and the tight German-American community.
At his death, they lived at 1418 P Street, N.W. Washington, DC.
There sons Charles, Henry, and William had already moved out. The two youngest children were still living at home and thankfully kept Marie busy during the years after Gottlieb’s death. John Frederick was 16. Mamie was the youngest at age 12.
Prospect Hill Cemetery.
Gottlieb Rupertus, the family’s patriarch and father of five, is buried in the old Rupertus family gravesite at the German-American Prospect Hill Cemetery in Washington, DC. https://www.prospecthillcemetery.org/
Gottlieb and Marie Rupertus with family.
General Rupertus’s parents and siblings.
Charles Rupertus, (General Rupertus’s father and our great grandfather), was 26 and married when Gottlieb died. Charles had met and married Augustina Miele of Baden Baden, Germany after she emigrated to the United States with her family in 1883 and became a U.S citizen.
Augustina was a strong-minded outgoing woman with rosy cheeks, light hair, and a humorous sparkle in her bright blue eyes. She had a heart full of kindness, just like Charles’s mother. They married in 1884 and settled in Washington, DC.
Charles and Augustina had three children within four years. Mary Louisa was born December 10, 1885, Frederick George was born November 1887, and William Henry “Bill” Rupertus, our grandfather, arrived November 14, 1889.
Charles and Augustina enjoyed a good life in the close-knit German American community of family and friends in Washington, DC.
Though our grandfather would choose a military career over real estate and retail, he came from a long line of entrepreneurs, starting with his great grandfather Johannes Rupertus the “Master Shoemaker.” That self-starting, entrepreneurial spirit surely impacted future Marine Rupertus. Add the military service of his grandfather and great uncle.
No sitting around.
Retail and Real Estate.
In Washington DC, his grandfather Gottlieb owned a luxury goods store. His father, Charles, owned a restaurant from 1892 until 1907 when he sold it and bought a cigar store, which he managed until 1919. With any profit, Charles and Augustina invested in D.C. real estate and lived in various locations in the Northwest corridor of Washington throughout their lives.
Rupertus’ uncle, John Rupertus, owned and operated a bar on 14th and P. According to what his son John Rupertus (a former Baltimore City policeman) said, rumor has it, the bar was also a brothel. Interestingly, years later, John would meet Rupertus in the Pacific in WWII.
Many of their friends, neighbors and citizens of D.C. were part of a wave of Germans who immigrated to the United States from Germany in the early 19th century.
They were soldiers in the Civil War, craftsmen, tradespeople, shopkeepers, social champions for the underserved, churchgoers, and beer brewers who contributed their varied skills and talents to the buildings and history of Washington DC.
A talented German American, August Gottlieb Schönborn, devised the dome of the United States Capitol. Christian Heurich owned Heurich Brewing Company, the largest brewery in Washington, DC. Heurich employed many German Americans and actively supported the German orphanage and charitable causes.
You can read about Heurich here: https://heurichhouse.org/
And, the German influence in Washington, DC here: https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/kul/sup/deu/was.html
As his granddaughter, I imagine our grandfather as a young boy and teen running around Washington, enjoying this tight community, and having a supportive family with an entrepreneurial spirit that inspired a degree of determination, courage, character, and duty.
Concordia German Evangelical Church.
Rupertus had a solid faith foundation that would sustain him for life battles.
Rupertus’s parents, family, and friends attended the Concordia German Evangelical Church in Northwest Washington (Circa 1833). Here, Gottlieb was baptized as an adult and married Marie, his parents Charles and Augustina, were married, and Rupertus was baptized and participated in communion classes with his brothers and friends. Augustina was also a leader at the German Orphanage, just as his grandmother had been.
Rupertus on far left next to his brother.
The German American parishioners at the Church remained committed to the Church, as the Church has been committed to them over the years, despite various challenges to the German community, including church politics, mergers, and two world wars brought on by Germany.
If Rupertus were to stroll by this Washington, DC church like my sister and I did in 2023, he would see that the outside still looked like it did in 1932. Going inside, he would recognize the Church’s stained-glass windows and the words “Zum Andenken,” meaning “in memory,” in honor of the members and clergy who served the Church.
On the 1st and 3rd Sundays of every month, they still offer services in German. German customs and traditions are supported. Rupertus could join the Christmas Eve service in Germany and attend many other German celebrations throughout the year -just as he did when he was younger.
He witnessed the “Glory Days” of US power and innovation.
The United States was in a progressive era of innovation and power, often referred to as the “glory days.” The United States was on its way to being a super achiever in politics, social and environmental change, and invention. Between 1900 and 1920, some of the most critical designs in U.S. history took place, with many “firsts.”
Opening the Panama Canal.
In 1901, when Rupertus was twelve, Theodore Roosevelt became president of the United States. Roosevelt was an active and activist president who served two terms, ending in 1909.
Roosevelt, a Republican, was a driving force in consumer safety, protecting the environment by designing parklands across the country forever wild and advocating for economic prosperity and military power. He was a staunch promoter of the opening of the Panama Canal, as it would shorten the transportation route for commerce and the U.S. Navy and solidify the role of the U.S. on the world stage.
The Model T.
By 1903, when Rupertus was fourteen, he witnessed a new invention arriving on the streets of Washington, DC, that would change the world. Henry Ford, another visionary entrepreneur, formed the Ford Motor Company and developed a transport vehicle unlike anyone had seen before – an automobile.
Ford sold their first car, a Model T, for $950.00. This invention by Ford made a huge social impact. People could travel faster and further than on horse, buggy, or streetcar.
Washingtonians could now take a Sunday to drive out to the county and farms in Virginia and Maryland, picnic by the roaring waters at Great Falls Park, paddle a boat on the Potomac River in Georgetown, and get home much faster. Though living in the city, they may not have needed the car since there were so many options for transportation. Washington, DC, was a transportation mecca in the early 20th century.
Rupertus’s military service begins in high school.
Rupertus pursued a military path in high school. He attended Emerson School and McKinley Technical High School as a cadet. McKinley is still at 7th Street N.W. and Rhode Island Avenue N.W. in Washington, DC. Its motto today was made clear to Rupertus as a student: “No excuses, just solutions.”
Rupertus and his siblings were in the center of a tidal wave of “no excuses.” He honed his science, engineering, history, and language skills as a cadet for four years while watching the world change.
Your roots matter.
Now you have some background on our Rupertus family and what may have influenced General Rupertus as a young boy.
I am so thankful the genealogist Ginny Hunt did our genealogy back in 1980 that gave us clues to our family roots, especially since our parents died young, and we never had the chance to ask them as adults what more they knew about family history.
Whenever I visit Washington, I first go to Arlington Cemetery to visit our parents and grandparents, and graves of extended family and friends. It’s so peaceful there.
My sisters and I also love to go on a treasure hunt to find many of the old Rupertus houses, stores, and gravesites at Prospect Hill Cemetery.
Rupertus’s father, Charles and his mother Augustina, and many German Americans who attended the Concordia Church through 1950 now lie at rest with Gottlieb in the ancient-looking tree-lined Prospect Hill Cemetery, which the Church owned. It’s a cool old cemetery that is a special part of Washington DC history.
