Christian Rupp, with brother Johannes, sister Maria, and future brother-in-law Shellenberger, arrived in Philadelphia on the 3rd of November, 1750 (Julian calendar) on the good ship Brotherhood. Christian, just 18 years old, and Johannes, swore allegiance to the English King as Christian and Johannes Rub. From Philadelphia the four of them moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where the two brothers purchased a farm of 298 acres, which they split between the two of them after setting aside land for a school (which is still used today).
Christian married Anna Shellenberger, who arrived the next year with her father and other members of their family. Of the ten children that survived to adulthood, five moved to what is now Carroll County, Maryland, in the late 1700s. First Joseph and Christian, in 1782. Family legend has it that Joseph moved to Maryland during the war to avoid conscription, met his future wife in Maryland, and moved back as soon as the conflict was over. He and Christian jointly purchased the farm on which his beloved Mary lived from her parents, Peter and Sophonia Noffsinger (who promptly moved to Virginia). Christian purchased a farm closer to Westminster (now the county seat of Carroll County) and found a spouse just across the Pennsylvania border, Esther Eiker. The next Lancaster Rupp to move to Maryland was David, the only one married before he moved. Later brother John and sister Anna moved to the Westminster area, both of whom married Royers: John, Catherine, and Anna, Peter. Peter and Catherine were first cousins, once removed: Peter’s grandfather and Catherine’s father were brothers. John, Catherine, Peter and Anna are the Roop-Royers of Carroll County, which will be the title of my fourth genealogy. The third will cover Joseph and David Roop. For some reason (family legend has it a school teacher anglicized the name) they changed the spelling of the Rupp name to Roop when they moved to Maryland. The very first land purchase records are to Joseph and Christian Rupp, but all subsequent transactions are to Roop family members.
These five siblings and their spouses were all members of the Church of the Brethren with affiliation to three different churches: Joseph and Christian to the Pipe Creek Brethren Church; David to the Beaver Dam Brethren Church and Peter and Anna to the Meadow Branch Brethren Church in Westminster. My ancestor was Christian whose son Abraham sired Ezra who moved to Missouri and sired my grandfather, Alonzo Baile, who sired my father Joseph Ezra Roop.
On this trip I would like to resolve a number of issues: first, a cousin, Etta Nicola Geiman, older sister to Pious Guy Geiman, moved to South Dakota when Pious’ wife died in childbirth to help raise the son who survived his mother’s death. She too homesteaded and received a grant of land, then married Leslie Loren Leek when Pious returned with his son to McPherson, Kansas. My data base indicated that Etta and Loren had a child, but I have lost all contract with her descendants. I plan to stop in Mellete County, SD, to see what I might find out about Etta’s descendants, then drop off books in McPherson, KS, as a thank you for the help they provided in the Christian book.
Second, Joseph Roop, son of Joseph one of the first to move to Maryland, died in Keokuk, Iowa. One of his sons came out to Iowa to escort his father’s body back to Ohio where he was buried. I plan to stop in Keokuk and see what I can find out about that event. Maybe even before I go to Keokuk, I plan to return to Warrensburg, Missouri, where I went to school to talk with the folks at the Alumni Foundation and to deliver books to both the library and historical society. After Keokuk, then, I plan to drive to the repository at Elgin, Illinois, where the Brethren Church houses archives; I hope to find various obits there of early Brethren cousins.
Third I need to stop in two spots in Ohio, Ashland County in the North and Montgomery County in the South. Ashland was the home of Joseph before he moved to Keokuk; multiple Maryland descendants of Christian and the Roop-Royers moved at one time into the Dayton area and the adjoining county, Preble. While there I plan to stop by another Brethren repository to deliver books and to see if they might provide obits no obtained in Elgin.
My final genealogy-related site is the origin of these five Roops: Westminster, Carroll, Maryland to visit the Historical Society and say hello to various friends.