John RUPE

RUPE, PEDEN, LYTLE, LYTTLE, GARNER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 11/6/2011 at 13:14:10

25 February 1817 -- 21 January 1917

Near Century Mark
Sioux County's Oldest Citizen Passes Away
John Rupe, Whose Death Occurred Sunday, Would Have Rounded Out Century Next Month

John Rupe, Sioux county's oldest citizen, passed away at his home in this city Sunday evening following a brief illness. Had he lived until the 25th day of next month, he would have been a hundred years old. Few lives are permitted to run the gamut of a century and few there are who have witnessed the changes and progress of the world that has been the privilege of the man whose life has just brought to a close. His lifetime has witnessed more advancement in science and invention than any similar period since time began. This nation was but in its infancy when he first saw the light of day near Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 25, 1817. James Madison was still president of the United States and Robert Fulton had launched the first steamboat but a scant ten years before his birth. And so we bow our heads in reverence and drop a tear in sadness over the passing of this grand old man whose span of life stretched back almost a century.

John Rupe was the son of Martin and Mary Rupe and was born and grew to young manhood in Tennessee. In 1838 he was united in marriage with Elizabeth Peden and lived in Indiana for a number of years. There were six children born to this union but only one son, Isaac Rupe, survives him. Mrs. Elizabeth Rupe died in Indiana Feb 26, 1878, and two years later he married Sarah Jane Lytle. On March 26, 1897, he married Mrs. Eliza Garner, who still survives. He came to the vicinity of Hawarden about 35 years ago, and with the exception of a few years spend in South Dakota, has lived here ever since. He was not a wealthy man, yet in his more active years had accumulated enough so that he did not want as life's chapter drew to a close. Much of the time, even during the past dozen years, he had active supervision and assisted in the work of operating his eighty acre farm on the edge of this city. His greatest delight was to work around in his garden and he never grew weary of this. Within the past year he sold his farm, with the exception of the home and a five acre tract, which he retained. Just a few months ago Mr. and Mrs. Rupe purchased a home in this city and planned to occupy it in the spring but an intervening fate determined otherwise. Revered by his neighbors and friends, and esteemed by the community at large, he went to meet death with that same stoicism which had ever characterized his life. "He went forth and he feared not."

Funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon at the Methodist church in this city, conducted by the pastor Rev. Jas. J. Davis. Interment was made in Grace Hill cemetery.

Hawarden Independent
Thursday, January 25, 1917