Ellen Jane “Jennie” Rupp
Ellen Jane “Jennie” Rupp
Wisconsin State Journal, Thursday, July 26, 1900
“JENNIE” RUPP’S SAD FATE
Boat in Which She Was Returning from Lakeside Run Down by Steamer.
THREE COMPANIONS SAVED
Two in the Boat Say They Saw No Bow Light on Steamer – Were Crossing Its Path as It Landed at the Pier – Drowned Near Shore in Seven Feet of Water.
The first tragedy at Lakeside occurred Wednesday night, in the drowning of Miss Ellen Jane “Jennie” Rupp, daughter of Margaret Theresa Murphy Rupp and Anthony Albert Rupp, steward at the Park hotel, and the narrow escape of three others, Miss es Fannie and Nellie Dunn and Mr. Alexius Baas. The accident occurred about six or eight rods from the end of the pier at Lakeside . The four young people were in a row boat, just starting for the city, and were crossing the line of the pier when they were struck by an incoming steamer and the boat overturned. All except Miss Rupp succeeded in grasping the side of the row boat as they rose to the surface, and were rescued.
There were only two people on the steamer, Wm. Smith, the engineer, and young Hyland, who handles the tiller. They say they saw nothing of the rowboat in front of them.
The accident occurred just after the close of the concert at the assembly. The three girls went to the pier to return to the city just as young Baas, who is in charge of his father’s boat livery at Lakeside, was ready to come across in a rowboat, and they accepted his invitation to ride with him. One steamer had gone a few moments before they started, and they did not notice the one which was coming in until it was almost upon them, when opposite the end of the pier. One of the girls was heard to cry out, ‘There’s the steamer.’ Baas, who was at the oars, made a vigorous pull with one oar in an effort to pull the boat around out of the path of the big boat, but it was too late. The steamer struck the rowboat about a third of its length from the bow, capsizing it, throwing all its occupants into the water, which is about seven feet deep at this point. The two Dunn sisters and Baas, the latter assisting one of the girls, clung to the boat when they came up, and were taken off by Wm. Wirka and Robert Rathbun, who were near by in rowboats. Miss Rupp was not seen to rise to the surface by the other occupants of the boat, which would seem to indicate that she had been struck in the collision and stunned, but there are no marks on her body to bear out this theory.
The piers and shore were crowded with people waiting to take the steamers for home, but this only made it the more difficult for rescuers to get to the boats and go to the relief of those in the water.
Word was telephoned to the police, who have grappling hooks on hand, and Officer s O’Neill and Page went over with them and began a search for the body.
After dragging about twenty minutes O’Neill’s hook caught in her clothing, and she was raised to the surface, taken ashore, and placed in the patrol wagons, in which the officers went to the grounds. She was taken in the wagon to the home of her parents, 403 Clymer street.
Miss Rupp was 19 years of age. She was a bright, attractive girl, and was admired and esteemed by a large circle of friends, who sympathize deeply with the afflicted family in her sudden death. She had been a waiter at one of the assembly dining rooms for a few years.
Mr. Chas. Askew, one of the proprietors of the steamboat line, said today: ‘I was on the pier, to direct the loading of passengers, and saw as much of the accident as could be seen from there. It occurred about two steamer lengths from the end of the pier. No one in the rowboat appeared to know they were in danger until just before the steamer struck them, when I heard one of the girls cry, ‘There’s the steamer.’ Baas tried then to get his boat out of the way, but it was too late.
‘There were but two persons, our employers, on the steamer. They did not see the rowboat. It is impossible, in the night, for a person on a steamer to see a rowboat on the water so as to judge its distance.
In the 1870s an outdoor summertime gathering to train Sunday School teachers was started at Chautauqua, a lakeside town in southwestern New York. The movement, after evolving to mix recreation with educational activities, spread across the nation in the ensuing decade. Few Chautauquas were larger or more successful than the one held at Madison at what is today Olin Park.
On April 10, 1881, Madisonians gathered at the Congregational Church to attempt to make Madison the permanent home of the Chautauqua in Wisconsin, not only to improve Sunday School teaching, but to bring thousands of tourists to the city. The first Sunday School Assembly (later called the Monona Lake Assembly) began on August 8, 1881 and lasted for ten days. People came from across Wisconsin and the upper Midwest to “consult as to the best means of instilling Christian truths into the minds of young people.”
PREMONITION OF HER FATE
Mrs. Rupp, mother of the girl who was drowned, had a strange premonition of her fate. She and her husband had retired before the accident occurred. About 10:30, and about the time of the drowning, she woke her husband an d said, ‘I feel as if Jennie were in the water. Something tells me so.’ Shortly afterward a message came telling of her fate, and the stricken father went over to Lakeside, coming back with the body o f his daughter.
The funeral will be held Sunday afternoon at 2 o’clock from St. Raphael’s church.
WAS THERE A FRONT LIGHT?
A Journal reporter saw the two Dunn girls who together with Alexius Baas and Jennie Rupp were in the row boat which the steamer Tonywatha struck last night and they stated the facts of the case as follows: ”Lex” was sitting in the bow rowing; we were heading away from the assembly shore. Fannie and Jennie were sitting in the middle seat and Nellie in the stern. All but Nellie had their backs turned towards the steamer when we were struck; we were singing, we were also keeping a close water for the head lights of steamers passing to and from the grounds. We never saw the boat until it was upon us and when it was seen there was no white light a t the bow. “Lex” had a moment before turned and looked over his shoulder for such a light, but saw none and Nellie, in the stern, did not see it either. When I saw the steamer I did not recognize it by the head light but by the hull itself. The side lights may have been lighted, but I am positive there was no white light in front.’ was exactly what Miss Nellie Dunn stated to the reporter.
Misses Lucy and Amelia Baas, aunts to the boy who was in the boat with the girls, also declares that when they were going home on the Winnequah last night about 10:30 o’clock they met a steamer in t he middle of the lake with no head-light but thought that the wind must have blown it out. Whether it was the Tonywath or not, they cannot state, but as to the light being out they are positive.
Regarding young Baas’ responsibility for the accident the girls said, ”Lex was not in the least to blame. He did his best and but for his presence of mind all three of us would have been lost. The boat was not capsized but it was partially submerged and we were all thrown out. Jennie was seated on the side which the steamer struck and she must have fainted for she never came up. As soon as we were thrown into the water “Lex called out to hang on to the boat and we would be all right. At the same time he seized the boat by one end and turned it bottom side up, knowing that it would support more weight in that way than half full of water. He helped Fannie upon the boat first and while he was doing that he felt Nellie under water with his feet. He reached down and caught her by the hair, keeping her head above water and Fannie upon the boat until help arrived. Nellie was unconscious. “
Alexius says that he never saw Jennie and if he had he scarcely could have done more than he was doing. ‘Lex is only 15 years old but he has been brought up on the lakes.”
Chautauqua
In the 1870s an outdoor summertime gathering to train Sunday School teachers was started at Chautauqua, a lakeside town in southwestern New York. The movement, after evolving to mix recreation with educational activities, spread across the nation in the ensuing decade. Few Chautauquas were larger or more successful than the one held at Madison at what is today Olin Park.
On April 10, 1881, Madisonians gathered at the Congregational Church to attempt to make Madison the permanent home of the Chautauqua in Wisconsin, not only to improve Sunday School teaching, but to bring thousands of tourists to the city. The first Sunday School Assembly (later called the Monona Lake Assembly) began on August 8, 1881 and lasted for ten days. People came from across Wisconsin and the upper Midwest to “consult as to the best means of instilling Christian truths into the minds of young people.”
In just two weeks prior to opening day the organizers transformed Lakeside from a lonely woods into a tent city. Hundreds of tents were set up for campers, usually families, with a large auditorium tent in the center of the grounds. Inside was a platform that held 300 singers. The tent was used for worship and instruction.
The Assembly was across the lake from Madison. To get there from town attendees traveled by train, carriage, or steamboat. Authorities inspected the Lake Monona steamboats to ensure they were safe enough to handle the expected crowds. Each day the Scutanabequon traveled non-stop between Angleworm Station (at the foot of South Hamilton Street) and the grounds. The Bay State also carried passengers when not on its normal Tonyawatha run. For a number of years steamboat traffic had been dwindling, and the Assembly gave it new life. The railroads put up several special covered stops nearby.
Seventeen special police patrolled the grounds. Charley Slightham fed the multitude in the old Pavilion building, and served ice cream and lemonade at all hours. On Sundays, only campers and season ticket holders were admitted to the grounds. At other times anyone could attend; a single admission cost 15 cents and a season ticket $1.
Governor William E. Smith spoke on opening day, Tuesday. That evening there was a concert with massed choirs and musicians. The Wednesday schedule was typical – Reveille at 6 a.m.; prayer at 6:40; breakfast at 7; choir drill at 8:30; a Bible lesson at 9:30; a morality lecture at 10:30; dinner at noon; another lecture at 2 p.m.; a normal class about the purpose of Sunday School at 3:30; a lecture for teachers at 4:30 – “What Not to Teach” was the first day’s topic; supper at 6; a lecture at 7; a final lecture at 8; and Taps at 10.
On hot days many participants rode Captain Barnes’ lake boats to take advantage of cool lake breezes. Some arranged excursions to Kilbourn (the Wisconsin Dells) aboard the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul line. On children’s day all the city Sunday Schools were given free tickets.
On the last evening fireworks exploded in the sky over Lake Monona; many Madisonians watched from steamers and sailboats on the water.
James E. Moseley became the “father of the Assembly,” its driving force and one of the best known Chautauqua managers in the country. Founder of a bookstore on Pinckney Street across from the Capitol that opened for business in 1858, he rose to become president of the International Chautauqua Alliance in 1902. Under his leadership, in 1882 the Assembly bought the 20-acre parcel of land and in succeeding years improved it with an ice cream parlor and a superb auditorium in the shape of an umbrella with the handle cut off. Built by J. H. Findorff, there were no posts to impede the vision of 5,000 spectators, and it was the largest room for gatherings in Wisconsin.
Year after year Moseley put on a two-week long program that furnished entertainment, instruction, and inspiration to hundreds of families who camped in the enclosure. Among the speakers were President William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan. The Monona Lake Assembly continued attracting large crowds, some as large as 15,000 people, until 1904, when attendance began to decline.
There were occasional tragedies. The first year one of the girls in Slightham’s dining hall was scalded by boiling water. On July 26, 1900, Jennie Rupp, Fannie Dunn, and Nellie Dunn were being rowed back to Madison by Alexius Baas at 11 p.m. when their rowboat was struck by one of the lake steamers, the Tonyawatha, and the four were thrown into the water. Jennie Rupp drowned.
“Lex,” the oarsman, saved both of the Dunn sisters. He claimed he did not see any lights on the Tonyawatha; crew members insisted the lights had been on.
In 1908, after several years of declining receipts, majority stockholders decided to sell the parcel. The minority stockholders, among them John Olin, who fought to keep the land from being turned into a lakeside subdivision, took their former partners all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to block the sale. In the midst of the legal battle, on July 14, 1911, the city bought the Monona Lake Assembly grounds, making it the first park bought entirely with city money. Known as Monona Park until 1923, it was renamed to Olin Park to honor John M Olin, the father of Madison’s parks, that year.
The Service for Ellen Jane "Jennie"
A pall of sorrow was cast over Monona this morning, and its presence has been perceptble in the faces of little children, young women and hardy men all day. The occasion was the memorial service for Miss Jennie (Ellen Jane) Rupp, the young women drowned within a stone’s throw of the assembly shore last Wednesday evening. Friends and straingers alike gathered in the big audotorium to mingle their tears and share their grief with the parents and relatives of the departed girl. The meeting was conducted by Hon, W S. Main, preseident of the assembly association.
Upon the platform with him were the directors and all of the minister camping on the grounds. In front of the auditorium sat the father, ANton Rupp, two sisters, Mary and Rosella, and a brother, John. The mother is so grief stricken that she was unable to be present. The dining-room girls were also present in a body. Mr. Main stated the [urose of the meeting and then introduced Rev. E. E. Edmunds of Beaver Dam, who prayed. THe following resolutions we read by the [reseident and, at the close pf the meeting unanimously adopted by a standing vote of all present. It was also voted that every member of the assembly be provileged to sign them, and for that purpose they were left with Mr. Mosely in his office.
Resolved: That the management of Monona Lake Assembly, and all the people in attendance upon this encampment, hereby place upon record the expression of their proufound sorrow at the death by drowning. Wednesday evening of this week, at 11 o’clock, of Miss Jennie Rupp, one of our most complete helpers. Miss Rupp possed that delicay of manner, and intelligence in her work, that won the love, and admiration of all who knew her beautiful life, and we tender to the relatives our deepest sympathy over their desolation and tears.
Resolved: That the secretary of this Assembly transmit a copy of this action to the bereaved household: “
Dr. Worden, on behalf of the Assembly, addresses the words of consolation to the bereaved family. His utterances were bried but wonderfully tender and pointed. Among other things he said that the young life so suddenly and unexpectedly quenched in the appatently harmless waters of Monona was loved for its simplicity, its beauty, its usefulness and its intrinsic goodness. She had never appeared before Monona as a vocalist, a reader, or in any such public capacity, but she had gone in and out among the campers for three years unmindful of self, but most courteous to others and most thoughful of their wants and of their happyness. She knew the real aim of life and she lived up to the fulness of her knowledge. None could be taken away whose bright face and sunny ways would be more greatly missed than hers. She had gone, but in going she had left the lesson for every young life to be ready for “ye know not what hour the Son of Man cometh”
Rev J