Ruppe Family
A father and son duo, both immigrants and both named Peter Ruppe, created a business empire in the Copper Country through hard work and the mercantile business. Peter Sr. was born in Austria/Slovenia in 1823 and married Margaret Mayerly in 1843. Three sons were born in the old country, Joseph, Peter and George. In 1854, Peter Sr. emigrated to America and in 1864, arrived in Hancock, supposedly at the request of Father Frederick Baraga.
Peter Sr. partnered with Joseph Wertin in establishing a general store on Quincy Street in Hancock. After a couple of years, the two parted amicably, each going on to establish their own stores. Joseph Wertin’s mercantile empire eventually became known as Vertin Bros. Department Stores. Ruppe’s store became P. Ruppe and Sons.
Peter Jr. was born in 1843 and followed his father’s footsteps, emigrating to the United States in 1861 at the age of 17. He joined his father in St. Paul, Minnesota and for two years was a door-to-door peddler. In 1864, he traveled to Hancock to join his father. He worked for his father for about six months and then found a job as a trammer in the Quincy mine for $60 a month. When he had saved $300, he left Hancock and went to Chicago, intending to make his fortune there.
However, his limited knowledge of English handicapped him and after searching for work until his savings were exhausted, he found a place at a Canal Street dry goods store for $25 a month. He worked there for three years, then went back to Hancock to rejoin his father.
In 1868, he went to St. Paul and worked for a wholesale tobacco firm and attended a business school where he learned English, bookkeeping, writing, spelling and American business practices. In 1869, he returned to Hancock and in May of that year started a branch of the family firm in Calumet. A third branch was established in L’Anse in 1873.
Both father and son were active in local politics. Peter Sr. served as a Justice of the Peace in Hancock, as well as President of the village for a time and served on the city council. Peter Jr. served on the Calumet school board and as President of the village of Calumet for three terms. In the 1960s & 70s, their descendant, Philip Ruppe, would follow in their footsteps, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1979.
Birthplace: Austria/Slovakia
Peter Ruppe, Jr., son of Peter Ruppe, Sr., who settled in Hancock in the early 1860s.
Both father and son also invested in other concerns. Peter Sr. was a stockholder and director in the First National Bank of Hancock and the Mineral Range Railroad. In 1880, he helped to organize the Grand Portage Copper Mining Company. Peter Jr. was vice president of the Merchants and Miners Bank of Calumet and a director of the Lake Superior Cold Storage Company in Houghton. Like his father, Peter Jr. also ventured into copper mining, helping to organize the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company in Bisbee, Arizona. He would also serve as the company’s treasurer.
Peter Jr’s son, Peter Edward, was born in 1876 and started as a bookkeeper in his father’s store in Calumet, eventually becoming the store’s owner. In 1922, he married his second wife, Antoinette Bosch, daughter of another Copper Country immigrant, Joseph Bosch. In 1926, Philip Ruppe was born. In 1967, he was elected to Congress from Michigan’s 11th district, beating Raymond Clevenger. He served for 6 terms. He is still living in Bethesda, MD.
Houghton from Ruppes Dock Hancock.
Phil Ruppe standing in front of the U.S. Capitol building.
Phil Ruppe receiving Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak on a state visit to the United States. On the right is Loret Ruppe.
Phil Ruppe and two other employees show
off Bosch’s 100,000th keg of beer.
Images courtesy of the Copper Country Collections, Michigan Technological University Archives.