BLUE HILLS HERITAGE FOUNDATION

 – 2018 Individual Inductee –

Jacob Christian Ruppenthal

 

In the early years of Russell County one man stands out in terms of intelligence, leadership, and a commitment to his fellow man – the highly-respected Jacob Ruppenthal.  He is a worthy selection to the First Class of the Russell County Kansas Hall of Fame.

 

Jacob Christian Ruppenthal was one of two brothers born on January 16, 1869 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Jacob and Anna (Immendorf) Ruppenthal.  Jacob received his general education in both Pennsylvania and in Lincoln County, Kansas, where his family settled on a homestead in August 1877.  Four years later the family moved to Russell, Kansas.

 

In his early years Jacob had several jobs.  He herded cattle, farmed, was a farm laborer, a railroad section hand, and a plaster mill laborer.  He attended the Salina, Kansas, normal school and spent six years teaching school in Saline and Russell Counties in Kansas.  Jacob then attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence, graduating from their law school in 1895. He was admitted to the Kansas Bar the same year.

 

Jacob married Sarah B. Spalding on January 1, 1895. They had a son, Lloyd Henry, and a daughter, Mary Lois.  Jacob practiced his first year of law in Lucas, Kansas, before moving his practice to Russell in October 1896.  He was elected county attorney twice, in 1896 and again in 1902.  Between 1907 and 1918 Jacob served as judge for the Twenty-third Judicial District of Kansas.

 

After his wife Sarah’s death in 1914 Jacob married Margaret Eastland on December 22, 1922 at Ellsworth, Kansas. They had one son, Phillip L.

 

Jacob joined the United States Army in 1918 as a judge advocate with the rank of major, primarily reviewing court martial cases.  Ruppenthal also worked in the law publication division of the Judge Advocate General’s Office.  Jacob was honorably discharged in 1919 and resumed his judgeship until 1931 after twenty-five years on the bench. He continued to practice law in Russell and joined the faculty at the University of Kansas law school.

 

Throughout his career, Jacob contributed numerous articles to the Kansas Lawyer, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Law Library Journal, Medical World, and others.  He was a member of the committee of Kansas State Bar Association that prepared the revised code of Kansas, adopted in 1909.  Jacob also served as chairman of the meetings of the district judges of Kansas for the first ten years of their association.

 

Jacob was an avid historian and genealogist, collecting a wealth of information on events and people in Russell County and the surrounding area. He wrote a newspaper column for decades detailing the history of Russell County and the region around. Jacob was a Methodist and liked to say that he was reared politically a Republican but became a Populist during the years of 1890 to 1896 and was a Democrat after that, but Progressive in all parties.

 

Jacob was a member of the Kansas State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology. He was a councilor for the American Judicature Society, a delegate to the National Uniform Legislation Congress, and chairman of the District Judges of Kansas upon their organization in 1908.  For a time Jacob also served as an advisor to the commissioner to index statute law in New York.

 

Jacob was director of the Russell City Library for many years, beginning in 1900.  He was a life member of the American Library Association, a life member of the Russell County Teachers Library Association, a life member of the Kansas State Historical Society, and a member of the American Dialect Society, the Kansas Author’s Club, the Paris-based International Phonetic Association, The National Geographic Society, The Kansas State Conference of Charities and Corrections, the Kansas Methodist Historical Society, the American and British versions of the American Proportional Representation League, and the Society for the Friendless.  Jacob also found time to be commissioner of the local Boy Scouts chapter and serve as clerk for School District #5 in Russell County.

 

Jacob died on March 27, 1964 at his home in Russell, Kansas, at the age of 95, and was buried in the Russell City Cemetery.  His papers were donated to the Kansas State Historical Society.  The Ruppenthal Middle School in Russell is named after one of the greats in Russell County history, Jacob Christian Ruppenthal.

 

 

SOURCES:

Natoma Independent, December 14, 1933.

 

Russell Record, January 29, 1914; March 30, 1964.

 

Great Bend Tribune, March 30, 1964.

 

Kansas State Historical Society, Nineteenth Biennial Report of the Board of Directors of the Kansas State Historical Society For the Biennial Period July 1, 1912, to June 30, 1914 (1914)

 

www.kshs.org/dart/units/view/40493, Kansas State Historical Society Biography: Jacob Christian Ruppenthal.