Part 5 of 9. On 14 November 1880, Daniel Troutman, a farmer living in Pillow, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, was killed at his home during an attempted robbery. Two men, Frank Rumberger and Henry Rumberger were arrested and charged with the crime. They were tried in Dauphin County Court, found guilty, and executed, in March 1882.
In its edition of 24 March 1882, in conjunction with the hanging, the Harrisburg Daily Independent published a summary of the crime and the trials. Here following is the text of that article, in nine parts.
For all other parts of this story, see: The Murder of Daniel Troutman, 1880.
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AFTER THE PARDON REFUSAL
Frank’s Gradual Admissions as to His Guilt – Both Finally Come to an Understanding and the Confessions Agree.
After the Board of Pardons had refused to take favorable action on their cases, both men, Frank especially, lost all hope. Up to this time he had claimed to be be entirely innocent of any participation in the crime whatever, until finding all hopes had fled he admitted first having ridden a short distance in the wagon with Henry, on the night of the murder, but still maintained that he got out a short distance beyond Lykens. In trying to explain this he was seen by a number of persons. On another occasion he admitted going to the house with Henry but that he
HAD NOT MADE A SINGLE SHOT.
Having conceded this much he again said “The blood of Daniel Troutman I know is on my hands.” Recounting minutely the scene of the night of the tragedy his account compared exactly with that of Henry’s except with that he maintained that the shot that killed the old man was fired by him while they were in the house, and that old man lived until he had gotten outside, and that after shooting at Henry he had fallen. This statement he adhered to until the end, and it is more than likely the correct version, as old Mrs. Troutman in a recent letter states that she is not certain whether a shot was fired inside the house or not. The two men became perfectly
RECONCILED TO ONE ANOTHER
and several time talked the matter over, differing slightly on this one point of where the shooting occurred. At one of these meetings Henry said “It might be that a shot was fired inside the room, and when I think the matter over it appears as as though that was the case.” The one important point was clearly settled – the murder was committed by these two men, whether the detail of the crime compared exactly or not.
There was a marked difference between the two men from the first moment of their incarceration. Henry was always quietly submissive, never allowing his expectations to be raised – consequently not feeling the various disappointments so keenly. Resigned from the first he prepared himself for the inevitable. Frank on the other hand was exactly the reverse, always busy with some new project which he thought would be of some avail, and as the desired end was not reached, bitterly vindictive against those who had thwarted him. An air of apparent indifference and bravado always was carried with him, which on one occasion led him to plan a bold escape from jail, which was frustrated by an accomplice in whom he had confided the project of overcoming the keeper and with a small iron hammer with which he had become possessed to
MAKE HIS WAY FOR LIBERTY.
At all times desperate, the charge when it came was very noticeable, and in the latter days of the careworn, hazard and pale young man, would hardly be recognized as the Frank Rumberger of former years. His repentance appeared sincere, and the following pitiful letter to his mother tells a sad tale of suffering:
THE LAST LETTER HOME
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania, March 14, 1882 –
DEAR MOTHER: I write this letter now as my last. Farewell to you, father, my brothers and sister, and o you, mother, particularly, that whatever I have been to the world and the world to me, I have been your loving son and you have been my loving mother. Had I taken your advice, dear mother, I would not be where I am now. You always tried to put me in honest and virtuous ways, but I didn’t heed your god advice. It was not that you did not look after me always. I seemed to care more for bad women and low company than I did for my own good mother, and now I suffer the awful consequence. I was tempted and I fell, to my sorrow. Had I listened to you, mother, I would to-day be a freeman. You did all in your power to make me a good man. I bless you now for what you did, mother, and will died blessing you with my last breath. I want the world to know that you were a good mother to me, for you always advised me to do what was manly. Oh, that I had taken your advice. But I did not, and now I must died an ignomias death. My suffering, mother, will not be as great as yours, mother, for I am not afraid to die. What I most fear not is for you, mother. I have repented. I know God has heard my prayers for mercy. Be contented, then, mother, for we shall meet in heaven. I embrace you – I kiss you – I hang on your neck, and I lay my head on your weary breast, for you love me mother, and I love you. Be comforted, mother, and I love you. Be comforted, mother, father, brothers and sisters, as I remain your unfortunate and helpless, but happy son and brother, and may God bless you all. Farewell.
FRANK H. RUMBERGER.
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WANTS HENRY PARDONED
To show the spirit he bore towards the man, he once acknowledged as hating above all other living beings, he penned the following appeal to Governor Hoyt:
HARRISBURG, March 16, 1882. –
Governor Henry M. Hoyt, Sir:
I know I have forfeited all my rights as a citizen of Pennsylvania, but I have not yet lost my feelings as a man, and now write to you in behalf of a man condemned to died for a crime in the bloodshed of which I believe he is innocent. My conscience holds me guilty of the death of Daniel Troutman. It is nowhere said in my Bible that two lives should be sacrificed for one. I therefore ask you to commute Henry Rumberger’s sentence of death to imprisonment for life. I ask this in the name of justice, unprompted by any man, and I appeal to you as the governor of this State to do this act that mercy may honor justice.
FRANK H. RUMBERGER
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MISSPENT LIVES ENDED
Nothing, however availed and these last days of both doomed men were spent principally with their attentive spiritual advisors, and in their last sad farewells to their respected families, until the terrible ending of to-day closed the event of what may truthfully be called two misspent lives.
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FRANK’S FAREWELL LETTER
It Is Directed to Young Men in Particular and is the Last He Ever Prepared.
DAUPHIN COUNTY JAIL
HARRISBURG, March 23, 1882.
By the request of my friend, Mr. Wallower, of the [Harrisburg] DAILY INDEPENDENT, I, Frank Rumberger, send a few words to you, young men, but in this wicked world. Oh, thou great eternal and original author of all created beings and happiness, I adore thee who hast made man capable of religion. I lament the degeneracy in the world so common and universal as a disease. God’s teaching alone will reclaim the wandering children and can impress a sense of divine things on the heart and render that sense lasting and effectual Thou has cared for me. Thou knowest the sincerity and fervency with which thine unworthy servant desires to spread the knowledge of thy name. Could I have the gift of healing so to lighten others’ woe. Oh! Young men – hasten to the means of relieving and enriching men’s minds. Take of the rise and progress of religion among the multitudes. Oh, that my Saving would work through this and so use me as an instrument, and as one who pretends no claim but thy sovereign grace to hope for being favored with the blessed instrumentality of converting and saving one soul, and if it be but one, and that the meanest and wickedest of those who are capable of receiving this address, it shall be most thankfully accepted as a rich recompence for all she thought and labor it may cost.
P.S. – Mr. Wallower, you can publish the above if you think proper, and as for those young men who are out in this world, thinking nothing, nothing of what is to come, and things that look very small at the present time will be very large when they come to make peace with God. I therefore ask them kindly to forsake their wicked ways and look to God for relief. I know I was a wild and wayward man, but the hardest heart will break. I know that many will read this who will not heed it, but when they come to that awful doom, which sinners all fight – Death – then they will say, Why did I not heed Frank Rumberger’s advice. Dear friends, I say unto you, farewell on this earth, and meet, Oh, meet me over there.
FRANK H. RUMBERGER
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The Demand for the Independent
The INDEPENDENT true to promise came out in less than an hour after the execution of the Rumbergers with a full and detailed account of the tragedy. The demand for the paper was enormous. Some idea of the demand may be obtained from the fact that nearly 1,500 copies were sold during the first hour over the counter. The demand continued throughout the afternoon, and few people could be seen on the street who did not have a copy in their hand. The edition of to-day exceeds 12,000.
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