Friday, May 6, 2016

Making Progress on My Auble Cousins -- Post 6: Solving the William Auble Challenge

Previous posts in this series include:

*  Making Progress on My Auble Cousins - Post 1: Finding Elizabeth's Will (25 April 2016).
*  Making Progress on My Auble Cousins - Post 2: Transcription of Elizabeth Auble's Will (28 April 2016)

*  Making Progress on My Auble Cousins - Post 3: Identifying Elizabeth Auble's Heirs (29 April 2016)

*  Making Progress on My Auble Cousins -- Post 4: The William Auble Challenges (3 May 2016)
*  Making Progress on My Auble Cousins -- Post 5: The Sophia Auble Challenges Part 1 (5 May 2016)


In this series of posts, I am discussing the challenges that I found with the heirs of Elizabeth Auble named in her 1893 will.

In Post 4, I noted that I had found a newspaper article that described the death of William Auble in 1844 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  That article was from a Sussex County, New Jersey published in the 1890s, highlighting articles for the same date in 1844.  

I thought it was strange that I couldn't find articles from 1844 from Philadelphia when GenealogyBank has several newspapers from that time frame.  When I searched for William Auble and specified Philadelphia and 1844, I received no matches.  So I searched for last name of Auble, plus Philadelphia and 1844, and there were 69 matches.  Many were for this unfortunate incident - but the victim was a Samuel Auble!  

Here is the first article from the Philadelphia Inquirer about the incident:



The transcription of this article, dated 11 September 1844, is:

"CITY ITEMS
Stabbing Case -- A young man named Samuel
Auble, was stabbed early yesterday morning,
while in the vicinity of Broad street and Tur-
ner's Lane.  Two brothers named William and
Edward Ryninger, were taken before Alderman
Rees, on the charge of committing the deed.  It
appears that Auble formed one of a party which
had been to the Lamb Tavern, and the Ryning-
ers were with another party, with females in
company.  The Messrs. R. took offence at some
songs by Auble, when a scuffle took place.  Au-
ble ran across the road, saying, "I'm wounded."
William Ryninger was seen to strike a blow; and
after Auble ran across the road, Edward Ryninger
was seen to follow him.  Both brothers were
committed for a further hearing on Friday next."

Another article from 13 September 1844 in the Philadelphia North American newspaper:


The transcription of this article is:

"CORONER'S INQUEST. -- The Coroner  held an
inquest yesterday, upon the body of Samuel
H. Auble, aged 21 years, who was stabbed 
in Broad street, near Turner's Lane, on Tues-
day morning.  The wound was four inches
long and two deep, and terminated in mortifi-
cation from which death resulted.  Verdict of
the jury -- That the said deceased S.H. Auble,
came to his death by a wound inflicted on
him on the 10th inst. with a sharp instrument
in the hands of William Ryninger."

An article from the 16 December 1844 issue of the Philadelphia North American discussed the outcome of the case:


The transcription of this article is:

"SENTENCE OF RYNINGER -- In the Court of
Oyer and Terminer on Saturday, sentence
was passed by Judge King upon William 
Ryninger, convicted of manslaughter in kill-
ing Samuel H. Auble.  The prisoner was
adjudged to undergo an imprisonment of
three years in solitary confinement and at hard
labor in the Eastern Penitentiary.  His Honor
Judge King, prefaced the sentence with some
very appropriate and feeling remarks, in which
the unfortunate occurrence that lad to the death
of Auble, was attributed mainly to the bad
spirit of rivalry which existed among a por-
tion of the Fire Department."

Based on these articles, including a criminal court verdict, it is apparent that the victim was Samuel H. Auble, aged 21, who died on or about 12 September 1844 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after being attacked on the street.

The question I have now is: Was this Samuel H. Auble a brother of my second great-grandfather, David Auble, as noted in the New Jersey newspaper article?  The New Jersey newspaper got the name wrong, but did they get the relationship right?  I don't know and have found no other records of the existence of this Samuel H. Auble.

Finding these records, and solving this challenge, removes the evidence conflict I had on William Auble - how could he have died in 1844 and have had a son born in 1848 named as a nephew in Elizabeth Auble's will in 1893.

There is a lesson learned here - Expand your search in records when you cannot find what you expect to find.  In this case, I searched with the wrong given name, then succeeded with no given name.

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