Two Butchers in Early Twentieth Century Newburg: Samuel O. Rebuk and Frank A. Latsbaugh

Samuel Otterbein Rebok (1874-1933) owned a butcher shop at 17 Main Street, Newburg, Hopewell Township, and Frank A. Latsbaugh (B: about 1878) owned one at #34 of the same. Both appear at these addresses in the 1930 census. The shops were located about 5.5 miles from Shippensburg University.

Samuel O. Rebok was a son of Joseph Herman Rebock (1840-1902 Franklin Co., PA) and Sara Jane Finney. Uncle Henry Wilson Rebok (1928-1906) of Pennsylvania and Riverside, California was a minister. Samuel’s grandfather, Henry Rebuck/Rebok Jr. (1786-1852), led the family from his native Dauphin County to Franklin County. He was a son of Heinrich Johann Rebuck Sr. (1758 Bieber, Germany) who brought the family from the Northumberland to Lurgan Township. Heinrich immigrated and his father Valentine Rabuck/Rehbock (1730 Bieber, Germany to about 1802 Upper Mahoney Township, Northumberland, PA). The small community of Rebuck there bears his surname.¹

Samuel was a man of medium build, dark brown hair, and light blue eyes.² In 1896 he married Dessie Priscilla Failor/Fehler/Faylor (1876-1956), a daughter of Alfred Failor (1846-1917) and Ellen Stevick (D:1928) of Newburg. Alfred’s ancestry great-great-grandfather Peter Jacob Fehler (1708 Germany-1753 Tulpehocken, Berks Co., PA and his wife Maria Olivia Weiler (1711 Oley, Berks Co., - 1757 Tulpehocken). Samuel and Dessie (Failor) Rebok had three children, Preston, Cletus, and Victor.³

In what may seem a throwback to the days when confectioners often had an ice cream parlor in part of their home or establishment, such as a back room, Samuel Rebok’s wife Dessie had a millinery shop. In accord with the customary demand for milliners in this period, Newville’s “The Star and Enterprise” newspaper featured a fictional account of a young woman shopping, “… And then to the milliners … Paula watched, as in a dream, the pretty tasteful bonnets …”.⁴

Newspaper stories of bulls escaping from butchers and of enraged bulls came from across the country and overseas. Nightmares abounded: “A man named Wells…dreamed that on his way to his family from the fort in the “neighborhood of the Allegheny mountain” he had been attacked and gored by a bull…”⁵

Frank A. Latsbaugh, like Samuel O. Rebok, owned a butcher shop on Newburg’s main Street. The 1920/30 census’ state that he spoke English, was able to both read and write and, therefore, was able to maintain his accounts himself. Frank married Ella G. Hull (1881 Roxbury, Franklin Co., PA-1946 Chambersburg, Franklin Co., PA). Ella was about a year younger than Frank. One of her brothers, John Mish Hull (1867-1946), was Postmaster for Roxbury. Their paternal grandparents were John Hull (1830-1912) and Leah (Faust/Foust) Hull (1843-1901 Lurgan Township, Franklin Co.).⁶ Ella and Frank Latsbaugh were the parents of at least two children, Edgar and Nellie Irene. Nellie was a seamstress in a local factory. If her fabric were red, we may trust that it was not displayed before a bull as women in red dresses or with red hems were noted to encounter color-sensitive bulls and require a hasty rescue before learning a matador’s secrets, such as those of Bette Ford (born Harriet E. Dingel, 1937, Allegheny Co., PA), an actress and matador.