The Professors of the Radical University: Rudolph Vampill

Rudolph Vampill
From The Lumberton Argus July 28, 1905

Rudolph Ertel Vampill (b. April 17, 1823; d. September 19, 1907)
Breslau, Germany.  White.
Education: M.D. (University of Maryland)
Occupation: physician.

Rudolph Vampill was born in Breslau (Wrocław, Poland), then part of the Kingdom of Prussia, to unknown parents. Although born in Prussia, he consistently described himself as Polish.

 

He reportedly lived in Leipzig and received medical training in Berlin and Vienna. In the United States, Vampill described himself as a professor of music and a member of the Vienna Royal Academy of Arts. An obituary also stated that he lived in Cuba, though it is unclear whether that was before or after his emigration.

As a young man, Vampill participated in the 1848 Hungarian Revolution against the Austrian Empire. He served under the Polish General Józef Bem as a captain in the Hungarian Dragoons. He was wounded in battle during the campaign. 

 

Following the defeat of the revolution in 1849, Vampill's subsequent movements are uncertain. The earliest confirmed record of him in the United States is a newspaper advertisement in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in May 1854 promoting his services as a music teacher. An obituary placed his arrival in 1857, while Vampill himself stated in an 1892 naturalization document that he arrived in April 1859.

According to the same obituary, Vampill first arrived in New York City, then moved briefly to Chicago before settling in North Carolina, where he taught music in Raleigh, Goldsboro, and Fayetteville. Except for the 1857 arrival date, this account aligns with available records. 

After several years of teaching music in North Carolina, Vampill pursued formal medical training. In 1857, he received an M.D. from the College of Medicine of Maryland (now part of the University of Maryland). His dissertation focused on the disease croup. By 1858, he had relocated to Hillsborough, North Carolina, and in 1860, he moved to South Carolina, residing in Little Rock and Mullins Depot (now Mullins) in Marion County. 

In Mullins Depot, Vampill practiced medicine and developed a large plot of land, owning five-hundred acres by 1870. While detailed records of his agricultural activities only exist for after the war, he eschewed both cash crops like cotton and rice as well as food provisions like corn in favor of a fifty-acre vineyard and a park. He made his own wine and shipped grapes as far as New York. 

 

Vampill became a prominent local figure. Decades later, one resident recalled, "In his ideas of a town and its progress Dr. Vampill was 100 years ahead of Mullins of his day." 

Vampill's activities during the Civil War are not well documented. He appears to have remained in Marion county, working as a physician and tending to agriculture. An October 1863 newspaper advertisement noted that he was selling a 100-acre plantation near Marion. 

During Reconstruction, Vampill held several public offices in South Carolina. He served as treasurer of Marion County, postmaster of Mullins Depot, intendant of Mullins, and county commissioner for the 1872 election. The latter position was an appointment by Republican Governor Robert K. Scott, and Vampill's support of the South Carolina Republican party was an unusual position for a white resident at the time. 

An institutional history of the University of South Carolina later claimed that Vampill was removed from his post as county treasurer for "malfeasance," but available records do not confirm this. In early 1872, the South Carolina General Assembly passed a joint resolution relieving him of responsibility for approximately $8,000 in uncollected 1868 taxes, citing the destruction of his records in a fire. Governor Franklin J. Moses removed him from the position in November 1873 without providing a reason. A 1911 newspaper account, generally hostile towards Reconstruction, praised Vampill's public service and did not mention misconduct.

 

Vampill joined the faculty of the University of South Carolina as professor of modern languages around November 1873, succeeding John C. Faber. Faber had been dismissed in early October, shortly before the university admitted its first African American student. During this period, the antebellum faculty members found themselves in conflict with the Republican-controlled board of trustees, and the trustees dismissed most faculty members. 

 
Vampill's former student C. C. Scott recalled that Vampill was "a native German, and spoke English imperfectly." He resigned from the university on January 30, 1875, citing personal business affairs. 

After resigning, Vampill returned to Mullins and pursued mechanical inventions. In the summer of 1876, he received U.S. patents for two devices: a wheel hoe and a compound-engine jack, the latter co-invented with William C. Taylor of Mullins.  The wheel hoe featured an adjustable mechanism to control tilling depth, while the engine jack was designed to assist in re-railing locomotives by enabling both vertical and lateral movement.

Sketch of compound engine-jack
From Scientific American

Sketch of wheel hoe
From U.S. patent

Around this period, Vampill and his family relocated to Philadelphia, where his wife, Anne Jane, enrolled at the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia (now part of Drexel University College of Medicine). The family later moved throughout the Midwest. Vampill registered as a physician in Springfield, Illinois in January 1876; by 1878, he was living in La Porte, Indiana, and later that year he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.

By 1880, Vampill had returned to Marion County, South Carolina, where he resumed medical practice and operated his farm. Vampill now turned to more typical regional crops, growing corn, rice, and cotton.

In 1881, Vampill and his family had left South Carolina, first to Charlotte and later to Lumberton. In Lumberton, Vampill remained active in musical and civic life. He constructed an opera house that operated for approximately fifty years before becoming a hotel and eventually being demolished in the 1960s. The opera house was a regional cultural center for generations.

 

While continuing his medical practice, Vampill relocated to Gainesville, Florida, to teach at East Florida Seminary (which later merged into the University of Florida). By 1892, he had moved to Savannah, Georgia, resuming medical work. He returned to Lumberton in 1897 and made a brief visit to Savannah in 1900. 

 

By the late 1890s, Vampill had retired from medicine, acquiring and renovating a hotel in Lumberton as well as continuing to manage the opera house. After the 1904 death of his wife, Vampill resided alone in his opera house, devoting his time to music, even though his daughter and her family lived in town.

On the morning of September 17, 1907, Vampill was found unconscious in bed, having suffered a stroke. He died the following day without regaining consciousness. He is buried at Meadowbrook Cemetery in Lumberton.

Despite his affiliation with the Republican party during Reconstruction, Vampill was remembered positively in both Lumberton and Mullins. A retrospective account published in a Mullins newspaper described him as

a man of many distinguishing characteristics, a fine musician, a kind neighbor and an intendant, the like of whom Mullins has never had [again].  He was progressive, scientific in his manner of thought and education, but of the advanced thought of the German people in matters of God and his attributes.

Vampill's descendants remained in North Carolina. His grandson, Frank Ertel Carlyle served as a U.S. Congressman from North Carolina and signed the 1956 Southern Manifesto opposing desegregation.  His granddaughter,  Janie Carlyle Hargrove, became a noted missionary, educator, and philanthropist.

Lumberton Opera House, The Robesonian newspaper, October 11, 1968, p. 6

Publications

1) An Inaugural Dissertation on Croup. 1857. University of Maryland. M.D. dissertation.

Sources

1). Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Historical Sketch of the University of Maryland, School of Medicine (1807-1890).  Press of Isaac Friedenwald, Baltimore (1891).

2). "First Intendent of Mullins." The Dillon herald, January 12, 1911, p. 1.

3) "Music! Music!! Music!!!" Fayetteville Weekly Observer [North Carolina]. May 1, 1854.

3). "Dr. R. Vampill."  The Southerner, July 5, 1856, p. 2.

4). "List of Letters."  The Hillsborough Recorder, July 14, 1858, p. 3.

5). "Post Offices in South Carolina."  The Daily Phoenix, June 22, 1866, p. 2.

6). "Grape Sales in New York."  American Citizen, February 27, 1869, p. 4.

7). "A New Enterprise."  The Charleston daily news, May 10, 1869, p. 4.

8). "Legislative Proceedings."  The Daily Phoenix, February 24, 1872, p. 2.

9). "South Carolina Wines."  The Abbeville press and banner, February 28, 1872, p. 2.

10). "Laws of the State."  The Charleston daily news, March 14, 1872, p. 1.

11). "The Fall Elections."  The Charleston daily news, August 20, 1872, p. 1.

12). The Daily Phoenix, November 5, 1873, p. 2.

13). "Editorial Correspondence."  Port Royal commercial and Beaufort County Republican, November 6, 1873, p. 2.

14). "City Matters."  The Daily Phoenix, December 15, 1874, p. 2.

15). "Partners Wanted."  Chicago daily tribune, February 6, 1878, p. 3.

16). The Cincinnati daily star, December 30, 1878, Third Edition, p. 3.

17). "Medical Notice."  The Charlotte Democrat, July 8, 1881, p. 1.

18). "Consumption."  The farmer and mechanic, August 30, 1882, p. 4.

19) "Death of Mrs. A. J. Vampill." The Robesonian [Lumberton, NC]. December 3, 1903. p. 3. 

20) "Purchase the Blake Hotel." The Robesonian [Lumberton, NC]. January 29, 1904. p. 5.

19) "Dr. Rudolph Vampill." The Lumberton Argus [Lumberton, North Carolina]. July 28, 1905. p. 33.

20) "Dr. Vampill Stricken: Leading Citizen of Lumberton Had a Stroke of Apoplexy." Wilmington Morning Star [Wilmington, NC]. September 18, 1907. p  4. 

21) "Dr. Vampill Dead." Wilmington Morning Star [Wilmington, NC]. September 19, 1907. p  1. 

19). "Lumberton Old Opera House."  The Robesonian, July 23, 2015.

20). Cincinnati, Ohio, City Directory, 1879

21). Research Library & Municipal Archives City of Savannah, Georgia; Savannah, Georgia; Series Title: City Court, Naturalization Records, 1825-1904; Record Series Number: 5600CC-035; Box Number: 10

22). Savannah, Georgia, City Directory, 1891, 1892

23). "South Carolina News."  The Charlotte Democrat, April 10, 1876, p. 2.

24). "Hargrave, Janie Carlyle" in  Powell, William S., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography
H-K, Volume 3.  University of North Carolina Press (1988).

25). "A New Compound Engine Jack."  Scientific American, August 5, 1876. p. 83.

26). Vampill, Rudolph. "Improvement in Wheel-Hoes."  Patent No. 181,380. United States Patent Office. July 22, 1876.

27) 1860; Census Place: Marion, Marion, South Carolina; Page: 213.

27) 1870; Census Place: Reeves, Marion, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1503; Page: 254A

28) 1880; Census Place: Reeves, Marion, South Carolina; Roll: 1235; Page: 305A; Enumeration District: 100

29) 1880; Census Place: Reeves, Marion, South Carolina; Archive Collection Number: AD273; Roll: 12; Page: 12; Line: 8; Schedule Type: Agriculture

 

30) 1870; Census Place: Reeves, Marion, South Carolina; Archive Collection Number: Record Group Number: 29; Page: 1; Line: 8; Schedule Type: Agriculture