King of the Hobos
On April 21, 1897 two brothers walked into the office of the Populist newspaper, The Oklahoma Representative, with a letter for the editor Leo Vincent from his friend the American Consul for Sydney Australia Col. George W. Bell. The Brothers Marcellus and Edwin Graupner grew up in Guthrie and returned to visit family after a round the world adventure. Marcellus submitted an article about the trip at Vincent’s request. The story he told was of the first of many cross country and round the world trips he would make in a search for riches, earning him the title “King of the Hobos.”
Graupner left Guthrie on July 6, 1894 to attend Harvard University, for he “craved a liberal arts education.” Financial reverses at home brought his education and that of his brother Edwin to a halt in November 1896. Unable to earn enough to meet expenses, Marcellus proposed an around the world trip for rest and recreation.
They boarded the Norseman bound for Liverpool on November 12th and worked their way across the Atlantic tending sheep, arriving November 28th. The boys spent three weeks in England before stowing away on the S.S. Hubback for Sydney. The crew discovered them and put them to work doing all manner of chores. A week out of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands the ship ran out of fresh water and they subsisted on “condensed water,” (steam from the engine condensed into water and stored). They arrived in Sydney after fifty-seven days at sea. Unable to find work and the cost of living to expensive they made arrangements through the U.S. Consul to return home. They set sail on March 15, and arrived in San Francisco on April 8, after stops in Auckland New Zealand, Apia Samoa and Honolulu Hawaii.
In the years following Graupner crossed and re-crossed the continent searching for his fortune, working in the Copper Queen mine in Arizona, prospecting for gold in Mexico and the Klondike, and seeking opportunities in South America. Graupner claimed to have traveled 127,000 miles without scrip or purse (money, savings), hopping freights, and working off passage, all with the intent of completing his education and becoming a millionaire.
On a prospecting trip with his father Rudolph in 1903, the two men tramped around Mexico searching for gold, copper, silver, and lead. They traveled 500 miles of rugged mountain trails, only to find all the rich claims taken. Heavily armed with rifles, shotguns, pistols, and Bowie knives they encountered no trouble. They subsisted on bacon, beans, flour, and the occasional Quail or Jackrabbit.
In October, 1907 Police arrested Graupner in Los Angeles for carrying concealed weapons. He stated that he went to the Second Street Employment agency for mine work; he paid his fee and returned later for his transportation ticket. A new clerk manned the office and when he refused to issue the order, Graupner became enraged. He made a move that the clerk took for him pulling a gun and screamed. A police officer ran to the scene and Graupner fled. The officer caught him after a long chase and a fight ensued. Fined fifteen dollars and unable to pay he spent a few days in jail.
Graupner spent the remainder of his life as a mining engineer, moving from place to place, Cambridge Massachusetts, San Francisco and Los Angeles California, Bisbee Arizona, and Butte Montana. Graupner listed himself in the 1922 Who’s who in Engineering, stating he planned to investigate, explore and operate or sell a gold deposit in Central America and a copper deposit in Panama. He seems to have spent his life searching for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
