Lou’s View 7/15

By Lou Bernard

Right now, I’m sitting alone in my kitchen, with my laptop, trying to think up a topic for a column. I don’t always have trouble coming up with something—In fact, I usually don’t—But sometimes, I just get stuck. My wife is watching TV in the living room—I just heard that Law And Order “Bum-bum”—And my son is out playing with his friends. I assume they’re all still basically alive.

Lock Haven’s mayors are always good for a column. I’ll do one of them. There’s a few I can do by memory, and as for the rest, I have a file available. You never hear anyone say this, but I’m gonna just pick a mayor at random. I have a list of the local mayors right here, let me spin my finger around, close my eyes, and put it down…..
John Cupper. Okay, awesome. This column is about John Cupper.

John Thomas Cupper didn’t start out as mayor; he started out as the sheriff. Well, no, actually he started out by being born in Lewistown on January 12, 1854. He grew up to be a carriage painter, and then a general painting contractor, but that was before he moved to Lock Haven and opened a tobacco shop on Bellefonte Avenue.

Once he moved to Lock Haven, he began to take an interest in local politics and the improvement of the city. Lock Haven was his home, and he wanted to do what he could for it. (I know how that goes.) So he ran for mayor on a Republican ticket and won, serving as Lock Haven’s mayor from 1904 to 1907.

He stayed active in local business and politics, and in 1912, he ran for sheriff and won, serving a term before running for mayor again. That time, he served as mayor from 1916 to 1919. At some point during all this, he had time to marry his wife Sarah, and have five children.

I’m not a hundred percent sure about this, but I suspect John Cupper was the mayor who created the Mayor’s Army Law. This law dates back well over a hundred years, and in essence, says that the mayor of Lock Haven has the right to raise his own private army if he feels it is necessary. I’m not aware of any mayor who has actually done this, though as local laws go, it’s one of the cooler ones I’ve heard. I suspect it was Cupper who created this law, in case Lock Haven got invaded during World War I. I think it would have appealed to Cupper’s law-and-order sort of approach.

After Cupper was finished being mayor in 1919, he went on to become a county commissioner, which continued until he passed away. Cupper lived at 117 North Henderson Street, which no longer stands. (It’s now part of the Robb School playground.) He died there, as well, on July 7, 1926, after being confined to bed for a month with what was described as a “complication of ailments.” He was buried in Highland Cemetery. According to his obituary, he continued to fulfill his duties as a county commissioner right up until the end.

Cupper seems to have been a cool guy, and a good mayor for Lock Haven. Maybe I need to do something like this more often—Just pick a guy totally at random and see what comes up. Who’s next? Okay, spin my finger, close my eyes….and….Harry W. Swope. Oh, sure, expect a column sometime. I can totally write about him. Served the shortest term of any mayor in Lock Haven…..