[Samuel_Michon]

To further complicate matters: other newspapers covering the story back in the day spelled the man's name as "Adolph Schopf", "Adolph Schuep" and "Adolph Schüp".

He's described as "a real German baron, a graduate of three German universities, one of which is the famous Heidelberg, the hero of five duels and the suitor of a beautiful young widow who has been making her home in Meriden during the past three months. His full name is Adolph Schopf, baron of Bottleburg, New Weissensee, province of Kieden Barden, Prussia."[1]

[1] http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Cg9JAAAAIBAJ&sjid=k...

[jarek]

"Adolph Schuep" and "Adolph Schüp" are the same name, Schuep just has Schüp re-spelled without the umlaut.

Schopf, Schiep, and Scheip are likely just phonetic respellings/typos.

Not only were people back in the day not that particular about exactly how a foreigner's name was spelled, often times people wouldn't be sure or would change how their own name is spelled.