HenryD. Ritter
HENRY D. RITTER was bornAugust 6, 1819, son of Michael and Barbara E. (Schafer) Ritter. The formerwas born in 1795, being of German ancestry. By occupation he was a stonemason, and in 1812 he went to the German and French war and served as asoldier for nineteen or twenty years, and was an officer at the time ofhis death, at the age of fifty-one years. He was the son of Reinhart Ritter,who were natives of the same place. They were farmers. Subject’s motherwas born in Germany in 1796, and died when about sixty-five. Her parentslived to be very old people.Henry was one of seven children,two of whom are living, and he is the eldest. He remained at home untilhe was twenty-five years old and worked as a clerk. He sailed in the Mentorfor America from Bremen, Prussia, and arrived in New York after a voyageof six weeks. Here he remained for eighteen months, engaged in paintingand the manufacture of parasols and umbrellas. From there he went to Virginiaand followed the business of painting houses for three years, when he marriedand came to Ohio, settling in Fayette county, where he bought a house andfour acres of land, and there lived until 1854, when he sold and came toIllinois in the fall, settling where he now lives. Here he bought 120 acresof land, which he improved, and in the same winter he added eighty acresto the farm. There was a log house on the land in which they lived until1861, when he built his present house. He later bought 120 acres, and theneighty acres more, making in all 400 acres. He rents almost all of hisland, and has practically retired from active business. Mr. Ritter hasalways been a Democrat, and has filled nearly every office in the county.He was School Trustee and Assessor for twenty years, Justice of the Peacefor twelve years, Constable and Coroner four years, Sheriff two years,Commissioner two years, Supervisor eight years, and was chairman of theBoard of Supervisors for a time, and he is considered one of the most prominentmen in the county.
He was married April 24,1848, by Rev. William N. Scott, near Petersburg, Hardy County, Virginia,to Miss Lucinda E. Hall, born in Virginia on the south side of Blue Ridgemountains, April 13, 1823. She was a daughter of James and Judy (Taylor)Hall. James Hall was a native of Virginia, and followed farming. When Mrs.Ritter was three years old the family moved to Rockingham county, Virginia,where they lived several years and then moved to Hardy county, and boughta farm, on which he erected a log house, where he lived a year or two,and then built a new and better hewn-log house in another neighborhood,about a mile from the first one. Here he spent the remainder of his life,dying at the advanced age of one hundred and two years, on his birthday.He was the father of eighteen children, seven boys by his first wife andeleven children by the second one, Judy Taylor. Seven of the latter arestill living. One of the sons, Henry, by the latter marriage, was starvedto death in one of the prisons of Richmond, Virginia, during the war ofthe Rebellion. Mrs. Judy Hall was a native of Virginia, and a daughterof George Taylor. She died in Hardy county, aged seventy years. Mrs. Ritterand her brother went to school in the old subscription schools where theparents paid according to the number of children sent; and Mr. Hall hadso many children he could not afford to send more than two or three ata time. Mrs. Ritter remembers her first teacher, a Mr. Nick Hawk, who managedto keep school the entire year in a log house with benches of slabs, withoutbacks. Their slates and pencils were pieces of soapstone and slate thatthey could find in the neighborhood of the school.
Mr. and Mrs. Ritter havehad eleven children, nine yet living: Mary E., married Calvin Hill; JudyV. married Henry C. Hill, seven children, six yet living; Justina C. marriedCalvin S. Hill, eight living children; Calvin Z. married Viola Weatherby;George W. married Sylvina Weatherby, one child; Douglas J., at home withhis father at work on the farm; Elisa Jane, married William H. McDaniel,five children; James H. S. married Mattie Shelton, four children; FranklinW. living at home; Martha O. and Martha Ann died when small.
Mr. Ritter is a member ofA. F. & A. M. Lodge, No.108, at Versailles, and the Meredosia Chapterand Council, No. 56, and also of I. O. O. F., Irene Lodge, No. 72. of Versailles,and Encampment of I. O. O. F.
He follows general mixedfarming and is a well educated man, being educated in Germany.
Biographical Review ofCass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois, Biographical Review PublishingCo., Chicago, 1892, pages 250-251.
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