Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/742

 M^

��-4*

��730

��BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

��he came to this county with his parents, who emigrated in 1846; the family afterward returned to Ireland in 1852, and in the latter part of the same year again came to America, where they have since resided ; he began carpenter work in 1862, in this city, which trade he acquired and followed until 1875, when he was ap- pointed Deputy Sheriff under John J. Diclison ; he was elected Sheriff of Richland Co. in October, 1877, and re-elected in 1879, which position he now holds. He is the youngest man who has ever been elected to that office in this county. He was married in Mans- field to Kate Bell ; they are the parents of six children —Bertie B., boi-n Sept. 19, 1870; Franklin D., born Dec. 6, 1872; William W., born April 4, 1873; Nettie May, born July 29, 1876; James J., born Oct. 13, 1879 ; Kate, April 19, 1880.

RITTER, WILLIAM, leather merchant. Was born in Canton, Ohio; Jan. 10, 1834, where his parents resided previous to their removal to Mansfield in 1836. Since reaching manhood, he has held a number of offices of honor and trust, both in the city and county, to the satisfaction of the people ; in 1860, he was elected City Clerk, which position he resigned at the breaking- out of the civil war, and entered the army in the three- months service, where he remained during his full term of enlistment; in the fall of 1861, he was elected Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, in which office he served two terms of three years each ; in 1877, he was elected a Trustee of the Board of Water Works, which office he now holds and is President of the same. In June 24, 1864, he was married to Miss Sarah A. Keech, daughter of C. C. Keech, of this city, now residents of South Main street, Mansfield.

RITTER, JOSEPH (deceased). In 1874, Oct. 20, Mansfield lost one of its old and respected citizens, in the person of Joseph Ritter, who had lived here nearly fifty years, honored and respected, always a gentleman, plain and frank in his intercourse with his fellow-men ; he was proverbial for his kindness and rigid honesty ; he was born in Brakerl, Westphalia, Germany, in the year 1796, and emigrated to this country in 1818, landing in Baltimore, where he worked at his trade (tanner) until 1822, when he removed to Canton, Ohio, and in 1836, to Mansfield, having previously visited Ohio in 1819; after his retire- ment from business, a few years previous to his death, and on his fiftieth anniversary in this county, he visited the land of his birth and the scenes of his childhood, interesting incidents of which he was accustomed to relate with minuteness. Joseph Ritter was married in Baltimore, April 2, 1828, to Miss Magaline Eberly, who survives him, and by whom he had three children — John, William and Louisa, who now reside in this city.

RITTER, JOHN, tanner and leather dealer. The senior of the present firm of Ritter & Sons, was born in Canton, Ohio, Jan. 9, 1829 ; when 7 years of age, he came with his parents to this city, where he has since resided ; while quite young, he commenced work in his fiither's tannery, which trade he afterward acquired, and in which he continued until the organi- zation of the leather firm. He was married in Mans- field, May 8, 1857, to Miss Mary Jane Irwin, who died April 15, 1879, leaving four children.

��ROBERTS, MARK L., mechanic and inventor. The subject of this sketch was born in East Whiteland Township, Chester Co., Penn., July 15, 1822, a descend- ant both on his father's and mother's side of old and well-known families, the one of Welsh and the other of French pedigree ; his younger days were spent on a farm in his native county, where he first began to show that inventive genius that has produced so many useful labor-saving machines during his life. While in his 17th year, he invented a thrashing machine, which he thinks was the second manufactured ; his second invention, a knitting machine and the Rob- erts Manufacturing Knitting Machine, was the work of sixteen years' hard labor before its accomplishment ; an adjustable cork horse-shoe, which is believed to be a great improvement over the old method, he invented in 1873 ; a rake and hay elevator in 1872 ; a seamless knit bag in 1869. Mr. Roberts' family consists of a wife and six children ; of the sons, Isaac Calvin is a painter ; Allen Lewis, an engineer ; Wayne K., a needle manufacturer. Mr. Roberts is now living on North Mulberry street, Mansfield, in a beautiful home, dili- gently at work in other improvements.

ROWLAND, REV. JAMES, was born near Pitts- burgh, Penn., Sept. 1, 1792, where he was reared, and graduted at Jefferson College in 1813 ; he was of Scotch-Irish descent, his family having come from the North of Ireland ; after leaving college, he went to Washington City, where he taught a preparatory school ; he left Washington after a residence of four years, and opened a classical school at Darlington, Penn., where he remained as teacher and preacher of the Presbyterian faith until the spring of 1820, when he removed to Mansfield, where he was settled over the first church organization in Richland Co., preach- ing here part of the time and part six miles west on the Leesville road. He was married twice, first to Maria S. Christmas, of Wooster, Ohio, May 2, 1820, who died in November, 1839 ; second, to Mary A. Moody, of Shippensburg, Penn., May 12, 1841; Mr. Rowland was a ripe scholar, a man of fine personal appearance, and possessed more than ordinary talent ; after a life of usefulness he died at his house in Mans- field, Dec. 20, 1873.

RUMMEL, J. P., proprietor of suspender factory. Was born in 1840, Worthington Township, Richland Co. Married in 1866, to Eva Redrup, she was born in Cleve- land ; they have the following family : Wilber J. (de- ceased), Lulu E., Arthur Clifton. Mr. Rummelis con- ducting an enterprise that is giving employment to a number of hands ; the articles of his manufacture are growing fast in popularity, and consequently is increas- ing, and is taking the lead of this class of goods.

RUNYAN, BENTLEY S. (deceased). The subject of this sketch, who was one of the active and prominent business men of Mansfield for over twenty years, was born in Knox Co., Ohio, March 6, 1821 ; he was the eighth child of Hill and Mary L. Runyan, who were old residents of that county ; in the month of April, 1847, he removed to Mansfield, where he opened a hardware store, near the southeast corner of Walnut and Fourth streets ; in the fall of the same year, he changed his location to a room south of Fourth on Main street, where he remained until after purchasing the

��lir

�� �