RITTERHOUSE TINTYPES

These tintypes of four of the Ritterhouse boys are the earliest Ritterhouse photographs I own. These are four of great-great-grandfather William Rittershaus' five sons (from top to bottom): Fred (born 1874), Lew (born 1867), Charles (born 1866) and George (born 1863).

Tintypes were photos with the image on a metal surface that was blackened. They were cheap, durable and instant (available a few minutes after taking the photo). The process was patented in the U.S. in 1856 and, by the end of the Civil War, they were the most common type of photos. They remained the preferred type of photo until the end of the 19th century. They were usually taken outside at fairs, carnivals, etc. by itinerant photographers, because the equipment was easily set up and the photographs were instantly available.

Judging by the ages of the boys in the Ritterhouse tintypes, I think these photos were taken about 1880. By 1880, the oldest Ritterhouse boy, William, who was 21, was already living in Kansas, working on a farm in Hiawatha County. George would have been 17, Charles (my great-grandfather) would have been 14, Lew 13 and Fred 6. It may have been a year or two sooner, but it was surely around then. At this time, they were living in Tazewell County, Illinois. It was shortly after their father's death (in June 1876) and their mother's marriage to Joseph Vandorn (in late 1877).

So, do we learn anything from these pictures? All of the boys were surely dressed in their "Sunday-go-to-meeting" clothes. They are all wearing jackets with vests. None of them look too comfortable, with poor Lew looking particularly uncomfortable, with all of his jacket buttons buttoned and the jacket appearing to be a bit small. While the photos may have been taken by an itinerant photographer, they surely must have planned to have them taken and dressed accordingly. They are all very solemn, but taking photographs were a much bigger deal back then. They had to remain still and I'm sure wanted to appear as dignified as possible. To me, it's obvious they are brothers, sharing traits like the shape of their heads, similar mouths, noses, and hair. Is there a Ritterhouse feature that continues in the family today? What do you think?

THE IMMIGRANT

My immigrant Ritterhouse ancestor was John William Ritterhouse -- or more accurately, Johann Wilhelm Rittershaus. William (as he was most often referred to) was born in Barmen, Germany. Barmen was a small town located in the valley of the Wupper River, north of Koln/Cologne and east of Dusseldorf. Rittershaus families had lived in this area for several centuries by the time William was born on January 3, 1819 (and there are still many Rittershaus families living there today).

Great-great-grandfather William was probably the fourth child born to Johann Wilhelm Rittershaus and his wife, Anna Wilhelmina Pistor. He had at least three older sisters: Anna Wilhelmina (born April 18, 1814), Johanna Gerdraud (born September 16, 1815), and Helena Carolina (born March 12, 1817). As far as I know (at least so far), that was his immediate family. The family story (according to my Great-Aunt Edna who never knew William, but who lived with his wife Rosena while Edna went to high school) was that the Rittershaus's were farmers, but we don't know for sure. William was a locksmith, probably learning the trade in Barmen.

In 1848, at the age of 28, William left home and sailed to New York City. He first traveled 160 miles to the port city of Bremen -- by foot, a several day hike. So why would a young man with a marketable skill leave the home of his ancestors and his family and friends, carrying all of his belongings in two trunks, journey several days across northern Germany, then purchase passage (for probably around $16) on a small sailing ship, packed in tight steerage quarters with 200 of his fellow countrymen for six long weeks? Oh for a copy of a letter he wrote home or a journal with his deepest thoughts to solve the mystery! But no such luck!

In 1848, revolution in Germany brought many immigrants to America. These immigrants were called Forty-eighters. Other factors that encouraged the German immigration around that time included economic depression on the farms, the introduction of machinery causing displacement and unemployment, and political and religious persecution. In general, German immigrants were not destitute, but were seeking a higher standard of living and were seeking to replicate their cherished agricultural system which was rapidly disappearing in Germany. When I asked my Aunt Edna why our ancestor immigrated, her response was: "I don't know why they came to America. I just supposed that they became dissatisfied with life in Germany." It just seems that life would have had to be pretty dissatisfying to endure the hardships, sacrifices and expenses of such a journey.

Recently, I found that a local Barmen businessman, Theodor Wettstein, organized a large group of Barmen-area residents, including our William Rittershaus, to immigrate to Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. They traveled as a group to Bremen to board the ship George Washington. Reviewing the passenger list for the May 2nd journey of the Washington, you can see that nearly every passenger was from Barmen, Elberfeld or another town from the Wupper valley. Of the 186 passengers, 156 of them ended up with Wettstein in Wisconsin. Fortunately for me, William struck out on his own once he arrived in New York City. Another mystery. Why didn't he go with his fellow Barmenians, surely people he'd known all his life and with whom he had just endured the arduous journey across the Atlantic? There is probably no way to ever know.

What is documented, is that instead of being in Wisconsin, William was in Blair County, Pennsylvania, working as a blacksmith in 1850. From there, he continued to head west to Tazewell County, Illinois, where he is found in 1857, marrying the also German-born Rosena Kramer.

So, if anyone knows more about why and how William immigrated, please add your comments! In the meantime, I'm just grateful that he did make the sacrifices and the extreme efforts to move to Illinois when he did, or else I wouldn't be here to write about him!

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Growing up, I always heard (or at least that's the way I remember it) that my name meant I descended from German royalty. After all Ritter means "Knight" in German and house (or haus) means house which surely actually meant "castle". What a cool name! (Although it was awfully long to learn to spell! Luckily my clever mom figured out that Mickey Mouse had the same number of letters and my sisters and brother and I learned to spell it using the Mickey Mouse Club song: R-I-T / T-E-R / H-O-U-S-E.)

According to one source (Daniel K. Cassel in The Genea-Biographical History of Rittenhouse Family and All Its Branches in America, with Sketches of Their Descendants, published in 1893) the derivation of the name Ritterhouse is thought to be from the Teutonic “Housius, rider” (meaning a knight mounted on horseback), altered to the German “Hausen-Ritter,” then to the Anglo-Saxon “Rittershausen” (which is the plural for Rittershaus) and finally to the English “Ritterhouse.”

There were undoubtedly knighted ancestors in our Ritterhouse past. They may be the "royalty" referred to by relatives such as Great-Great-Uncle Bill who always told his niece, Edna, that we "belonged to the German Royalty”. If Cassel's research is correct, the Ritterhouse name can be traced back to 1591 in Germany, when Mathias, the son of Balthaser (who became Sir Maximilian II), was knighted with a coat-of-arms to the House of Knights (“Housius Riders,” Mounted Horsemen) by his second cousin, Emperor Ferdinand III, of Austria, for fighting against the Turks. About 1652-62, Ferdinand improved the coat-of-arms of Mathias and conferred it upon Georgius (who was Mathias’ nephew, being the son of Conradi, another son of Balthaser) and his descendants, both male and female. Georgius then became Sir Rittershausen. The patent for this coat-of-arms is recorded in Barmen, a city in Westphalia. Rittershaus’ obviously lived in the Barmen-Wuppertal area as early as 1466 as indicated by the map above.

Royalty or not, Knight's Castle, House of Knights or Mounted Horsemen, it doesn't really matter. Ritterhouse is still a cool name!

Ritterhouse Roots Ramblings: The Beginning

Researching my Ritterhouse roots has led me to meet and reconnect with family and to meet new friends, as well as to learn about the history and culture of my ancestors. In this blog I'm planning to share information I've learned and stories I've heard about the Ritterhouse/Rittershaus family. I'm hoping that some of my Ritterhouse/Rittershaus cousins will share and discuss along with me. Hopefully, about once a week, I plan to post a picture and "talk" about what I know or don't know about it. So, join me in my quest to learn everything there is to know about the Ritterhouse/Rittershaus family history!