ROSA'S KIDS: PART 1 -- JOHN

As reported in the last post (FIRST DAUGHTER, ROSA), Rosa Ritterhouse Schlereth had four children with her husband, John William Schlereth.  One Ritterhouse cousin reported to me that her grandfather, E.H. Ritterhouse, told her that Rosa was the keeper of the family history.  It's tantalizing to think there might be family records and stories passed down through her descendants.  Tracing the lives of her children, I was excited to find that she appears to have living descendants.  John and Rosa had four children:  John William, Emma, Edward Charles and Elmer Bryan.  Here's a little bit about each of them (broken up into the next four posts).



John William
John and Rosa's first child was named either for his father or for his maternal grandfather, John William Rittershaus (or possibly for both since they shared the same given names).  John (the son) was born on February 19, 1880 in Tazewell County, Illinois, in or near the small town of Pekin. He completed the eighth grade, mostly (if not all) while living in Illinois.  By the time he was 16, his family had relocated to Seneca, Kansas, about 400 miles southwest of Pekin.  On May 4, 1898 (at the age of 18) he enlisted in the Spanish War, serving as a Private until November 3rd, in Co. K of the 22nd Kansas Infantry.


The Spanish-American War is not thought about much.  The two things you probably learned about the Spanish War of 1898 were the sinking of the Battleship Maine in Havana harbor and the formation of the Rough Riders by Teddy Roosevelt.  Although the main issue was Cuban independence, the ten-week war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. On May 3, 1898, Company K of the 22nd Kansas Infantry was organized at Seneca and John enlisted the next day. (According to his military record, he was a musician in his company.)  The war consisted of a series of one-sided American naval and military victories on all fronts, owing to our numerical superiority in most of the battles and despite the good performance of some of the Spanish infantry units. The outcome was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, which was favorable to the U.S. followed by temporary American control of Cuba and indefinite colonial authority over Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. The defeat and subsequent end of the Spanish Empire was a profound shock for Spain’s national psyche.

 

By April 1900, John was working as a farm laborer, back in Seneca, Nemaha County, Kansas, in northern Kansas.  Ten years later, he was a hired man on a farm near the community of Ohio, in Stafford County, Kansas, about 250 miles southwest of Seneca, in the heart of Kansas wheat country.  He was still living in Stafford County (in St. John) in September 1917 when he registered for WWI.  He was described, at this time, as being of medium height, slight build, with gray eyes and light hair. I'm not sure where John was living between 1917 and 1940, but by 1940 he was back living with his mother and his brother Edward who had since moved to Falls City, Nebraska.  In 1945, on January 1st, at the rather advanced age of 64, John married for the first time.  His new wife was Bessie Susan Boggess, who was 38 years old, 26 years his junior.  They were married in Hiawatha (Brown County), Kansas, but established their home in Salem, Nebraska.  Later that year, they moved a few miles east to Falls City.

John and Bessie raised their two children in Falls City.  Their son, Daryld W.  was born on February 18, 1946.  Daryld married Dolores Whaley on November 22, 1969.  They lived in Lincoln where Dolores worked for the University of Nebraska.  Dolores died at the relatively young age of 58, on May 28, 2004 and is buried in Lincoln.  As far as I can tell, Daryld still lives in Lincoln.  From Dolores' obituary it does not appear that they had any children.  Bessie and John also had a daughter, Darla, who is married to Larry Cummings.  They have lived in Bellevue, Nebraska and in Lincoln.  It appears that they may still be living in Lincoln.  According to Bessie's obituary, they had at least two daughters, Krista (Scott) and Amber (Cummings).  At the time of Bessie's death, Darla and Larry also had three grandchildren:  Steven Scott, Sierra Scott and Branden Jones, all of whom were living in Lincoln.

John may have lived long enough to see a grandchild or two.  Luckily (since he married at such an advanced age), he lived a good long life.  He died at the age of 91, on March 9, 1971, in Falls City, Nebraska.  His wife, Bessie, outlived him by 28 years, dying on August 7, 1999 in Lincoln.  Bessie was buried in Maple Cemetery in Salem (Richardson County), Nebraska, near Falls City.  My guess is that John was buried there also, but I have not found a record of his burial site.