GEORGE RITTERHOUSE -- OKIE FARMER:

[Note:  Many thanks go to one of my cousins, Charles Lee Ritterhouse, who is a descendant of George Ritterhouse, and who helped me write this biography of his grandfather.]

George Ritterhouse, the third son of William and Rosena Rittershouse, was born in Pekin, Tazewell County, Illinois on May 28, 1863, during the Civil War.  His father, William, died on June 24, 1876, leaving George a fatherless young boy on the edge of puberty at 13 years old.  Not much is known about George during his early years.  After William's death in 1876, Rosena had to settle the estate which left her with some debt and a large family. She remarried and later sold the Illinois farm and moved the Ritterhouse family to Marshall County, Kansas in October of 1890.

George ca 1880 at about age 17

By this time George was a young man of 27 and took advantage of the opportunity to establish himself as a farmer by purchasing 80 acres in nearby Nemaha County, Kansas in 1891.  Now he needed a wife.  He met a young widow, Cora Bell Tyner Shipman.  Cora was born on September 14, 1869 in Morristown, Indiana.  George and Cora were married on August 26, 1891 in Axtell, in Marshall County, Kansas, at the home of Cora's parents, Henry Clay and Mary Ellen (Crandall) Tyner.  Henry Clay Tyner was a Civil War veteran.

Cora was an adventurous young lady for her times.  She grew up in Indiana but had travelled to Kansas and Iowa to visit family while she was still young.  Cora married Albert Shipman on March 22, 1887 (at the age of 17) in Axtell, Kansas.  Albert was also born in Morristown (Shelby County), Indiana (in 1866).  To this marriage two sons were born.  Fredrick Clay Shipman was born on September 19, 1888 in Thornburg, Keokuk County, Iowa.  Frank Cecil Shipman was born on February 19, 1890 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Not much is known about Cora and Albert's work in Iowa, but it was not long before they returned to Axtell, Kansas, the home of Cora's parents, possibly because of Albert's failing health.  Albert worked on the farm until he died of consumption on March 24, 1891.  He died at the home of Henry Clay Tyner in Axtell and was buried in the Shockley Cemetery in Marshall County, Kansas.


Consequently, Cora, at the age of 22, was left a young widow with two very young children.  But the 29-year-old George Ritterhouse came to her rescue and they were married just five months after Albert's death.  They immediately settled on George's recently purchased 80 acres and began adding to their family.  Charles Earl Ritterhouse was born ten months after their wedding on June 30, 1892.



George Ritterhouse holding son Charles Earl, with wife Cora.
Cora's sister, Sarah Lydia Tyner (Cray Eaton) stands behind them.
Taken in Axtell, Kansas, ca. 1893.

 
 
Lloyd George Ritterhouse made his appearance on February 22, 1894.  About this time, Oklahoma was promoting a homesteading land rush in western Oklahoma to be held that year.  George wanted that free 160 acres from the Oklahoma land rush.  According to the Axtell Anchor dated April 6, 1894, "H.C. Tyner and Geo. L. Rittershouse and their families left for the [Oklahoma] Strip. . .where they will locate."  They would have travelled the 300 miles by covered wagon, taking all of the items they would need to homestead. George and Cora had four boys in their family unit:  Frederick Clay Shipman who was 6 years old, Frank Cecil Shipman who was 4, Charles Earl Ritterhouse who was 2 and Lloyd George, only 2 months old.  The Henry Clay Tyner family included his wife Mary Ellen Crandall Tyner, daughter Sarah Lydia Tyner who was 14 years old and Frank Albert Tyner, 12 years old.  This would have made an interesting wagon train.

The Oklahoma Land Rushes opened up some of the best unoccupied public land in the United States.  The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 was the first land rush into the unassigned lands and included all or part of the modern day Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma and Payne counties.  That land run started at high noon on April 22, 1889 with an estimated 50,000 people lined up for their piece of the available two million acres.  The Indian Appropriation Bill of 1889 authorized President Benjamin Harrison to open the two million acres for settlement.  The Homestead Act of 1862, signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, allowed legal homesteaders to claim lots up to 160 acres in size.  Provided a settler lived on the land and improved it, the homesteader could then receive the title to the land.  A second major Oklahoma Land Rush was held in 1893.  At precisely twelve noon on September 16, 1893, a cannon's boom unleashed the largest land rush America ever saw.  Carried by all kinds of transportation -- horses, wagons, trains, bicycles or on foot -- an estimated 100,000 potential land-owners raced to claim plots of lands in an area of land in northern Oklahoma Territory known as the Cherokee Strip.  The impact of the land rush was immediate and transformed the land almost overnight.

Example of sod dugout on the prairie

The Tyner family decided to stake their claim in Waukomis, Garfield County, Oklahoma.  George and Cora first settled in Waukomis before moving another 90 miles west to Persimmon Flats in Woodward County to homestead.  Persimmon Flats was the early name for Mutual, Oklahoma.  Charles Earl remembered hearing his father recall how they had one dime in cash money left when they reached Persimmon Flats.  They lived in a sod dugout until a house could be built.  Their living conditions would have been very primitive on their homestead.  A sod dugout was built by digging a hole in the ground about three to four feet deep.  It was usually small since it was difficult to dig in the hard-packed prairie soil.  Walls were built out of the sod removed in the digging, usually only rising about three feet (or less) above the ground.  Trees were scrounged from surrounding areas, sometimes miles away, to use for roofing timbers and then more sod was placed over them to make the roof.  With the roof and walls made of sod, when it rained, the mud dripped onto furniture and people below.  With few or no windows and only a small doorway, it was dark and dreary inside.

Woodward, Oklahoma in 1894

Persimmon Flats was located in Woodward County, about 20 miles southeast of the "bustling" town of Woodward, the county seat. Before the Civil War, the historic Plains tribes of the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Cheyenne and Arapaho occupied this area. After construction of the railroad to the area, in 1887 settlers established Woodward at the junction of the Fort Reno Military Road and the Southern Kansas Railway (a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe).  It became one of the most important shipping points for shipping cattle east. The Santa Fe Railroad created an important resource for the early settlers getting their farm products to market and being able to purchase manufactured goods needed for the new homesteads being established there.



Oklahoma map showing location of Mutual in
Woodward County

George and Cora somehow made it through the first very cold winter living in their sod dugout.  Finally, the spring of 1895 arrived and they could begin the work of improving their living conditions and getting crops planted.  It was essential to get food started for the growing family.  According to family stories, Cora served as postmistress at the Mutual Post Office from 1895 to 1901.  When the post office was first established, names were solicited from individuals.  Cora recommended the name of Mutual which ended up being selected over Persimmon Flats.  Cora also worked with the local doctor, acting as a midwife and delivering babies.

Cora also soon had another baby of her own to be delivered.  Alma Beatrice Ritterhouse arrived on September 10th in 1896.  Beginning four years later, babies began arriving every two years:

     Cora Olive was born November 6, 1900.
     Feign Iris was born August 24, 1902.
     Edgar Harold was born September 5, 1904.
     Mary Ellen was born August 26, 1906.
     Oleta Rosena was born October 17, 1908.


Fortunately, George and Cora's farm was very productive since it had to support their large family.  According to the book Oklahoma Rural Settlers in Woodward County, 1893-1910 by Nadine Young Billingsley and Sandra Billingsley (on page 256):

    "George Ritterhouse owned a 160 acre fenced cultivated upland farm, 60 acres were alfalfa,
     4,000 forest and 250 fruit trees were planted.  Property had a four-room frame house, stable
     14 by 75 foot, granary 8 by 20 feet, hen house, cave and a well."



George (on right) with combine crew. Son Earl is
standing in wagon bed.

George and Cora worked hard in order to feed their family of 10 children.  Reportedly George and the older boys made frequent wagon trips from Mutual to Woodward to take the farm produce to the Woodward market and return with wagon loads of manufactured goods from the railroad.  He did this for hire similar to the truckers of today.  It took two days to make the twenty-mile round trip, necessitating an overnight stay in Woodward.  George also went from farm to farm with a steam-powered threshing machine and combine crew (complete with traveling kitchen) that would harvest the wheat for hire.  This is how they produced the income to build their frame house.



The Young Ritterhouse Children
From left to right, back row:  Cora Olive, Alma Beatrice, Lloyd George and Charles Earl.
Front row:  Oleta Rosena, Feign Iris, Edgar Harold and Mary Ellen

The Ritterhouse children, of course, continued to grow up, as can be seen in this photograph.  Although undated, it can be estimated to have been taken around 1915 based on the children's ages.  The children all look healthy and well-dressed.  That, along with other details in the photo such as the wall telephone and apparently a pet parakeet, imply a level of prosperity not easy to achieve in that time and place.  By this time, the Shipman boys most likely were out on their own since they would have been in their mid-to-late-20s.  The oldest Ritterhouse son, Charles Earl, served in World War I; most likely this photograph was taken a year or two before his service in the Army.





From left to right: Oleta, Mary Ellen, Feign, Alma, Olive, Charles Earl and Lloyd.
(Edgar was not available for the photo.)


 

George and Cora were charter members of the First Christian Church in Mutual.  It was originally organized in a log schoolhouse known as the Morgan School, which was located one mile north and one mile east of Mutual. 

"When the population peaked at 264 in 1910, Mutual residents could attend a Methodist or [the First] Christian Church and had access to the Farmers' Bank and later also to the First National Bank. A feed mill, a machine shop, and a dealer in poultry and dairy products served local farmers. For several decades the town supported a hotel and thirteen retail establishments. The Persimmon Valley Index and Oklahoma Enterprise newspapers were published in the early years. . .  Before World War I Mutual's population may have approached four hundred."  [Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture http:// digital. library. okstate. edu/ encyclopedia/ entries/M/ MU025.html] 


George led a hard but productive life.  After moving numerous times in his early life, around Tazewell County in central Illinois, then to northern Kansas and finally to western Oklahoma, he spent his last thirty years on the land he homesteaded in the Oklahoma Land Rush.  He died January 20, 1924 at the relatively young age of 61, from bronchial pneumonia.  He preceded his mother and all of his brothers and sisters in death.  After services in the First Christian Church of which he was a charter member, he was laid to rest in the Dunlap Cemetery in Mutual. [Note:  There are discrepancies between the information in this obituary, the information on George's headstone and the information on his death certificate which is not unusual.]

George's death left Cora a widow a second time.  She still had young daughters (14 and 16 years old) living at home.  About two years later, in May 1926, Cora married a local widower, George Washington Huffman.  Huffman owned a farm described as a "160 acre upland farm" with 150 cultivated acres, one acre of forest and three acres of orchards.  The property included a five-room frame house, a 30 by 32 ft barn, a granary, barn, hen house, milk house, smokehouse, hog shed, cellar, well and windmill, according to the book Oklahoma Rural Settlers in Woodward County, Oklahoma 1893 to 1910 (by Nadine Young Billingsley and Sandra Billingsley).

The George Ritterhouse children married local people.  Life became really tough during the Great Depression which was followed by the Dust Bowl in this area.  Charles Earl and Edgar stuck it out on farms near Mutual.  Lloyd had gone to work for one of the oil companies and eventually moved from Mooreland, Oklahoma to Kansas for employment.  During the late 1930's the married Ritterhouse daughters, with their husbands, went west to California, Oregon and Washington to find better opportunities.


Cora Tyner Shipman Ritterhouse Huffman with son Charles Earl Ritterhouse,
granddaughter Mary Ellen Ritterhouse Moser and great-granddaughter Elaine
Moser, taken in April 1945 in front of Charles Earl's house.

Once again Cora became a widow when George Huffman died on December 2, 1933.  She had at least had the time to finish raising her children within a family before his death.  After her last husband's death, Cora moved into the home of her son Edgar, in Mutual where she lived until her death on June 1, 1945.  Even though Cora's death certificate lists her as Cora Bell Huffman, she was buried beside her second husband, George Ritterhouse in the Dunlap Cemetery near Mutual, Oklahoma under the name of Ritterhouse.

 

[NOTE:  Some of the references Charles and I used in writing this post include: websites such as http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/landrush.htm, http://www.findagrave.com, and  http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/M/MU025.html and the reference books  Woodward County Family Histories Volume II (1907-1957) produced by Plains Indians and Pioneer Historical Foundation, Woodward, Oklahoma  and Oklahoma Rural Settlers in Woodward County, Oklahoma 1893-1910 by Nadine Young Billingsley and Sandra Billingsley.]