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.

FIRST DAUGHTER, ROSA

The second child and oldest daughter of William and Rosina Ritterhouse/Rittershaus was named Anna Rosa, probably after her mother Rosina who went by "Rosa".  Anna Rosa also went by Rosa (or maybe Rose sometimes), her entire life.  She was born in Pekin (Tazewell County), Illinois on July 22, 1860 (according to her death certificate).

Rosa's parents were German-born immigrants who had been in America twelve years (her father William) and eight years (her mother Rosina).  Her father was already 41 at the time of her birth; her mother was 29.  William and Rosina apparently became naturalized citizens the year of her birth (as per the 1920 U.S. Census).  Rosa had an older brother who was about 21 months old awaiting her.  In just a few months, her mother would again be pregnant with a baby girl who would die in infancy --  Anna Mary (born September 2, 1861).  Eventually, Rosa would have five younger Ritterhouse siblings for whom she, no doubt, helped care, especially after her father died in 1876 when Rosa was nearly 16.

Rosa completed at least five years of school in Tazewell County.  When she was 18 (on May 29, 1879 to be exact), Rosa married a local man who was nearly twice her age, the 34-year-old, German-born John William Schlereth.  (John William was the son of John and Barbara Schlereth.)  Having immigrated to America from Germany in 1868, by 1879 he was living in Elm Grove Township, Tazewell County, Illinois, working as a laborer.

Rosa Ritterhouse Schlereth with her husband John and children Emma, Edward and John

John and Rosa began their family immediately, with their first child, a boy they named John William, no doubt after his father, arriving a little less than nine months later, on February 19, 1880.  The following year, their only daughter was born on July 7, 1881 and was given the name Emma Lese.  While still living in Illinois, they had a third child, Edward Charles, born on June 10, 1886.

In 1890, Rosa's (apparently widowed) mother Rosina Ritterhouse VanDorn bought land in northern Kansas in Marshall County.  It appears that all of Rosina's children moved with her.  John Lewis, Anna Louise, Frederick William and their half-sister Emma VanDorn (who was only about 10 years old) probably lived with Rosina on her new farm which was just 1/2 mile from the Nebraska state line.  George and Charles each purchased 80 acres in Nemaha County, just a few miles from their mother's farm, and big brother William leased land in Nemaha County.  In 1900 Rosa and John were also living in Nemaha County, in the town of Seneca.  Since their fourth (and final) child, Elmer Bryan, was born in Kansas on February 18, 1896, they apparently had been living there for several years.



Downtown Falls City, Nebraska in 1907

At some point between April 1900 and April 1910 (when the U.S. Censuses were taken), two important events occurred in the Schlereth family.  (I have not been able to determine exactly when the events happened or in what order they occurred.)   During that first decade of the twentieth century, John William Schlereth died, leaving Rosa a widow while in her forties.  Also during that decade, the family moved about fifty miles northeast and across the state line to Falls City, Nebraska.  According to Rosa's death certificate, she lived in Falls City for the last 41  years of her life. That indicates she may have moved there in 1900 or thereabouts.


John P. Falter's 1946 oil painting of downtown
Falls City, Nebraska used as Saturday Evening
Post cover 

Falls City, Nebraska is located in the southeast corner of the state, near the state lines of Missouri and Kansas.  It was founded by an abolitionist couple from New York in 1857 to use as a location to ferry slaves from the slave state of Missouri to the free state of Kansas.  The town won a battle with a neighboring town to become the county seat of Richardson County and became an important railroad hub.

Rosa lived in various houses in Falls City during the forty years she lived in that town.  It appears she always lived with at least one of her children.  In 1910, she was living in a rented house in Ward 2 on Barada Street with her sons Edward (23) and Elmer (13).  Ten years later, she was living in the home of Walter Jones at 717 Harlan Street with her sons Edward (now 33) and John (39).  Then in 1930, Rosa was still living with her son Edward, now in a home she owned in the 3rd Ward at 806 Lane Street.  Near the end of her life, in 1940, at the age of 79, Rosa was living in another house she owned a few blocks away at 1123 Chase Street.  Edward, still single at 54, continued to live with her, along with John who was now 60.  According to the census record, they had lived in that house for at least five years.

Rosa spent her life as a wife and mother, living with and caring for her children all her life.  She had at least two grandchildren; daughter Emma had a son and son Elmer had a daughter.  Her children lived most of their lives in the Falls City area so, no doubt, her children and grandchildren were involved in her life.  Rosa lived a long life, dying at the age of 80 years, 5 months and 21 days on January 13, 1941.  She died of a cerebral hemorrhage accompanied by debilitating weakness and senility.  She was buried in the Rosehill Cemetery in Douglas, Nebraska which is located about 90 miles northwest of Falls City, outside of Lincoln.  Apparently her grave is unmarked but is located near the grave of her son Edward.




It seems like Rosa Ritterhouse Schlereth was less connected to the rest of her family.  I definitely have fewer pictures of her and have less information about her.  I have some information about her children which I'll include in a later post.  I'm hoping we can connect to some of her descendants and learn more about her life.

A RUBBING DOCTOR IN THE FAMILY

Anna Ritterhouse

I've been fascinated with Anna Ritterhouse ever since my Great-Aunt Edna Ritterhouse told me she was a "rubbing doctor" (a term I had never heard before).

Anna was the youngest daughter of (John) William and Rosena Ritterhouse and was only seven years old when her father died.  Born on May 25th in 1869 in Tazewell County, Illinois, Anna lived a long life, outliving two husbands but never having any children.  She died in Colorado Springs, Colorado on February 24, 1949, approaching her 80th birthday.

Ed and Anna Nolte

For forty years Anna lived at 1011 N. Corona in Colorado Springs, having moved there from Falls City, Nebraska with her first husband, Edwin Nolte about 1909.  Edwin was twenty years her senior and died in 1917.  Sometime after 1922, she remarried a divorcee, William Ebright who died a few years later (in January 1929).  Apparently after her oldest brother, William Ritterhouse, became too ill to continue to take care of their mother, Rosena, Anna moved her into the house on Corona in Colorado Springs where Rosena lived until her death at 99 years and 9 months, in 1931.

Anna buried both husbands and her mother in Evergreen

Anna (standing) with her mother Rosena, husband William
Ebright (left) and brother William Ritterhouse (right)

Cemetery in Colorado Springs, all marked with one headstone (which also includes her own name as she was eventually buried there also).  (See photos of both sides of the headstone below.)

According to the 1940 census, the highest grade that Anna completed was third grade.  She apparently began her career in alternative medicine about 1896 to 1898 while she and her husband (Ed Nolte) were living in Falls City, Nebraska (based on a 1909 ad where she stated she had eleven years experience and a 1910 ad that claimed she'd been practicing "for fourteen years").  An ad in the July 5, 1908 edition of the Colorado Springs Gazette reported:

     MRS. ED NOLTE, magnetic healer, office at 508 Cache la Poudre St.  Office hours
     9 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 4 p.m.  Sunday by appointment.

Ads in the same newspaper the following year provided more details:

     MRS. ED NOLTE, magnetic healer, has now moved to her new home, which she
     has recently bought at 1011 N. Corona St.  She can be found at her office here
     between 9 and 11 a.m. and 1 and 4 p.m.  All chronic diseases successfully
     treated by her method of curing disease without medicines or surgery, rheumatism
     a specialty.  (June 11, 1909)

     MAGNETIC HEALING A SUCCESS  Mrs. Ed Nolte has demonstrated this fact
     time and again for eleven years.  Mrs. Nolte has given her entire time to this
     healing, which requires a perfect knowledge of its application;  it is logical and
     its cures are certain and permanent;  it is not a myth but is founded on common
     sense and appeals to the judgment of every unprejudiced person.  Office at
     residence, 1011 N. Corona.  (November 4, 1909)

House in Colorado Springs at 1011 N. Corona in 2007

Use of magnets for healing dates back several centuries -- basically since the discovery of magnetism.  In the Middle Ages, doctors used magnets to treat gout, arthritis, poisoning and baldness.  In the 19th century it was very popular and then enjoyed a revival in the 1970s when it was supposedly found that magnets could kill cancer cells in animals and could also cure arthritis pain, glaucoma, infertility and other conditions.  Magnetic therapy involves placing magnets of varying sizes and strengths on the body to try to relieve pain or treat disease.  Although scientifically debunked many times over, "magnetic charms, bracelets, insoles, and braces remain popular and are sold with claims that they improve athletic performance, relieve arthritis pain, increase energy, and pretty much treat whatever symptoms you might have" (http://www.csicop.org/si/show/ magnetic_healing_an_old_scam_that_never_dies).

From censuses and city directories, it appears that Anna was no longer a practicing magnetic healer by the 1920s.  The 1920 R.L. Polk Directory shows that Anna (now widowed) was a housekeeper at the Elk Hotel and was living in the rear of her house at 1011 N. Corona, the front apparently rented out to a Mr. R.E. Holcomb.

But back to that "rubbing doctor" description.  What exactly was a "rubbing doctor" and how does it relate to a "magnetic healer"?  According to my research, rubbing doctors were early versions of chiropractors and it was not uncommon for the magnetic healers to also practice the early chiropractic methods in the course of their healings (and vice versa).

 

THE RITTERHOUSE DAUGHTERS

It appears that in my previous blog posts I have ignored William and Rosena's daughters. This was brought to my attention by one of our cousins who requested seeing pictures of the daughters. So here they are.

The oldest daughter was Rosa Ritterhouse. Obviously named after her mother, Rosena (who often went by the name of Rosa) she was born in 1860 in Illinois. I think Rosa's real name was probably Anna Rosa since that name shows up in her father's probate papers. She married John William Schlereth, a German immigrant who was living in the Tazewell County area. They moved to Nemaha County, Kansas where Rosena and the rest of the family purchased or leased farms. In 1900, the Schlereth family moved to Falls City, Nebraska, where Rosa lived the remaining 41 years of her life.

A second daughter was apparently born September 2, 1861. Named Anna Mary, she was Rosena and William’s first child to die. According to one source, she “died as an infant”. Her death date and cause of death are not known. As far as I know, no picture remains of the infant.

William and Rosena's third daughter was born in 1869. They named her Anna Louise, calling her Anna. Anna also lived in Falls City, Nebraska for a time, before moving to Colorado Springs, where she lived for the remainder of her life. Rosena was living with her daughter Anna during the last few years of her life.

Rosena had a fourth daughter, Emma Louise VanDorn. in 1880, by her second husband, Joseph VanDorn. Emma married Edward M. Montague. Ed and Emma farmed in Brown County, Kansas, in the far northeastern corner of the state, their entire lives.

These were the Ritterhouse daughters. I will try to do fuller profiles of Rosa, Anna and Emma in the future in this Ritterhouse Roots blog.

INDIANAPOLIS 500 RACER -- TROY RUTTMAN

So far in this blog, I have been trying to go somewhat chronologically, but as I finally resume writing about our Ritterhouse Roots (after a year's absence), I'm departing from that practice. And, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 which is being raced this weekend on Sunday, May 29th, I'm profiling the man who is probably our most famous American “Ritterhouse”: Troy Ruttman. In 1952, at the age of 22, he became the youngest winner ever in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” – the Indy 500 – a record that stands to this day. He won it the year I was born (in fact a week after I was born) on May 31, 1952.

Troy was born March 11, 1930 in Mooreland, Oklahoma, the son of Ralph "Butch" Ruttman and Mary Ellen Ritterhouse. Mary was the daughter of George and Cora (Tyner Shipman) Ritterhouse. George was one of William and Rosena's sons who went to Oklahoma in the early 1890s. He settled in the Mutual, Oklahoma area in Woodward County (in the panhandle). Ralph grew up in Mooreland, Oklahoma, not far from where Mary's older brother, Lloyd George, was living in 1920. According to one online site (The Autosport Bulletin Board), Ralph "was an unsuccessful racer in Oklahoma in the twenties and the thirties, and with his family moved to California in the forties to find his luck". He apparently was a fine mechanic, though, and served as chief mechanic for several successful open wheel racers.

Troy began his driving “career” at the age of 9 when he received his first traffic ticket, having volunteered to drive his mother to visit a friend. At 15, he raced "jalopies" in Los Angeles backyards. According to his Wikipedia article, he entered his family car in a roadster race at San Bernardino, California in 1945 (when he was 15) and won the race. He reportedly went on to win 19 of the 21 events staged there that season. At 16 he was racing track roadsters at Carrell Speedway in Gardena, California and at 17 he graduated to WRA (Western Racing Association) "Class B" Sprint Cars. By 1947, he was the California Roadster Association roadster champion. He also won his first five midget car races that season. The next year he again won the CRA championship, along with the United Racing Association Blue Circuit championship and 23 midget car events. In 1949, Troy left California for the AAA Sprint and Championship car circuits of the Midwest. His New York Times obituary (published May 21, 1997) reported that Troy "first raced at the so-called Brickyard in 1949 at 19, two years younger than Indianapolis Motor Speedway rules allowed. 'I had to fudge to get in,' Ruttman recalled years later. 'I had to produce a birth certificate. Ralph Wayne Ruttman was my cousin, and I used his. They asked me why I went by Troy and I told them it was a nickname. I corrected it when I turned 21.'"


In the 1952 Indy race, after qualifying seventh, Ruttman led 40 laps in mid race and was steadily closing on leader Bill Vukovich. He took the lead 20 miles from the finish when Vukovich's car had a broken steering pin. His victory came while driving one of the famous red and cream No. 98 cars entered by J.C. Agajanian, a Southern California race promoter. He also set a new record at 128.922 miles per hour in that race. “A towering figure at 6 foot, 3 inches and 250 pounds, he undoubtedly was the biggest winner, too,” writes Shav Glick in Ruttman's Motorsports Hall of Fame profile. He won five times in the AAA and USAC Indy Champ Car competition in 58 official starts. He won only one more Indy car race, a month after the 500, before breaking his arm severely in a sprint car accident in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which kept him away from racing for nearly two years.

Troy Ruttman competed in numerous Indianapolis 500 races from 1949 to 1964. In 1958, he became the first Indy 500 winner to drive in a Formula One race when he drove at Reims, France.

According to racing historian Terry Reed, Troy is “arguably America’s greatest automobile racing talent.” But, Troy admitted that his winning the 500 at 22 was “a classic case of too much, too soon.” One online source argues that Ruttman could have been a contender on the Formula 1 race circuit if it hadn't been for the "petty pace lap crash" at Cedar Rapids on August 17 in 1952. Before the accident, he qualified fastest for 40 events, against only two after 1952. From 1949 to 1952, in just four years, he won 49 "AAA Big Car races" and finished second in most other races in which he finished. After his accident, he never won again. Instead of undergoing strenuous rehabilitation following his arm injury, he spent his time, in his own words, "Drinking, playing cards and chasing women."

After driving in his 12th 500, in 1964, he abruptly retired. He was only 34. In hia words, "I want to walk out of it alive with my head up." He said he felt racing had been good to him but "every time I sit down in a race car death is sitting right beside me." He had been injured seriously several times and narrowly escaped death in that year's Indianapolis 500 in which one of his closest friends, Detroiter Eddie Sachs was killed. Troy had been running alongside Sachs when the fatal crash occurred. Sadly, it was Troy's son, Troy Ruttman, Jr., who lost his life racing. Young Ruttman's race car went through a guard rail and chain link fence at Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, in May of 1969. He was only 19 years old.

Handsome, personable and gregarious, Troy Ruttman was a natural salesman and built a thriving motorcycle and snowmobile business in Detroit. Later, Troy learned to fly, moved to Venice, Florida, and ran an aircraft brokerage business. More significantly, he quit the fast life that he'd known since he was a teenager. "I'm more proud of giving up drinking and gambling and all that other stuff than I am of winning the 500," he said a few years before he died of lung cancer on May 19, 1997. He was living in Lake Havasu City, Arizona at the time.

Troy’s younger brother Joe (born October 28, 1944) followed his big brother’s car tracks into the world of automobile racing, but that's another blog post!

WILLIAM FREDERICK RITTERSHOUSE, ELDEST SON

Sixty-five years ago this week, the eldest son of John William and Rosena Ritterhouse broke his leg in an accidental fall and died two days later from the "shock of [the] fracture of [his] leg." His home at the time was the Masonic Home in Wichita, Kansas.

William Frederick Ritterhouse was born, like the rest of his siblings, in Tazewell County, Illinois. According to his death certificate, he was born in Tremont, Illinois on Halloween of 1858. No doubt, he helped his father farm on land west of Pekin, Illinois. Then, as the oldest son, he would have helped his mother after his father's untimely death in 1870.

William was the first of his family to leave home and settle in Kansas. By the time William was 21, he was a farm laborer on a farm in Brown County, Kansas, near Hiawatha (according to the 1880 Census). Brown County is in northeastern Kansas approximately 375 miles from his home in Illinois. Although it may not be possible to ever know, I wonder why William went there. In 1880, he was working on the farm of Samuel Meyers. Five years later, when the state of Kansas took a census, he was working as a farmer and living with the J.D. Crook family in Hamlin, Kansas (also in Brown County). Mr. Crook was a butcher.

Probably when the rest of his family relocated to Kansas in the 1890s, William began farming in Nemaha and Marshall Counties. In October 1904, he purchased a home in Blue Rapids, at 301 N. Main where he lived with his mother. In Blue Rapids, he was the water superintendent. Later, he moved with Rosena to Scott City, Kansas, where he also served as water superintendent. (According to his death certificate, he was an electrical engineer.) He reportedly became deaf, possibly from working around the noisy machinery in the water plants.

William's Blue Rapids, Kansas, home ca. 2000


The eldest Ritterhouse child went by the name Rittershouse until World War I, when anti-German sentiments convinced him to change it. According to his niece Edna, he always stated that "Rittershouse" was the “German way”. He never married, apparently taking care of his mother until he was no longer able to. Rosena lived with him in his house in Blue Rapids and his house in Scott City. His niece, Edna, lived with them during her high school years since the schools near her stopped at the eighth grade.



Advice from “Uncle Bill” to his niece Edna in her autograph book in 1903.


In Marshall County, William (or Uncle Bill or Uncle Will as his nieces and nephews called him) was active in various patriotic/fraternal organizations. He participated in meetings at the P.O.S. of A. camp, and the Masonic Grand Lodge. He reported having a “grand good time” when he visited the Leavenworth Masonic Grand Lodge (according to the February 26, 1892 Axtell Anchor). (The Patriotic Order Sons of America (P.O.S. of A.) was "organized December 10, 1847 to preserve the Public School System, The Constitution of the United Sates and our American way of life.")William also helped organize a lodge of Odd Fellows in the neighboring town of Baileyville while he was living in Axtell.

Uncle Bill spent the last 12 years of his life in the Masonic Home in Wichita, Kansas. In 1896, the Masonic Order and Order of the Eastern Star purchased the estate of Robert Lawrence and used his former home as a retirement home for members until a fire destroyed the facility in 1916. In 1917, a new facility was constructed at the site (on the corner of Seneca and Maple), designed in the Mission architectural style. Completed in 1921, the buildings are known for their white stucco walls and red tile roof. On June 25, 1946, William fell and broke his leg. Unfortunately, he died two days later, at the age of 87, from complications from the fall. He is buried in a simply-marked grave in the Maple Grove Cemetery in Wichita in a section donated by the cemetery for the Masonic Home.

[Note: I started this post last year, but basically wrote it in June 2011 and actually posted it June 25, 2011, which is why I refer to the anniversary of his death being "this week".]

UPDATE ON "VOYAGE TO AMERICA" POST

Back in February, I wrote a post on John William Rittershaus' voyage to America. At the time I was researching and writing that post, I e-mailed the Focke-Museum in Bremen, Germany which is the port from which William departed his home country for his new life in America. The Focke-Museum explores the immigrant experience and I had read that this museum had a model of the ship William sailed to America on, the George Washington. Just recently, five months later, I received an e-mail from the museum with a photo of the model attached. Looking at this photograph, you can tell that the George Washington was not a large ship, and it is amazing that this small ship carried 186 passengers plus the crew for the six week journey across the Atlantic ocean. I had thought that the Washington was surely a steamship, but it looks like it was a three-masted sailing ship. I guess that explains why it took six weeks to travel from Bremen to New York City. The museum did not send any information about the ship or its voyages. I'm still hoping to learn more about both of those topics and if I do, I'll post further updates.