THE RITTERS AND HAMMANS
OF TUSCARAWAS OH, KOSCIUSKO IN, AND WISCONSIN

The association between the Ritter and Hamman families goes back at least to the 1830's when George Ritter and his brothers John and Jacob were neighbors of Jacob Hamman in Lawrence Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. And it continued well into the 20th century, where my father (born 1911) grew up on a Wisconsin farm across the fields from Uncle Dave Hamman's farm.

The lands of Ohio became open for settlement in the early 1800's, especially after the resolution of the war of 1812 reduced threats from the British and their Indian allies. John Ritter came from Pennsylvania and settled in Sandy Township in Tuscarawas, Ohio, purchasing lot 14 there in 1815. According to an historical account, he was an early blacksmith who sold iron ladles to his neighbors. Soon after, Jacob Hamman settled in the adjacent township of Lawrence, obtaining the east half of lot 11 from his apparent father-in-law Peter Himes in 1818. John Ritter died about 1826, and a few years later his oldest son George moved to Lawrence Township, where he purchased most of lot 19 in 1829. There he became a neighbor of Jacob Hamman and the Himes' family ( MAP ). We don't know if the Hammans, Ritters and Himeses had known each other back in Pennsylvania, but it is possible. In 1832, John Ritter's widow, Barbara and his 2nd son, Abraham, sold the land in Sandy Township. Abraham then moved to Carroll Co., OH for a period, and it seems likely that others of the Ritter family moved to Lawrence Township, including the younger brothers John jr and Jacob and the sister Catherine. George was named guardian of the 16-year old Catherine in 1838, suggesting that the mother Barbara had died by then. In 1839 Jacob Ritter married Sarah Hamman, who is believed to be the daughter of Jacob Hamman and Mary Himes. In that same year John Ritter jr. married Elizabeth "Hamon" who may have been another of Jacob Hamman and Mary Himes' five daughters. In 1840, the youngest sister Catherine Ritter married John Himes, grandson of the settler Peter Himes, and thus most likely the first cousin of Jacob Hamman's children Sarah Hamman Ritter, Peter Hamman, and (possibly) Elizabeth Hamman/Hamon Ritter.

Jacob Hamman's son Peter Hamman moved to NE Kosciusko County, Indiana in 1842. In 1848, John Ritter jr. and his wife Elizabeth Hamman (as it was spelled in Kosciusko records) also moved to NE Kosciusko County. George Ritter and his brother Jacob remained in Tuscarawas through 1850 but then moved to Lake County, IN where the family of their sister Sarah and brother-in-law Jacob Baughman had recently moved. They were joined there by their other brother Abraham, who by that time had been living in Ashland County, Ohio. George died in 1855, and seven of his nine children eventually joined their former Ohio neighbors in NE Kosciusko County, Indiana. George's son Abraham Ritter married Peter Hamman's daughter Mariah in Kosciusko in 1858. Abraham Ritter and his brother Elijah bought most of the land along the east shore of Little Chapman Lake in Plain Township. Elijah's daughter Rachel Ritter eventually married a son of Peter Hamman, Abraham Hamman, in 1874, but they did not have surviving children. When Elijah died in 1887, his widow married Daniel Manier. Daniel was the widower of another daughter of Jacob Hamman (by his 2nd wife Elizabeth Mock), Mary Mariah Hamman. Peter Hamman's wife was a Katherine Ritter. However no connection has been found between his wife and the Tuscarawas County settler John Ritter. Katherine (Ritter) Hamman was apparently the daughter of the Stark County, Ohio, settler, Elias Ritter, who lived just across the county line from Lawrence Township. A recent y-chromosome (DNA) comparison of a descendant of the Stark Co. Elias Ritter and a descendant of the Tuscarawas Co. John Ritter (myself) suggests that the two had no common ancestor within thousands of years, and really were from separate Ritter lineages. Although none of these Ritter-Hamman marriages were between known blood relatives, there was a fairly complex intermingling of the two families.

Another marriage between a Ritter and a descendant of Jacob Hamman occurred in Wisconsin in 1893. But this Ritter was a descendant of the Stark County Ritters rather than the Tuscarawas County Ritters. William H. Ritter, grandson of David Ritter and Nancy Mock, married Edna Manier, granddaughter of Daniel Manier and Mary Mariah Hamman. Although Edna and William are not known to be related, Edna was Peter Hamman's sister's granddaughter and William was Peter's brother-in-law's grandson.

There were still more Ritter-Hamman marital connections. In 1889, David B. Hamman was married to Mary (aka Jennie) Harris who was the sister of Martha Harris. In 1888, Martha had married Simon Peter Ritter, the son of John Ritter jr. and Elizabeth Hamman Ritter. So a number of Ritters in St. Joseph County, Indiana (where Simon P. Ritter settled) are related to the Hamman's of Wisconsin both through a Harris and a Hamman connection. Martha and Jennie's father James Harris lived to an advanced age--somewhere between 101 and 105 according to different census ages. His grandson Melvin Ritter celebrated his 99th birthday in 2000. Unfortunately those of us descended from Abraham Ritter and Mariah Hamman don't share those Harris genes.

My uncle Lewis Ritter used to blame inbreeding for some physical deformities that occurred among a few Hamman and Ritter descendants, but there is no evidence of any kin marriages except one. Daniel Manier's son Emanuel married Abraham Ritter's daughter Mary in 1892. Mary was a great-grandaughter of Jacob Hamman and Manuel was a grandson (through the 2nd wife), so they were (half) 1st cousins, once-removed. Mary died young and Emanuel remarried, and they had one daughter Fay who also died young (at age 18). However, this one marriage cannot explain any physical problem that may have occurred among other Hamman-Ritter descendants.

In Tuscarawas County, members of both the Ritter and Hamman families were associated with the German Brethren ("Dunkard") church. Possibly the Ritters were already Brethren when they came from Pennsylvania or perhaps they joined the church in Ohio. In the 1850 census, George Ritter's occupation was listed as "Dunkard preacher." A family story claims that he died after catching a disease from a sick member of his congregation. Jacob Hamman's son Peter also became a "Tunker minister" in Kosciusko, IN, and my grandfather remained a member of the Brethren church after moving to Wisconsin. However my father and several of his brothers chose the armed services over the pacifist Brethren way of life, and were never baptized.

By the late 19th century, Kosciusko County was no longer the wilderness it had been when the Ritters and Hammans had first arrived from Ohio. Beginning in about 1880, a number of residents of Kosciusko County had moved on to a more isolated, wooded area in North Central Wisconsin, where they built log frame homes and founded three Brethren ("Dunkard") churches. Among those who had settled in Wisconsin were Mitchell Hamman and Jacob Manier, two grandchildren of Jacob Hamman through his 2nd wife. Peter Hamman's youngest son David B. Hamman and my grandfather, William E. Ritter, eventually decided to join the migration. Peter Hamman had died in 1898 and Abraham Ritter died in 1900, so both David and his nephew William Ritter had both recently lost their fathers and perhaps felt it was time to move on. They made the move in 1902. They were supposed to be met at the train station in Stanley Wisconsin by Jacob Manier, David B. Hamman's 1st cousin. Unfortunately, Jake was killed by a run-away team shortly before they arrived and no one was there to meet them. According to family stories, Jake was supposed to have arranged a place for them to stay, but the two families with twelve kids between them and a boxcar full of horses and farm equipment were temporarily homeless. After a few nights in the local hotel, the only place my grandfather was able to find to rent turned out to be so full of rats that he had to stay up nights with a pellet gun to keep the rats off of the kids. Eventually David B. Hamman and William Ritter purchased adjacent farms in Wilson township, Eau Claire County, south of the Pleasant Valley area and near the Maple Grove Brethren Church. The Manier families and Mitchell Hamman lived in Worden Township, Clark County, a few miles away but through a thick woods. A separate Worden Brethren Church had been founded there after the Worden folk found it too difficult to get to the Maple Grove church for Sunday services. Later a third Brethren Church was built in the town of Stanley.

Another relative, John B. Ritter, also made the move from Indiana to Wisconsin, and was living next to Dave Hamman and William Ritter at the time of the 1910 census. John B. Ritter's father was Elias Ritter who had married Anna Rider in Stark Co, Ohio and settled in Kosciusko County in the 1850's. This Elias was apparently the son of an older Elias Ritter and Christena Grindle, and likely the brother of the Catherine Ritter who had married Peter Hamman. Thus he would have been a relative of my grandfather on the Hamman side, not the Ritter side, even though they shared the same last name of Ritter. We don't know what happened to John B. after 1910. Another relative in the area was William Lewallen whose grandfather, David Ritter, was likely another brother of Elias Ritter and Catherine (Ritter) Hamman.

Additional children were born in Wisconsin, and the dozen kids who made the journey with their parents from Indiana eventually numbered 23 who survived to adulthood. They are all gone now, the youngest son of William Ritter dying a few years ago. One Ritter and one Hamman widow still live in the area, but most of the families have moved on, breaking the association between the Hammans and Ritters that lasted for over one hundred years. Except of course in the genes of those of us who are descended from both Hammans and Ritters, where the association can't be broken.

April 1999
Revised Dec 2001