Recent discoveries from Linda Ritter of Louisiana detail the Ritter family history through personal letters as well as an oral family history written in 1910 by Murry Connie Ritter as told by his father William Young Ritter who passed the oral history down from his grandfather, Everett Ritter, Sr. The oral history and letters richly detail the beginning of the Ritter family in America through the migration of John Heinrich Ritter and two brothers from Germany to Pennsylvania in the late 1600's.
John Heinrich Ritter [d. 1739] and his wife Elisabeth settled in Pennsylvania where they are believed to have lived the rest of their lives. Several children continued the migration and moved south by 1732. John Heinrich "Henry" Ritter Jr. settled in Virginia and brothers Christian and Frederick migrated to the Carolina Colony near present day Salisbury, NC. Several daughters were born to Henry and Elisabeth including Margaretha, Maria, Elisabeth and Hannah.
In 1734, Henry Ritter married Sarah MNU in Virginia. His parents disapproved as she was not German. Jesse Ritter Sr. was born to them in 1735 and Sarah died during childbirth or shortly thereafter. After Sarah's death, Henry Ritter relocated to Salisbury, NC near his brother and remarried a cousin of his mother, Augusta "Gussie" Hobson Holt in 1736. She was also recently widowed. Henry and Gussie had several children but only John Ritter was named. According to the oral history, Jesse Ritter and his half-brother John left the Salisbury, NC area and settled in Moore County, NC near their uncle Moses Ritter. Jesse reportedly married Susannah/Hanna/Anna Wallace and had Everett, John, Hannah, August [died young], Thomas, Cloey, Elizabeth, James [never married], Jesse, Nancy and Susan. Jesse's wife Susannah apparently left him and he remarried Charlotte and had Hannah and Daniel. Susannah returned and "ran off" Charlotte and the kids and they left for South Carolina. After Jesse Ritter died, his oldest son Everett migrated to Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. These letters as well as other heirlooms went with Everett and were passed down through multiple generations.
1843 - 1930 (86 years)