Ritter

The Jesse Ritter, Jr., family of Moore County, North Carolina, and Montgomery County, Missouri, settled in Marion County in 1834. Jesse Ritter, Jr., was the son of Jesse Ritter, Sr., whose first land record in Moore County was dated 1769. On February 4,1802, in Moore County, Jesse Ritter, Jr., married Sarah Richardson, daughter of Drury Richardson, whose father was one of only two settlers in Moore County in 1747, the other being his brother. Jesse Ritter, Jr., served in the War of 1812 as a rifleman in the 4th Regiment of North Carolina Militia. Shortly after 1820, the family moved from Moore County to Montgomery County, Missouri, where they appear in the 1830 census. Jesse Ritter, Jr., died in Marion County on December 15, 1838, and his wife, Sarah Richardson Ritter, born in 1775, died after 1855 in Taney County, Missouri. The known children of this couple were: (1) Drury Ritter, born in 1803 in Moore County and died after 1880 in Lawrence County, Missouri, married about 1828 Susannah -- (1809-1870). Their children were: Mariah, born in 1829 in Missouri; Silvester, born 1830 in Missouri; Luvinia, born in 1841 in Marion County; Arlenna, born in 1838 in Marion County; Lucinda, born in 1841 in Marion County; Jesse, born 1843 in Marion County; Newbern, born in 1847 in Missouri; Clarinda, born in 1849 in Missouri; Sarilda, born in 1850 in Missouri; Perry, born in 1852 in Missouri; and Phelix, born in 1856 in Missouri. (2) Richardson Ritter (born in 1805 in Moore County and died in 1865 in Marion County) married Mary (Polly) Ann --, born about 1805 and died about 1859 in Marion County. This family's land lay on both sides of White River where Bull Shoals Dam now stands. The Ritter Cemetery was upstream from the dam. Their known children were: Sarah, born in 1840 in Searcy County; Mark Wesley, born in 1844 in Searcy County and died in 1861 of smallpox at home in Marion County on sick leave from Company C, 7th Regiment of Arkansas Infantry, and was buried in the Ritter Cemetery; and Lafayette Ritter, born in 1850 in Missouri and was buried in the Hurst Cemetery at Flippin 1916. About 1873, he married Rachel Jane Burch, daughter of Henry Hardin Burch and Mariah Jane Brown Burch of Marion County. (3) Nancy Ritter, born in 1815 in Moore County and died in 1880 in Douglas County, Missouri, was married in September 1836 in Marion County to Martin King, who was born in 1815 in Tennessee and died in 1872 in Ava, Missouri, having been a member of Company D of the Webster County, Missouri, Home Guards. Their child was Sarilda Engleton King, born in 1844 in Marion County and died in 1918 in Carson County, Texas, married William Riley Potter in January 1858 in Douglas County, Missouri. (4) Mark Ritter, born in 1817 in Moore County and died a war casualty in June of 1863. He was a member of Company E, 73rd Regiment of Missouri State Troops. He was buried in the Ritter Cemetery at Ava, Missouri. In Marion County in 1840 he married Mary King, born in 1821 in Tennessee and died in July 1859 in Douglas County. Their children were: Richardson, who was born in Marion County in 1841; Margaret, who was born in Marion County in 1844; Nancy, who was born in Marion County 1846; Lively, who was born in Missouri in 1849; Elizabeth Matilda, who was born in Missouri in 1852; Martin, who was born in Missouri in 1854; and Louisa, who was born in Missouri in 1856. About 1860 Mark Ritter married his second wife, Rebecca Jane Potter, at Vera Cruz, Missouri and their only child was Mary Jane Ritter, who was born in Missouri in 1861.