Michael Rittenhouse
ID # 8435, (1768-1852)
Birth | Michael Rittenhouse was born on 1 September 1768 at Germantown, Pennsylvania. |
Marriage | He married Diana Fretz on 11 June 1793. The date of marriage for Michael and Diana, 11 June, 1793, is taken from page 75 of volume 7 of the Annals of the Forty, published by The Grimsby Historical Society, 1956, revised and reprinted in 1992. |
Marriage | He married Barbara Hunsberger on 5 March 1803. For the marriage date of Michael Rittenhouse and Barbara Hunsberger, March 5, 1803, see page 83 of A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of Christian and Hans Meyer, by Rev. A. J. Fretz, 1896. |
Death | He died on 2 August 1852 at age 83. |
Burial | He was buried at Vineland Mennonite Cemetery. |
Note | Some of what follows is taken from a transcription of a monument in Vineland Mennonite Cemetery as provided by the Niagara branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. This is rather extensive and provides a Rittenhouse family history for two generations - those of Michael Rittenhouse, who died in 1852, and his two wives, Diana Fretz, who died in September of 1801, and Barbara Hunsberger, who died in 1849, and also that of Michael and Diana's son John B. Rittenhouse who died in 1881 and his wife Elizabeth Funk who died in 1887. The monument is said to carry the inscription that it was erected by their surviving sons and grandsons on 1 June, 1913. This provides us with some dates of births, marriages, and deaths, with some collateral information. Some support for information that the monument provides is to be found on page 232 of the Jacob Wismer history which was written by Rev. A. J. Fretz of Milton, New Jersey, in 1893, and published by the Mennonite Publishing Co., of Elkhart, Indiana. This says little of Michael Rittenhouse, but does provide some information for John and Elizabeth. Fretz's work does date their marriage to 1826. The monument in the Vineland Cemetery is probably the rather more correct in dating their marriage to 1828. Past that, however, it is evident from the Fretz introduction (page IX), that one source was Tilman Moyer of Campden who will have been familiar with the Rittenhouse family. The Moyer family gets an extensive coverage, along with the Rittenhouses. Another source is to be found in Vol. 7 of the Annals of the Forty, published by the Grimsby Historical Society in 1956 and reprinted up to 1992. A rather extensive history of the Rittenhouse family begins on page 73 and provides quite a list of the children of Michael Rittenhouse on pages 75 and 76. Page 75 has it that the parents of Michael Rittenhouse were John Rittenhouse, 1742-1796, and Margaret Conrad. This biography states that their son Michael was the founder of the Canadian branch of the family. Further, and by way of a general note, there is quite a bit of information to be found for Canadian Mennonites in a database on Ancestry entitled Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S., Mennonite Vital Records, 1750-2014. This is essentially a card file and at the bottom of each card a source is shown - in initials. The two found in particular are the initials H.T. and G.W. These are the initials for the periodicals The Herald of Truth and The Gospel Witness. To access the card file on Ancestry a subscription is required, but the periodicals are available for free, online, via the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and may be downloaded in PDF format. The spreads of years are given. Comparing a date of death or burial with a periodical will often yield an obituary, sometimes quite informative, sometimes not, but worth the effort to track down. Or to simplify the above, also available is a website for Mennonite 'obits'. This may be found at: http://mcusa-archives.org/MennObits/index.html This is also a great asset for the family researcher. And, finally, to Michael Rittenhouse: The OGS transcription of the Vineland Mennonite Cemetery in its opening page also tells that this has betimes been called the Moyer's or Old Mennonite Burial Ground. Page 17 records a monument to the Rittenhouse family, beginning with Michael. This tells that he died on 2 Aug., 1852, at the age of 83yrs., 11 mos., and 1 day. Diana Fretz Rittenhouse died 7 Sept., 1801, age 33 yrs., 3 mos., and 8 days.Barbara Hunsberger Rittenhouse died 8 July, 1849, age 65yrs., 6 mos., and 8 dys. Michael Rittenhouse, pioneer of the Rittenhouse family in Canada, was born in Germantown, PA. (now Philadelphia) Sept. 1, 1768. He married Diana Fretz June 11, 1793, moved to Lincoln County, Upper Canada, July 1800 and located on lot 5 in Conc. 3, Township of Clinton. His first wife Diana died Sept. 7, 1801. Married Barbara Hunsberger, March 5, 1803. This memorial erected by surviving grandsons 1 June, 1913. (This monument also commemorates son John Rittenhouse, the transcription of which will be shown and discussed under his name.) Note that the above monument does not specifically say that Diana Fretz Rittenhouse who died in 1801 is buried in Vineland Mennonite Cemetery. As will be seen from the little we have of Michael's land history, she may be buried elsewhere, but the transcription tells that the cemetery was established at the same time as the local Mennonite church in the late 1700s, so it is entirely possible that she is buried here. Whether this is probable will be discussed under Diana's name. Vol. 7, of the Annals of the Forty, referred to above, tells that Michael and Diana had the following children: Mary, born Bucks County, PA, in 1794 Margaret, born Bucks County, PA, in 1796 Anna, born Bucks County, PA in 1798 John (born in the U.S., probably Bucks County, in 1800. Michael and Barbara had the following children: Elizabeth, born 1804 Agnes, born 1806 Jacob, born 1808 Susannah, born 1810 Christopher, born 1812 Michael, born 1815 Sarah, born 1817 Henry, born 1819 The writer of the Annals history credits his source as being Mr. J. E. Culp of Vineland. We may reasonably believe that Michael and his second wife Barbara are buried in Vineland Mennonite Cemetery. Michael does appear in the 1851 Canada West Census, begun in January of 1852. As Barbara died in 1849, Michael is shown as a widower in this census. He died a few months after the census. Michael probably died in Clinton Township, but we are not told so. This was probably Barbara's place of death as well. This may be recorded somewhere in a periodical, but such has yet to be found. Note the that the cemetery monument tells that Michael came to Canada in July of 1800 and that he located on lot 5 of the 3rd Concession of Clinton Township. This he did - eventually, but he certainly lived elsewhere prior to doing so. Which brings us to such land records for Michael as have been found: On 15 November, 1808, Michael Rittenhouse of Grimsby, miller, petitions Francis Gore, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, for '200 acres of the waste lands of the Crown'. He states that he has a wife and seven children, which agrees with the list of children that he is stated to have as of this date in Annals of the Forty. He tells that he has come from Pennsylvania and has been in the province about nine years. With the petition is a brief letter from Will Crooks, a merchant in Grimsby. Crooks gives Michael a glowing recommendation. He tells that Michael has been long in his service and that Michael is well deserving of of the bounty of the government. Also attached is receipt for the patent fee of six pounds, nineteen shillings and four pence, plus extra for the surveying fee, for two hundred acres. This was paid on 16 November, 1808, by Michael Rittenhouse. We do not know if, when Michael and Diana first came to Upper Canada, they settled in Grimsby Township. From Will Crooks' recommendation, however, it does appear that they were in Grimsby for at least some years. Michael's petition, per the endorsed page which is used as the petition's cover, indicates that, unusually, this was speedily read in the executive council (November 15, 1808), and consent given to the petition for 200 acres. A warrant was issued on 16th November, 1808, and This was entered in 'Land Book H, page 70.' And so far as Michael's grant of patent is concerned, this is all that has been found. With the foregoing, however, it seems a certainty that there was one. That one has yet to be found may not be particularly meaningfull. The monument at Vineland Mennonite Cemetery tells that Michael located on lot 5 of the 3rd concession of Clinton Township. That he was there in later years is certainly the case; this was no grant however, but an outright purchase. Onland.ca carries images for an Abstract Index book for Clinton. In considering the Abstract Index books, it should br remembered that they were not created until 1867 in response to a law of the time. There is much useful information to be found on these pages, but they are indeed indexes and should be treated as such. Onland.ca shows the apparent first page for lot 5 of the 3rd concession with entires quite out of order. There is a will indicated (index only) for Michael Rittenhouse and which was acted upon on in September of 1852. This makes sense given that Michael died in August of 1852. It may be that the will, or copy thereof, was simply passed to the land record office for Lincoln County in support of the transfer of ownership. To get to the point, a much earlier transaction is entered last on the page, quite out of order, indicating that Michael purchased C3-L5 on May 6, 1812, and that the full lot was 100 acres. Please note that this was a purchase and had nothing to do with a patent, the original of which was issued to Nathaniel Henry. And. yes, this full lot was 100 acres as originally surveyed. (We will mention here that some Niagara District townships were originally surveyed for 100 acre lots. Generally, this applied to Clinton, Grimsby, though not Grimsby Gore, Gainsborough, Bertie, Pelham, Wainfleet, etc. This could vary when a property was faced with a water or escarpment boundary. Generally, the townships to the north of the Niagara Peninsula were surveyed as 200 acre lots.) So why is Michael's patent location not immediately apparent? It may simply be that, for the moment, your researcher does not know where to look. The patent and survey pages may well have survived, probably in York (Toronto). There is an extensive series of lists of grants and patents to be found on microfiche at the Archives of Ontario, and, a visit there at some point being managed, a record of Michael's patent just might be found. Also, it is possible that a copy of Michael's will could be found as well. Passing on to his purchase of the 100 acres of lot 5 on the 3rd concession of Clinton in 1812, we run into the problem of the War of 1812. On 10 December, 1813, American forces burned Niagara Town to the ground. Land records were destroyed as well. In 1814 thru 1816, commissioners rode through the district and reconstructed land records as best they could. Page 353 of Commissioner's Book 1 basically confirms the transaction as it appeared in the abstract index, only adding that Michael Rittenhouse was a miller of Clinton. Whether he really was a resident of Clinton at the time of his purchase for the 100 acre property owned by Fretz or whether this statement as such was rather after the fact, we cannot presently say. (In 2012, the Mayholme Foundation of St. Catharines published Commissioner's Books, A Reconstruction of land Records Destroyed in the War of 1812. This is available from Global Genealogy of Ottawa.This does not provide a full quotation of the contents of the entries, but does name parties, dates, witnesses, land designations, and the page number wherein the transaction is reconstructed. The images of the original books can be found on Familysearch, but the Mayholme publication, which is well indexed, is a great guide.) None of the above adds up to much, but it's a reasonable guess that there's more to the story. |
Children of Michael Rittenhouse and Diana Fretz |
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Children of Michael Rittenhouse and Barbara Hunsberger |
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Last Edited | 15 Mar 2021 |