Harold L. Ritter

Harold L. Ritter, son of Arletta Pearle Bucher and Frank B. Ritter, was born 21 October 1908 in Ladysmith, Rusk County, WI. His parents had come to Ladysmith only two years earlier due to his father’s job in the lumber distribution business. Not long after their arrival, Harold’s older sister Thelma Eileen Ritter had been born. She and Harold were the only offspring Frank B. Ritter would sire, because he contracted tuberculosis. A trip to the Mayo Clinic for treatment was fruitless. Frank’s condition worsened, and he passed away 1 January 1910. With two small children to care for, Arley sought the haven of her birth family in Martintown, Green County, WI, a village founded by her maternal grandparents Nathaniel Martin and Hannah Strader. Harold would eventually have no memory of Ladysmith, and would not think of it as being the place he was from.

About two years into her widowhood, Arley married Charles Henry Ames. A new household was soon established a mile south of Martintown in Winslow, Stephenson County, IL. Harold spent the bulk of his childhood in Winslow, where his stepfather was a harness-maker and leather-worker. Harold acquired a pair of step-sisters as a result of the union. These two were Thelma Ames and Margaret Ames, the product of Charles Ames’s marriage to first wife Vesta Sewell. However, Thelma and Margaret resided in Indiana and Harold did not really get to know them. By contrast, he had daily contact with his half-brother, Glenn Charles Ames, born in 1913, as well of course with his older sister, Thelma Ritter. (Harold is shown at upper left in Winslow in a photo taken in 1922, when he was thirteen.)

Jobs in Winslow were not plentiful, and like many of the residents of the countryside and villages in America during this era, the Ames/Ritter household went to where the employment was. Arley and Charles moved in the mid-1920s into a house at 704 S. Pine Avenue in Freeport, the seat of Stephenson County. Charles would go on to operate a shoe repair business on North Van Buren Avenue for many years. One reason for the relocation was to further Harold’s employment prospects, as he was now old enough to work outside the home. At seventeen, he was a factory worker for Structo Manufacturing Company. That job lasted until August, 1926, ending when an accident cost him parts of two fingers on his right hand. Harold convalesced from his injury into early autumn, taking a new job in mid-October at the Freidag Manufacturing Company plant.

On the evening of the final Thursday of October -- 27 October 1926 -- Harold and a buddy, Stanley Kerr, decided to attend a Halloween party and dance in nearby Waddams Grove. At about 9:30, they were crossing a set of railroad tracks in that community when they realized too late that a train was bearing down on them at full speed. Stanley was in the lead, and made it into the clear. Harold, caught partway through his attempt to leap out of the way, was struck so hard he was knocked nearly one hundred feet, landing on a side track. His right leg was shattered and his left shoulder fractured, but it was a blow to his head behind the ear that was probably the cause of his death. From the newspaper account, it does not appear he remained conscious, nor that he woke up at any point after being struck. Death was probably instantaneous. Naturally Stanley Kerr summoned help at once, and it was quick to arrive. Harold was dead by the time he was first examined at the scene.

The train, Illinois Central passenger train No. 11, best known as the Hawkeye Express, was on its regular evening run and the youths should have been alert to its possible presence. Apparently they were crossing at a spot where they did not have a good view down the tracks until they were literally on them. The crew of the locomotive apparently did not even realize anyone had been struck, and continued on to the next destination without stopping.

Harold’s death was a tragedy, of course, but it may have been inevitable that he would have an unhappy ending of some sort. In later decades family members who had personally known him characterized him as odd. It is likely he suffered from a psychological condition. His full sister Thelma likewise was known for episodes that left her daughter convinced that Thelma suffered from bipolar disorder, though if so, she was not formally diagnosed and never underwent treatment for it. Thelma however succeeded quite well in her business and financial life, supervising substantial groups of employees among other distinctions. She was clearly functional. Harold by contrast was more erratic. Being involved in accidents that caused him to be maimed and then to be killed was possbily something destiny had in store for him no matter what.

Harold was only six days past his eighteenth birthday when he was killed. The funeral was held Saturday, 29 October 1926. The remains were interred at Rock Lily Cemetery in Winslow, the final resting place of many members of the Martin/Strader clan.

For some time the only image available that included Harold was this photograph, taken by T.E. Claus (husband of Harold’s aunt Blanche Bucher) in about 1914. It shows the extended family of Harold’s grandfather Elwood Bucher and step-grandmother Laura Fuller Hart Martin Bucher. The note on the back of the print from which this was scanned states that the family was gathered outside Elwood and Laura's home in Martintown. This may be literally true, as they were then the owners of one of the legacy homes of the Nathaniel Martin estate, but at that point in time, their main residence was in Winslow, and that may be where the photo was actually taken. Harold is the boy front row, third from the right. The full group consists of: The two men on the left in back are Tom Bucher (brother of Elwood) and Charles Henry Ames. Laura Fuller Hart Martin Bucher is sitting in the chair. The row of adults is Charles Lewis Buss (in the dark suit), Arletta Pearle Bucher, Rose Marie Bucher Buss, Blanche Bucher Claus, Alice Bedford Bucher (wife of Thomas), Ethel Wales Bucher, and Elwood Bucher holding toddler Estel Maynard Buss. The children in front are, left to right, Earl Bucher, three unidentified children (including the two whose faces are smeared out), Evelyn Lois Claus, Harold L. Ritter, Dwight C. Buss, and Ralph Bucher.

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