Ridder Family Line

Johann Joseph Conrad Ridder

Born: Warburg, Westphalia, Germany 

Died: 1858, Quincy, Illinois

Married: Anna Marie nee Steffens 

Born: Rosebeck, Germany 

Died: 1853, St. Louis, Missouri

Children:

    Heinrich (Henry) (1830- )

    Clemens (1832-1898)

The only source of information I have on Johann is a brief thumbnail sketch contained in Bornmann's Sketches of Germans in Quincy and Adams County. What follows is a direct quote from p. 217. "Johann Joseph Conrad Ridder, born in Warburg, Westphalia, was educated to be a teacher and was one in Korbke. His wife was Anna Maria nee Steffens from Rosebeck. In 1834 the couple started out with two children on a voyage to America and landed in Baltimore on 4 July where the family remained until 1840. Then they moved to St. Louis, where Ridder was engaged as a teacher and organist of the first German Catholic parish. Later he was employed as a teacher in St. Charles, Missouri and Belleville, Illinois. In 1853 his wife died of cholera in St. Louis; in 1858 the husband departed this life in Quincy."

Bornmann's Sketches of Germans in Quincy and Adams County. Trans. Lester Holtschlag and Lenore Kimbrough. Great River Genealogical Society, 1999.


Henry Ridder

Born: December 7 or 17, 1830, Warburg, Westphalia, Germany.

Died:

Married: Dorothea Theresia Kasten, May 24, 1853

Born: Hildesheim, Hannover, Germany

Died: July 1, 1896

Children:

    John Ridder (c. 1856-1907)

    Albert Ridder (c.1860-?)

    Dolphine Ridder (c.1866-?)

    Charles E. Ridder (c.1868-1920?)

    Adele Ridder (June, 1872-1966)

    Louise (?-?)

    Two died in infancy

The best source of information on Henry is Bornmann's Sketches of Germans in Quincy and Adams County. According to Bornmann, Heinrich arrived in Baltimore from Germany with his parents and brother Clemens in 1834. The oldest son of Johann and Anna, he married in St. Louis and learned the tinsmith trade before arriving in Quincy on June 24, 1857. He opened a tin and porcelain ware store in Quincy which was described in 1879 as the "largest house in the line west of Chicago." In 1866 he built a house at 1110 Jersey street in Quincy (this house later passed to Charles E. Ridder and later still to Carl Anthony Ridder). The 1880 census lists Doris and Henry's children as Albert, Dolphy, Charles and Dela. Their eldest son, John, was a 23-year-old salesman who lived next door at 1114 with his wife Mattie and two-year-old son Gussie. For ten years John edited the weekly Western Catholic in Quincy. Their second son, Albert, moved to Benicia, California and ran a struggling tea business that finally failed following the earthquake of 1906. The 1880 census identifies Henry as a dealer in Queensware, while the Quincy City Directory of 1866 lists him as an importer. If you have any information about Henry or Doris, please contact me at ebyerly@vc.cc.tx.us

Sources: Interviews with Catherine Ridder Byerly; David Wilcox, Quincy and Adams County History and Representative Men, Lewis Publishing, 1919, pp. 914-915; and Ira A. Glazier and P. William Filby, Germans To America, vol. 6; United States Dept. Of Commerce, Tenth Census, 1880, Adams County, Illinois, ED 30, p. 36, line 12.


Charles E. Ridder (c.1869-c.1920)

Born: c.1869, Illinois

Died: c.1920, Quincy, IL

Married: Agnes Maas, Quincy, IL, 5/7/1901

Born: 4/17/1877, Quincy, IL

Died: 9/12/1944

Children:

    Carl Anthony Ridder (1903-1971)

    Rosemary Ridder (Flaiz)(c.1904- )

    William H. Ridder (8/26/1906-10/4/1993)

    Louise A. Ridder (Volm)(7/13/1908-12/1995)

    Dorothy Ridder (Sibbing) (c.1913- )

    Edith A. Ridder (Bremser)(c.1910- )

    Paul A. Ridder (c. 1911- )


Carl Anthony Ridder (1903-1971)

Born: 6/16/1903, Quincy, Adams County, IL

Died: 7/12/1971

Married: Frances Cecelia Dittmer, Quincy, 8/4/1924

Born: 1/24/1906

Died: 4/22/1988

Children:

    Francis Ann Ridder (Kacynski) (6/15/1927- )

    Marilyn Louise Ridder (4/22/1929- )

    Charles Edward Ridder (1/29/1931- )

    Ruth Adelberta Ridder (Tossick) (7/29/1932- )

    Catherine Sue Ridder (Byerly) (8/31/1933- )

    Theodore Andrew Ridder (4/3/1944- )


Catherine Ridder Byerly (1933- )

Born: Quincy, IL, 8/31/1933

Died:

Married: Benjamin Franklin Byerly, 8/23/1958, Quincy, IL

Born: Elk City, Beckham, Oklahoma, 7/27/1929

Died: London, England, 7/6/1990

Buried: Grand County, Colorado

Children:

    Ann Francis Byerly (Peterson) (6/19/1959- )

    Edward Andrew Byerly (2/22/1961- )

    Frederick Charles Byerly (4/23/1962- )

    Geofrey William Byerly (2/28/1964- )

    Edith Marie Byerly (Reynolds) (7/3/1966- )

    Henry Thomas Byerly (3/2/1968- )


Edward Andrew Byerly

Born: Chestertown, MD, 2/22/1961

Died:

Married: Zoeann Killen, 7/30/1987, Macomb, IL

Born: Denver, CO, 2/3/1963

Died:

Children:

    Timothy Joseph Byerly(11/10/1987- ), Macomb, IL

    Zachary David Byerly (7/1/1991- ), Mesa, AZ

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