First Generation

1. George RITTER¹ was born in 1685 in Deutschland. He died on 5 Dec 1761 in Exeter Township, Berks Co., PA. George is on record as purchasing 300 acres in the Oley District of Philadelphia County in 1725. The area would later become Exeter Township, Berks County, PA. He was taxed for 150 acres in the 1734 tax, his son Franz was taxed for the remaining 150 acres. He signed his will on 4 June 1761, and it was was filed 5 December 1761.

The 1909 History of Berks County, by Morton Montgomery, reported two traditions in the Ritter family which seem noteworthy; although quite frankly I believe they are the typical family stories, and the facts do not support. On page 658: "Tradition says that this pioneer ancestor (Ferdinand Ritter) was obliged to leave his native land for some offense against the pope, for which he was to be beheaded. All his property was confiscated by the government. He sought safety in Pennsylvania with an Indian camp in present day Berks County near the Schwartzwald church, and there he lived with the Indians. It was said that he married an Indian woman." (Note: that was prior to his marrying Maria Elisabeth Stetter at age 25.) And per another researcher, the Indian woman was the daughter of the chief of the tribe.

On page 913: "According to tradition, the first of the family here secured a large tract of land from the Indians, bargaining for a tract around which he could walk between sunrise and sunset. But later, when William Penn came into Pennsylvania, he claimed that the Indians had no right to sell land which the King of England had granted to him, and thus the pioneer of the Ritter family lost his claim." This story is no doubt a fabrication based on the actual "walking claim", where a trained runner was employed to walk off a distance of land to be purchased from the Indians.

PA Archives records the following land patents in Philadelphia County, which on 26 February 1733, when the patents were granted included Berks County. We can only assume these names are misspelled: George Rutter, 100 acres; Francis Rutter, 100 acres; George Rutter, 200 acres. There was of course in this time a Thomas Rutter family, he was English and the father of Pennsylvania's iron industry.

George RITTER and Anna Maria UNK were married about 1707. Anna Maria UNK¹ was born about 1685 in Deutschland. She died about 1783. George RITTER and Anna Maria UNK had the following children:

+2	i.	Eva Rosina RITTER.
+3	ii.	Franz RITTER.
+4	iii.	Henry RITTER.
+5	iv.	Elizabeth RITTER.
+6	v.	Ferdinand RITTER.