Information
Sheet
R Ritter family.
100 Ritter and Howard families,
papers, 1850-1956.
Fifty
folders and nine volumes.
This collection consists of
correspondence, legal records, business papers, and miscellaneous material of
the Ritter and Howard families of Jasper County, Missouri. Included are mining leases and drill
records, 1883-1911, and records of the Stone School District, 1903-1940.
Three generations of two families are
represented in this collection. Both the
Ritter and Howard families settled in Jasper County just before the Civil War,
and both followed similar pursuits after the war. They were linked in 1920 by the marriage of
H. A. “Bill” Howard and Mae Ritter.
Most of the material in the collection
falls into three general categories: land and farm records, mining leases,
and the records of the Stone School District.
Printed material from the Anti-Horse Thief Association and papers
pertaining to public works in Jasper County during the 1920s and 1930s comprise
two other, smaller, categories.
Although neither family actively engaged
in mining on their properties around Oronogo and Carl Junction, both leased
their lands to prospecting and mining firms.
Included here are leases and related correspondence, prospect drill
records, and a ledger detailing royalty payments made by mining companies
operating on J. S. Wright’s lands near Carl Junction. Chronologically the records reflect the
period of greatest production in the mineral district of southwestern
Missouri.
The farm papers include a multitude of
deeds, rent records, and a set of farm records kept by H. A. Howard,
1939-1954. Also included are records
pertaining to several unallotted parcels of land purchased in Indian Territory (now
in McCurtain and Mayes counties, Oklahoma) by Lewis G. Howard in
1911-1914. Howard worked through the
U.S. Indian Service to complete the transactions, the details of which are
found in Folder 8. The same folder contains
papers pertaining to the construction during World War II of a U.S. Army
ordnance plant near Pryor, Oklahoma, on land owned by the Howards.
The largest group of records in the
collection are those of the Stone School District, 1903-1940. Seven bound volumes and fifteen folders of
loose material are available, which represent all the varieties of records kept
by the teachers and officers of the district.
The collection contains term and monthly reports of the teachers and
district clerks, financial reports from the county treasurer to the district,
annual enumeration of students, teacher’s contracts and applications, and
miscellaneous receipts and correspondence.
The records are from the papers of Arthur and Rosa Ritter, who were
officers of the district for over twenty years.
Arthur Ritter also was involved in other
public duties, including positions as commissioner of the Carl Junction Public
Road District, and supervising engineer on various Works Progress Administration
projects sponsored by the Jasper County Relief Organization. Ritter’s appointments as road commissioner
and WPA project proposals are in Folders 20 and 21.
Shelf List
for this collection
Index
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