Biography of
Charles L. Ritter
p. 1209
CHARLES L. RITTER.
As a native son of Southern Illinois and a member of one of the sterling pioneer
families of this section of the state,
Mr. Ritter is well
entitled to consideration in this publication, as is he also by reason of his
standing as one of the representative business men and progressive and
public-spirited citizens of Murphysboro, the judicial center of Jackson county.
He has been influential in the furthering of measures, and enterprises tending
to advance the civic and material welfare of his home city and county and has
been specially prominent in connection with educational affairs, the while his
personal popularity in the community emphatically gives evidence that he has
measured up to the gauge of public approbation, which is the mete-wand of
character.
Charles Louis Ritter
was born in the city of Cairo, capital of Alexander county, Illinois, on the
21st of September, 1868, and is a son of
Louis
and
Kate (Erne) Ritter.
The family
removed to Murphysboro in 1871, when he was about three years of age, and here
his parents passed the remainder of their lives, secure in the high regard of
all who knew them. The father devoted the major part of his active career to
merchant tailoring, and is a man of prominence and influence in Jackson county.
To the public schools of Murphysboro
Charles L. Ritter
is indebted for his early educational discipline, and he was graduated in the
high school as a member of the class of 1885, when but sixteen years of age.
Thereafter he devoted sixteen years as an officer of Jackson County and First
National Banks, and at the expiration of this period he engaged in the
real-estate and insurance business, with which line of enterprise he has since
continued to be actively identified and in which his operations have been of
broad scope and importance. Through the medium of his real-estate business he
has done much to further the material advancement of his home city and county,
and he is one of the leading factors in his field of business in this section of
his native state. His transactions have been of important order, involving the
handling of valuable city and farm property, and the scope of his business has
been expanded to include representation as a general fiscal agent.
Mr.
Ritter
has won large and definite success through his own
well directed efforts and has
large and varied, capitalistic interests. He is a member of the directorate of
the First National Bank of Murphysboro and also that of the Murphysboro Savings
P. 1210
Bank, and he was prominently
concerned in the development of the Murphysboro Waterworks, Electric & Gas Light
Company, of which he was superintendent for two years. He is secretary of the
Jackson County Fair Association, and served for some time as president of the
local board of insurance underwriters. Among the most worthy and valuable
achievements of Mr. Ritter as touching matters of general
public import has been his work in connection with the advancement of the
standard of public-school systems in Jackson county, and his interest in this
important work has been of the most loyal and insistent order. He was a member
of the official board under whose direction was erected the present fine
township high school building of Murphysboro township, in the city of
Murphysboro, and he served as president of the board of education of this
township for five years.
Though he has
manifested no desire for the honors or emoluments of political office, Mr. Ritter is aligned as a stalwart supporter of the
principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor. He is an
appreciative and influential member of the Knights of Pythias and in this order
is now grand chancellor of the Grand Lodge of Illinois. He is also affiliated
with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen of
America, besides which he was for a number of years president of the Jackson
Club, one of the representative civic organizations of Murphysboro. He has put
forth many effective efforts in behalf of educational work, and in this
connection has delivered many effective addresses before educational
organizations as well as before popular assemblies of a general order.
Broad-minded, liberal and progressive, Mr. Ritter stands
as a loyal and valued citizen, and in his home community his circle of friends
is coincident with that of his acquaintances.
On
the 3d of September, 1892, was solemnized the
marriage of
Mr.
Ritter to Miss Jennie Goggin, of Murphysboro, and
they have one daughter,
Pauline Celeste.
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