RICKER, JOHN

RICKER, LAMBERT, ANGUS, CROOKSHANK

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 9/8/2003 at 18:39:44

Biography reproduced from page 243 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

The late John Ricker, a resident of Irvington township, was born in the province of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, in 1849, and was a son of Mathias Ricker. The family emigrated to the United States in the early ‘50s and located in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, where the father, who was an agriculturist, acquired land and engaged in tobacco culture. He continued to make his home in the Keystone state until his death, which occurred in 1900. The mother passed away in 1895.

John Ricker was only a child of five years when he accompanied his parents on their removal to the United States. He passed his boyhood and youth on his father’s farm in Pennsylvania, obtaining his education in the district schools of that state. At the age of twenty years he left the parental roof and started out to make his own way in the world, locating in Illinois. He had never learned a trade, but was thoroughly familiar with agricultural pursuits, having assisted his father from early boyhood on his farm, so he readily obtained employment as a farm hand. He followed this occupation for four years, and at the end of that time was married and decided to engage in independent work, and during the succeeding nine years took contracts for ditching. In the early ‘90s he came to Iowa and located in Kossuth county, where he passed away in June, 1893, a little more than a year after his arrival. At the time of his death he was engaged in the cultivation of a farm he had rented in Irvington township.

In 1872, in Illinois, Mr. Ricker was married to Miss Mary Lambert, a daughter of William Lambert, a native of Indiana. The father, who was a farmer, came to Iowa in an early day, but he subsequently located in Illinois, going from there to Harper county, Kansas, where he bought a quarter section of land which he improved and cultivated until his death in 1902. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ricker, as follows: Joe M., aged thirty-eight years, who with his brother, William, owns and operates a farm of two hundred and eighty acres in Union township; Lizzie, who married Robert F. Angus, a farmer of Fenton township; William E., who is in partnership with his brother, J.M.; Laura, who is living at home; Walter L., who is a resident of Minnesota; Rena, who married Arthur Crookshank, of Minnesota; and Harvey, who resides at home. The mother, who is sixty years of age, makes her home with her children on the farm.

The political support of Mr. Ricker was accorded the republican party, and he was a member of the Christian church, as is also his widow. Mrs. Ricker is an estimable woman and she and her family are highly regarded in Union township, where they now reside.