Joseph Ritner (March 25, 1780 – October 16, 1869) was the eighth

governor of Pennsylvania The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, and was a member of the

Anti-Masonic Party The Anti-Masonic Party was the earliest Third party (United States), third party in the United States. Formally a Single-issue politics, single-issue party, it strongly opposed Freemasonry in the United States. It was active from the late 1820s, ...

. Elected governor during the 1835 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, he served from 1835 to 1839. Controversy surrounding his defeat in the 1838 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election sparked the Buckshot War. In 1856, Governor Ritner served as a delegate to the first

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Early life

Ritner was born in

Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; ) is a city in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 95,112 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fourth-most populous ...

, on March 25, 1780. His parents were of German heritage, and Ritner was primarily self-educated, including learning to read and write in English, while also acquiring a working knowledge of German. He moved to

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as a teenager, where he worked as a farm hand and laborer until he purchased a farm of his own in Washington County. In 1801, Ritner married Susan Alter, and they were the parents of 10 children. The Washington County farm had been owned by Ritner's wife's uncle, and included a large library, which enabled Ritner to continue his efforts at self-study. During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

, Ritner served first as commander of a Washington County militia company, the Rifle Rangers. He later served as a private with his regiment in western Pennsylvania and

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Political career

In 1820, Ritner was elected road supervisor in Washington County. Later that year he was elected to the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

as a

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. He was reelected five times, and was Speaker in his final two terms. Ritner became involved with the Anti-Masonic movement in the late 1820s, and after two defeats by George Wolf in his bids to become governor, he was finally successful during the 1835 election. A large crowd attended his inaugural ceremonies on December 15, 1835. When the

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lost its federal charter in 1836, Ritner signed legislation giving it a state charter. As a supporter of public education, Ritner prevented repeal of Pennsylvania's Public School Law of 1834, and succeeded in passage of an enhanced public school measure in 1836. An ardent opponent of slavery, Ritner was the inspiration for an abolitionist poem by

John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the fireside poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet ...

, 1836's ''Ritner'', in which Whittier praised the anti-slavery sentiment of the governor's annual message to the state legislature. Toward the end of his tenure as governor, major changes were effected in Pennsylvania's system of state governance. The Pennsylvania State Constitution was amended, all White freemen over the age of twenty-one were given the right to vote, and the practice of awarding official positions as "life offices" was abolished. Ritner's reputation, however, was negatively affected by Anti-Masonic efforts to gerrymander state legislative districts for their benefit. In addition, as Anti-Masons attempted to expand their support by taking positions on other issues, including expanded construction of public works. During this time, Ritner was criticized for allegedly using public rail and canal projects as a source of patronage. When he ran for a second term as a Whig Party-supported, Anti-Masonic candidate during the controversial 1838 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, which grew increasingly heated as anti-Masonic and anti-abolitionist rhetoric rose, he narrowly lost to Democratic nominee David Rittenhouse Porter, who, as a Grand Master of the Huntingdon Lodge of the

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, had risen to the level of Deputy Grand Master of his Masonic district. Ritner and his supporters then unsuccessfully attempted to contest the election, including an effort by Ritner to mobilize the state militia, which sparked the Buckshot War. (The militia were to be armed with buckshot, thus giving the event its name.) Joseph Ritner William W

After leaving office, Ritner settled on a farm in Cumberland County. He suffered from cataracts, and surgery in 1839 restored the sight in his right eye, though he remained blind in his left. With the end of the Anti-Masonic Party, Ritner actively supported the Whigs. In 1849 newly elected Whig President

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military officer and politician who was the 12th president of the United States, serving from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States ...

nominated Ritner for the post of

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, then in

. Taylor died before the nomination was acted on, so Ritner was never confirmed. Ritner joined the Republican Party when it was founded in the mid-1850s, and was a delegate to the 1856 Republican National Convention.

Death and interment

He died on October 16, 1869, and was buried at Mount Rock Cemetery in Mount Rock, Pennsylvania.

Legacy

Governor Ritner has a residence hall named in his honor on the University Park campus of

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

. Ritner Street in

is also named in his honor. In 1938, the state of Pennsylvania dedicated the Governor Ritner Highway, which connects

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and Shippensburg along Route 11 in Cumberland County.

References

External links