Husband Thomas Franklin Ritchey 1
Born: 18 Jul 1843 - Armstrong Co, PA 2
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Father: Thomas Ritchey (1807-1891) 3 4
Mother: Mary Calhoun (1812-Abt 1867) 2 3 4 5 6
Marriage: 16 Aug 1876 7
Wife Rebecca E. Colvin 7
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Father: M. A. Colvin ( - ) 7
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1 M John C. Ritchey 7
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2 F Lenore Ritchey 7
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3 M Thomas F. Ritchey 7
Born: Abt 1894
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General Notes: Husband - Thomas Franklin Ritchey
He was reared on his father's farm and received such common-school education as he could obtain when the work on the farm did not demand all of his time. He taught school as he neared manhood, and also continued to do farm work, and to study diligently with a view to acquiring further education. The first common school he taught contained seventy-three pupils. Subsequently he attended the academy at Glade Run, and the State Normal School at Edinboro, Erie County, Pennsylvania. He taught in common schools and academies for about thirteen years, and at the end of his experience as a teacher, took up the study of law, in the office of Hon. George A. Jenks, one of the famous citizens of the commonwealth. Mr. Ritchey graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the class of 1874, and was immediately admitted to practice in the courts of Michigan. Subsequently he returned to Pennsylvania and was admitted to practice in Clarion County in 1874. In 1880, seeking a wider field and better opportunity for his ability, he removed to Tionesta, where he thereafter resided, and became one of the leading citizens as well as one of the foremost lawyers of Forest County and of the state. His practice was general and was very large, few cases of importance were in the Pennsylvania courts in which the services of Mr. Ritchey were not sought.
In criminal law he won great success and most prominently demonstrated his great ability, his shrewdness and his remarkable faculty for working out intricate problems. One of the most noted cases in which he was conspicuous was the well known Shippen murder case, in which Mr. Shippen was charged with having shot one of his employees, and in which some of the best legal talent in the state of Pennsylvania was engaged, on both sides. Mr. Ritchey also won great distinction for his part in the celebrated Wagner burglary and robbery case. His display of perseverance, of love for the right, and protection of the innocent, and his shrewdness in ferreting out the criminals, gained for him a reputation both as lawyer and as citizen which was enduring. The crime, which was most atrocious in character, was committed May 3, 1887. One of the burglars, McClary, was shot and killed by a minor son of Wagner. Two of the perpetrators, Wilson and Hagerty, were arrested, convicted and sent to prison within a comparatively short time after the dreadful deed was done. But Mr. Ritchey, who participated in the case, was not satisfied with the first results, as he was convinced that others, equally as guilty as those who had been punished, had not been apprehended and called to account for their share in the crime which so shocked all good citizens. For two and a half years Mr. Ritchey quietly, and with remarkable cleverness, followed clue after clue and ferreted out the other guilty ones. He wove such a network of circumstances, and so cleverly were they presented to the court and jury, that on September 25, 1889, Aquilla and Sic Mong, his son, were sentenced to terms of eight and ten years, respectively, in the penitentiary. These men, as the history of the case showed, had been ruffians of whom people were much afraid, and who had terrorized citizens as they pleased. Mr. Ritchey was highly complimented for his work in the case, and his action was considered a great public benefaction.
Mr. Ritchey was a Democrat, but for many years sought no office. He was a past master in Masonry, and a leading member of the I. O. O. F. He was president of the Tionesta Gas Company, and was one of the leading promoters of the Tionesta water works; also a director in the Forest County National Bank.