Joseph Ritner

Joseph Ritner
8th Governor of Pennsylvania
In office
December 15, 1835 – January 15, 1839
Preceded byGeorge Wolf
Succeeded byDavid R. Porter
17th Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
In office
1826–1869
Preceded byJoel Barlow Sutherland
Succeeded byNer Middleswarth
Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
In office
1820–1826
Personal details
Born(1780-03-25)March 25, 1780
Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedOctober 16, 1869(1869-10-16) (aged 89)
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic-Republican (before 1828)
Anti-Masonic (1828–1839)
Whig (1839–1854)
Republican (1854–1869)
SpouseSusan Alter (1801–1852; her death)
ProfessionFarmer
Signature

Joseph Ritner (March 25, 1780 – October 16, 1869)[1] was the eighth governor of Pennsylvania,[2] and was a member of the Anti-Masonic Party.[3][4] Elected governor during the 1835 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, he served from 1835 to 1839.[5]

Controversy surrounding his defeat in the 1838 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election sparked the Buckshot War.[6][7]

In 1856, Governor Ritner served as a delegate to the first Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.[8]

  1. ^ "Joseph Ritner-Susan Alter, Marriage, Family, Genealogy, 26 May 1801, Pennsylvania". www-personal.umich.edu.
  2. ^ "The Governors of Pennsylvania." Mount Union, Pennsylvania: The Mount Union Times, January 27, 1911, p. 1 (subscription required).
  3. ^ "Governor Joseph Ritner" (biography). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, retrieved online December 30, 2022.
  4. ^ Hamilton, A. Boyd. "City Saw First Inauguration in 1812 at Gay Fete." Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Harrisburg Telegraph, January 17, 1939, pp. 20, 26 (subscription required).
  5. ^ "A Daily Lesson in History: Joseph Ritner, Governor of Pennsylvania in the 'Buckshot War.'" Boston, Massachusetts, The Boston Globe, May 31, 1907, p. 16 (subscription required).
  6. ^ Egle, William Henry. "The Buckshot War," in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 23, No. 2 (1899), pp. 137-156. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.
  7. ^ Hamilton, "City Saw First Inauguration in 1812 at Gay Fete," Harrisburg Telegraph, January 17, 1939.
  8. ^ Hamilton, "City Saw First Inauguration in 1812 at Gay Fete," Harrisburg Telegraph, January 17, 1939.