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 metewand 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 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.
Broadminded, 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.
Extracted 11 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, volume 3, pages 1209-1210.