Person:Carrie Rittgers (1)

She is on the 1900 census, age 18, with widowed mother in Grimes, Webster Twp., Polk C o., Ia. (ED 112, p 8B, fam #152/159) The family story tells us Mabel attended high school in Des Moines and Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Ill., where she prepared for the Mission Field Service. As she sailed to Korea from the U.S.A., she met a male missionary who would later become the Presbyterian Mission Treasurer in Korea. We are told his first impression was that Mabel and the young ladies she was traveling with were much to frivolous to survive the hardships of missionary life. She must have shown him she was from tough pioneer stock, as he was soon quite taken with her. He and Mable were married shortly after they arrived in Korea. They were there for nearly 40 years when they were hurriedly evacuated to Japan when China invaded Korea. John died of a heart attack shortly thereafter in 1950. Mable returned to the U.S. to live with her daughters, but missed Korea. She became interested in Rev . Lauback's "Each One Teach One" literacy program and returned to Korea to teach that program for several years. She served a total of 44 years in Korea. When she died in Falls Church , Va., 27 June 1957, her ashes were returned to Korea to be scattered. Her daughters set up a memorial scholarship fund for a deserving Korean girl to be educated at the high school they attended in Seoul, Korea in John and Mable's names.

    Josephine Rorabaugh, daughter of Mabel's sister, Vivian, (#162.A) remembers in her journal a visit from "Uncle John and Aunt Mabel".  "Our Grandma Rittgers [Abigail] spent the winter with us [in Clermont, Fla.] several times.  The first winter we were in the [new] house was the first time I remember very much about her being there.  And because she [Abigail] was there, Aunt Mable and Uncle John came to us first when they came from Korea, where they were missionaries.  Their Abigail was a little more than a year old and Anna Barbara was a tiny baby.  She had a basket bed that was her trunk when not a bed.  The rest of us did not have a great deal of furniture to use.  Many times a box served as a chair.  But soon after the folks came we had furniture sent to us from Grandma Rorabaugh's home in Iowa.
    "The first night when the family came, after a little while Aunt Mable called Abigail [her daughter] over to her and said, "Now here is Josephine." They had told her about me and she had been interested in seeing me.
    "That year a holly tree added to our Christmas decorations.  It was beautiful and was the first tree we ever had.  There were Korean costumes for Abigail and me and special baskets to hold the goodies.
    "Mama [Vivian] put in her bid for the basket bed and before their return to Korea, it came our way.  It was put away carefully that it might be in readiness for a future need."

1. ↑ #134
   Rittgers, Mrs R.R., 50, Widow, farmer, b Pa, presbyterian
   Findley, 20
   Jasper, 18
   Vivian 14
   Mabel, 12
   Chester, 11
   John, 9
   Eva, 8
   Jennings, Bessie, 21, teacher, b Pa
2. ↑ fam #152/159
   Rittgres, Abigail, head, b Feb 1855, 45, widow, born 13 children/ 10 living, b Pa to par
   b Pa, owns farm free
   Jasper, son, b June 1875, 24, b Ia to father b Oh, mother b Pa, farm laborer
   Mabel C., dau, b Apr 1882, 18, b Ia
   Chester, son, b June 1883, 17, b Ia
   John H., son, b Nov 1884, 15, b Ia
   Eve M., dau, b Sept 1886, 14, b Ia.