JOHN G. RIDENOUR, a very prominent and popular farmer of Allen county, and justice of the peace of Sugar Creek township, is of Pennsylvania- Dutch origin. There is a tradition in the family that long ago seven brothers emigrated from Germany, and landed in the New England states. They later settled in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and from them have descended the numerous families of Ridenours now to be found in all parts of the United States.
The grandfather of the subject of this sketch was named John. He was born in Germany, and married Miss Christine Walters, a native of Germany, and to them were born John, Henry, Peter, Michael, George, David, William, Mary, Catherine, Christine, Sarah, Susan, Esther and Elizabeth. The father these fourteen children was a farmer in Washington county, Pa., and was a good, industrious citizen. In religious belief he was a Lutheran, lived to an advanced age, and died in Fairfield county, Ohio, where he settled in 1809, becoming a man of considerable wealth.
George Ridenour, his fifth son, and the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Washington County, Pa., Aug. 3, 1794. When he was a child he was taken by his parents to Westmoreland county, that state, and when eighteen years of age enlisted in the service of the government of the United States in the war of 1812-15, serving under Capt. Spangler and Gen. Hooker, on the lake frontier. After the war was over he became a farmer, and in November, 1820, he married Miss Conrad, in Fairfield county, Ohio. She was born July 3, 1802, in Maryland, near Hagerstown, and was a daughter of John and Catherine (Adams) Conrad. To George Ridenour and his wife there were born eleven children, two of whom died in infancy, the others being as follows: Catherine, Christine, Dorothea, John G., Sophia, Isaac, Mary, William and Sarah. Dorothea married and died afterward. Isaac died a soldier in the Civil war.
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