Ernst Family

My great-grandfather, John Ernst, came to America from Baden, Germany, with his sister Catherine Frances Ernst in 1830. He settled in Morrow County, Ohio, about 1840, and married Ann Bear April 11, 1841. He had six children. My grandfather, Benjamin, the third child, and first boy, was born July, 1847, and died January 19, 1924. He married Barbara Myers in 1847.

Alfred Wesley was the oldest of six boys. When he was a small child, his family moved to Ridgeville Township, Henry County, on a farm. My father would tell of deer and bear coming up to the barn for food during the severe winter days. My grandparents always had a bath tub. If I had been very helpful during the week, I'd dare to take a Saturday bath at my grandparents'. That was a real treat.

On May 30, 1895, Alfred married Mary Elizabeth Seiler. They went to house keeping on his uncle's, Lewis Myers, farm on Route Six in Ridgeville Corners.

The land around Ridgeville needed tile to produce well. My parents would comment about farming conditions during wet weather. They'd cut the grain as they could, shock it one day, spread it out to dry the next. They still had trouble with grain sprouting in the shock.

There were two maple trees on the west side of our house. My father placed a sturdy pole across these trees and made a hay rope swing. I'm sure many of the Ridgeville children of that time remember that swing and the book, Her Name Was Maud published in 1906.

A daughter was born to this couple, Iris Evadna, on March 19, 1900. They lived on this farm until the spring of 1913. Then they moved to a small house north of town. We lived there until 1917. We then bought The property two doors south. I still own this property. (Evadna Ersnt Rueger —1975)

In 1919 I began teaching in a rural school. After three years of rural teaching, I went back to college for more education. Then I taught in Lima. There, at Horace Mann School, I had Hugh Downs in the third grade.

Mother's brother, Daniel G. Seiler, came to live with my parents in the spring of 1929. Dr. Offenhour, Superintendent of Lima Schools selected me to teach the sight saving class. That was an interesting challenge. First I had to have a course in eye anatomy. This I took at Western Reserve. I had grades one to six in this sight saving class; I had to cook one hot dish each day, find boarding homes for out-of-town children, arrange transportation for those in town, teach typing from fourth grade on, type work books in large type. I also had to check on sight-saving children in high school and see that they had readers and proper materials.

Yes, it was a lot of very hard work, but now I'm receiving a bonus that money couldn't pay. Many of these children write to me. They are parents, and grandparents now. One boy has his Master's degree in chemistry.

In June, 1942, I married Edwin Z. Rueger. He was a professionally licensed electrical and mechanical engineer and worked for Toledo Edison Company. Thus I fell heir to two lovely children. Evelyn graduated from Ohio State one year before I joined the family. Later she went to Purdue University. While stationed in Washington, D.C. as an Ensign in the WAVEs, she met Lieutenant Philip Magnusson. They were married March, 1945. In1946 he became a professor of Electrical Engineering at Oregon State University. He received Sc.D. from M.I.T. and has been actively engaged in teaching ever since. He wrote a book, Transmission Lines and Wave Propagation. They have three small children and one grandchild.

Elizabeth, the youngest child, returned from Trinidad, Bolivia, South America, in May, 1975. She was an exchange scholar in her senior year in high school.

Lauren J. Rueger was in his senior year when I came here. He attended Ohio State University. He worked on government research at M.I.T. after leaving Ohio State. In July, 1944, he married a co-ed, Florence M. Scott. Later he went back to Ohio State for more education. He is now with John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. One of his recent projects was the disc which is the heart of the satellite's radar altimeter atop NASA'S GEOS-C-CRAFT.

Lauren is listed in World Who's Who in Science From Antiquity to the Present.

They have four children and two grandchildren.

My father died July, 1948. Mother (Mary Ernst) and her brother lived on in Ridgeville until the fall of 1957. They then lived with us in Toledo, Ohio. Mother died March, 1958. Uncle continued with us until he died February, 1960. Edwin passed away October, 1970. "Our children," Evelyn and Lauren and their families are doing all they can to make my life worthwhile.

Submitted by Evadna Rueger