The Theodore Ripke Family

When Mr. Theo. Ripke and Meta Sunderman began their home together, they bought a tract of land, amounting to about 55 acres along the Ridge Road in Henry County about a mile north of Ridgeville Corners, Ohio. The first building that they lived in was small and primitive. Then about 1912 a new house was built. It was here that the family was reared. Clara, the oldest of the children, was one that spent her first years in the first home occupied. The rest enjoyed the comforts of the home built thereafter.

Edwin was the second child, and Ernest, who died when he was a year and a half of age, was the third. Then God further blessed this union with three children, Arnold, Carl, and Olga. All the children received, if not all, then some of their education in Ridgeville Corners schools. Thereafter, some received training in higher education, Edwin going through for the ministry, and Olga training for parochial school teaching. Clara is the wife of the Rev. Wilbert Werling, pastor in Shawano, Wisconsin. Arnold is working for the County Road Service, and Carl and family live in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where he is carrying on in the carpenter trade. Olga, Mrs. Rev. Arthur Senn, lives in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and the Rev. Edwin and family are residing in a parish at Berne, Indiana.

Mr. Theo Ripke died July, 1966, and Mrs. Meta Ripke died Sept., 1971. Both were charter members of Zion Lutheran Church, Ridgeville Corners. All the children were once members of Zion. All the children and their families are enjoying the continued blessings of the Christian religion.

Submitted by Ripke Family