Clay Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-Henry Ruegg
Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890
HENRY RUEGG. The biographer in his
migrations among the farmers in the north-
western corner of Clay County, found Mr.
Ruegg snugly located on a well-improved
farm comprising 160 acres of land on section 34.
He came to Kansas in 1872 from Madison County,
Ill., and located on a farm near Winkler's Mills,
Riley County. Thence in 1878 he changed his residence
to a point across the line, homesteading his
present land. By a course of persevering industry
and good management and after the labors of a
number of years, he brought the soil to a good
state of cultivation and erected substantial buildings,
enclosed and divided his land with fencing,
planted fruit and shade trees and has now one of
the most desirable farms in this part of the county.
Mr. Ruegg is a native of Switzerland and was
born in the Canton of Zurich, May 18, 1828. He
lived there until a man of twenty-five years, then
in 1867 emigrated to the United States, settling in
the vicinity of Highland, Madison Co., Ill., where
he sojourned until moving west of the Mississippi.
He is the offspring of an excellent family, being the
son of Hans Jacob Ruegg, a farmer in comfortable
circumstances who spent his entire life in his native
country. His death occurred in 1879 when he was
sixty-nine years old. The wife and mother whose
maiden name was Catherine Scheuchzer, passed
away when comparatively a young woman in 1832.
Both parents were members of the German Reformed
Church.
The subject of this sketch was one of the small
family born to his mother and received a very
good education in his native canton. He learned
the miller's trade at a good age and when ready
to establish a home of his own, was married to a
maiden of his own town�Miss Elizabeth Weber.
Mrs. Ruegg was the daughter of a highly respectable
family who were noted as being experts at
pattern and model making, while at the same time
many of them engaged in farming. After the birth
of five children Mr. and Mrs. Ruegg in the fall of
1867, having resolved to emigrate to America,
repaired to Havre, France, and took passage on the
steamer "Arago" which after a safe voyage landed
them in New York City. Thence they proceeded
to Illinois where two more children were added to
the family circle. One child has been born to them
since they came to Kansas.
The eight children of Mr. and Mrs. Ruegg are
recorded as follows: Eda is the wife of Albert
Schwab and they live on a farm in Oregon; Bertha
is the wife of Lewis Pickett and they live on a
farm near Ogden, this State; Anna married Gotlieb
Ammeseager and they reside on a farm in Bloom
Township; Emma is the wife of Ferdinand Schwab,
a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this
volume; Mary is the wife of August Kolling, who
is represented elsewhere in this work; Lena, Rosa
and Lizzie are at home with their parents.