Joseph Ritner
American politician (1780-1869)
Joseph Ritner (March 25, 1780 – October 16, 1869) was the eighth governor of Pennsylvania, and was a member of the Anti-Masonic Party. Elected governor during the 1835 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, he served from 1835 to 1839.
Controversy surrounding his defeat in the 1838 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election sparked the Buckshot War.
In 1856, Governor Ritner served as a delegate to the first Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.
Early life
Ritner was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on March 25, 1780. His parents were of German heritage, and Ritner was primarily self-educated, including learning to read and write in English, while also acquiring a working knowledge of German. He moved to Cumberland County as a teenager, where he worked as a farm hand and laborer until he purchased a farm of his own in Washington County. In 1801, Ritner married Susan Alter, and they were the parents of 10 children. The Washington County farm had been owned by Ritner's wife's uncle, and included a large library, which enabled Ritner to continue his efforts at self-study.
During the War of 1812, Ritner served first as commander of a Washington County militia company, the Rifle Rangers.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q654831. VIAF identifies the subject as 36773807. The Library of Congress control number is nr91025570. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1780, 1869, 1835 and 1839.
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This entry incorporates text from “Joseph Ritner” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.