My Genealogy Hound

William Ruckman is now living retired in Afton but for thirty-seven years was numbered among the energetic and prosperous farmers of Union township, where he still owns two hundred acres of arable and productive land, pleasantly situated about four miles north of the city in which he resides. Thirty-eight years have come and gone since he arrived in Union county.

He is one of Ohio’s native sons, his birth having occurred in Richland county, that state, May 24, 1839. His boyhood and youth were passed in the usual manner of farm lads of the age and locality, his time being largely occupied with the work of the fields, which precluded to a considerable extent regular attendance at the public schools. In the school of experience, however, he has learned many practical and valuable lessons. He was the eldest of a family of three sons and three daughters, all of whom reached mature years, and it was necessary that he aid in carrying on the farm, which he helped to develop and improve.

He could not content himself at the plow, however, when the Union was endangered and in August, 1861, he enlisted as a member of Company D, Thirty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which command he went to the south. He was first under fire at Royal Hill, did considerable skirmishing in West Virginia and later participated in the battles of Mount Jackson, Harper’s Ferry and Winchester. He was captured at Harper’s Ferry but was paroled and later re-enlisted in the same company and regiment, serving throughout the remainder of the war. After his second enlistment he participated in the battle of Newbern, North Carolina, and in a number of other engagements which contributed to the final successes that crowned the Union arms. He marched from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Washington, where he participated in the grand review, the most celebrated military pageant ever seen on the western hemisphere. Subsequently he was sent to Louisville, Kentucky, where he was mustered out, and at Columbus, Ohio, was honorably discharged in August, 1865.

Mr. Ruckman was married while home on parole in 1862, the lady of his choice being Miss Anna Maria Conkling, who was born in the Buckeye state but was reared in Illinois and married in Lamoille, Bureau county, of the latter state. Her father, Henry Conkling, was one of the first settlers there.

After his marriage Mr. Ruckman engaged in farming in Bureau county for two years and then removed to Richland county, Ohio, where he also carried on general agricultural pursuits for two years. After returning to Bureau county he followed farming on the Conkling place for a year and in 1870 came to Iowa. Here he purchased raw land, a tract of eighty acres, in the midst of which was a small frame house. About forty acres of the land had been broken and with characteristic energy he began to cultivate and improve the remainder, bringing the entire place under a high state of development. From time to time he purchased more land until he now owns two hundred acres and he has also built a good residence and two barns on the place, has planted an orchard and a grove, has fenced his fields and converted his place into one of the fine farm properties of Union county. In connection with the tilling of the soil he has also fed high grade cattle and hogs and his stock-raising interests have been an important source of revenue to him. He continued in the active work of the farm until 1897, when he left the property in care of his sons, removed to Afton purchased a residence and has since lived in the city. By rebuilding and remodeling the house he has now a very comfortable and attractive home and moreover, he deserves much credit for what he has accomplished as he started out in life empty-handed and has worked his way upward by his own efforts and the assistance of his wife and sons.

Mr. and Mrs. Ruckman are the parents of seven children, five of whom are living: William Franklin, who is married and follows farming in this county; Elmer, who is upon the old homestead; Edward, who owns a farm adjoining the old home place; George, who has property also adjoining the old homestead; and Mrs. Ella Craig, a widow, who has five children and resides upon a farm which she owns in this county. Mr. and Mrs. Ruckman lost two children: Elsworth, who died at the age of fifteen years; and one who died in infancy.

The parents are members of the United Evangelical church. Politically Mr. Ruckman is a democrat, who stanchly advocates the principles promulgated by Thomas Jefferson. He has served as a school officer and as justice of the peace but has always preferred to leave office holding to others and concentrate his energies upon his business affairs and other interests. He is a member of the Grand Army Post and his wife of the Woman’s Relief Corps; and he yet has vivid recollections of the experiences which came upon the tented fields of the south when he fought for the preservation of the Union. The country owes to its soldiers a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid and it has been a noticeable thing that, all other things being equal, the soldier is a more loyal and devoted citizen perhaps than any other class of men. That for which we make sacrifice always is dear to us and the soldier developed a love of country which he never lost. Like many who wore the blue, Mr. Ruckman is as true and faithful to American interests today as when he followed the stars and stripes upon southern battlefields.