My Genealogy Hound

WERNER K. RUHE, the subject of this sketch, is a son of Augustus Lehman and Adeline Lovina Ruhe. He was born in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pa., in the year 1843, and acquired the advantages of a sound education in the high school, which was then first established under the superintendency of Prof. Robert McAlpin, notable as a public educator, and at one time a member of the editorial staff of the New York Tribune, under Horace Greeley. The advantages of studying under such a teacher were supplemented by further studies under Rev. J. S. Kessler at the Allentown Seminary, which has since been merged into the well known Muhlenberg College, and also under Prof. I. N. Gregory at the “Academy,” an institution which has ceased to exist. Thus thoroughly equipped with an academic education, he nevertheless determined to acquire the practical trade of a printer, and served his full apprenticeship in the office of the Allentown Democrat, which he entered in July, 1859, and which was owned and published by his father and C. Frank Haines. In July, 1865, he purchased a half-interest in the Democrat office from his father, and, associated with C. Frank Haines as editor, has continuously published it since that date.

Mr. Ruhe has always been a true and consistent Democrat, working faithfully in and out of season in its party interests, and in turn he has been honored by the people by election to public offices of trust and responsibility. He early manifested an intense interest in the Fire Department of Allentown, and at an early age joined the old Columbia Fire Company, and was a member and President of the Steamer Building Committee, which led to the present engine of the company being added to the department. At the breaking out of the war the Columbia Company became greatly disintegrated, so many of its members rapidly answering the National cry for soldiers to defend the Union. But directly peace was restored the “Columbias” once more became a strong and influential fire organization, and no one took a more active interest in its rehabilitation than Werner K. Ruhe. In 1872 he was made Chief Engineer of the Allentown Fire Department, serving for two years, and signalizing his holding of that position by a thorough re-organization of the department. He recommended the introduction of a hook and ladder company, and was the first engineer to make a full and complete annual report of the department, a custom which has since been steadily adhered to.

In 1886 Mr. Ruhe was elected and served as Mayor of Allentown for a term of two years. His incumbency of this onerous office was eminently satisfactory to his fellow-citizens, whose interests he zealously guarded, and he introduced many improved methods of dealing with the financial affairs of the city, which redounded to its welfare and his credit. To improve the city water supply, he recommended in an important message the purchase of the Fountain House property, .on which are valuable springs, and suggested for this purpose the raising of a loan of $50,000, secured by Allentown four per cent, city bonds. The idea was carried out by public vote, and to-day no city in the state enjoys a purer water supply than Allentown. In other walks of life the trust and confidence reposed in Mr. Ruhe have been manifested by his election as a Director of the Allentown National Bank from 1884 to 1888, and from 1891 to 1893 Director of the Allen Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Director of the Hope and of the Mutual Building and Loan Association, Director and President of the Allentown Hardware Works, and Treasurer of the Columbia Fire Company.

Mr. and Mrs. Ruhe are consistent members of the English-Lutheran Church, and among secret societies he is well known as a member of the Odd Fellows and Heptasoplis. During the War of the Rebellion Mr. Ruhe enlisted twice in the defense of his native state, in response to the proclamation of Governor Curtin, the first time as a private in Company E, Fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Militia, which was organized September 13, 1862, and commanded by Col. H. C. Longneeker; and again he went out in 1863 in the Forty-first Regiment (three-months emergency militia), under the command of Maj. John H. Oliver.

Mr. Ruhe was married June 2, 1870, in Allentown, to Mary Jane Frederick, of this city, a member of a well known family, who formerly resided in Catasauqua and Whitehall Township, Lehigh County. Their union has been blessed with two children, Adeline Lovina and Mark Frederick Ruhe. The former was educated in and is a graduate of the Allentown High School; the latter attended Muhlenberg College. Miss Ruhe was married in 1893 to Alfred J. Yost, M. D., who is also Coroner of Lehigh County.

With the exception of a five-months trip in 1864 to Illinois, where he was employed on newspapers in Chicago, Princeton, Mendota, Springfield, Decatur and Bloomington, all of Mr. Ruhe’s life has been passed in Allentown, where he is thoroughly identified with the public and business interests and future prosperity of the city.

Werner K. Ruhe is descended from an ancestry which was always noted for its solid, substantial prosperity, and a splendid indication of the conservatism of the family is shown in the careful records of its past history which he preserves. From these may be learned that this representative family of Lehigh County sprung from John F. Ruhe, his great-grandfather, who was born in Nordheim, in the Electorate of Hanover, on the 25th of November, 1745, and emigrated to America in 1790. He was married in St. George’s Church, London, on the 14th of August, 1776, to Catherine Maria Henrietta Mackenrode. His children were seven in number, of whom John F. was born in London, and emigrated with his parents to this country. He was married in Allentown to Catherine Keiper, by whom he had twelve children. His second wife, formerly Elizabeth Kramer, bore him eleven children. One of his large family was Augustus L. Ruhe, born in Allentown, of the first wife, on the 23d of September, 1809. He was the father of Werner K. Ruhe, by his marriage, contracted on the 25th of September, 1836, to Adeline, daughter of Jonathan Knauss, of North Whitehall Township, Lehigh County. Augustus Ruhe was previously married to Deborah Gangwere, of Allentown, May 21, 1833, by whom he had one child, which died in infancy; and again in 1865 he was married to Harriet, daughter of Joseph Kleckner, of Northampton County. All his ten children were the fruits of his second marriage, with the exception of the one noted. Three children are deceased and seven survive, three girls and four boys, now all grown up and settled for life in this city.

Augustus L. Ruhe was a printer and publisher during his business career, but he also found time to take an active interest in politics, and was an ardent Whig. He filled many public offices, being at different times Clerk of the Orphans’ Court of Lehigh County, and Postmaster of Allentown, to which latter position he was appointed by President Harrison in 1840, holding the position for four years; he was also Clerk of the Internal Revenue Office, appointed by President Andrew Johnson. He abandoned active political and business pursuits in 1872, and passed into eternal rest, loved and honored by all who knew him, on the 5th of May, 1892. His wife, Harriet, preceded him to the spirit world on the 24th of April, 1892, eleven days prior to the decease of her husband.