Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2015 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= USGenNet Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== A History of Northern Michigan and its People. Vol. II Perry Francis Powers, Lewis Publishing Co., - 1912 [909-911] ALBERT F. RUCH. - An honored veteran of the Civil war and one of Petoskey's foremost citizens and business men is ALBERT F. RUCH, who has here maintained his home since 1887. He is engaged in the painting and decorating business and in local matters he is a most important factor, contributing generously to all measures and enterprises advanced for the good of the general welfare. Although MR. RUCH has attained to the venerable age of seventy-two years, he is still erect and active and he retains in much of their pristine vigor the splendid mental and physical qualities of his youth. A native of Pennsylvania, MR. RUCH was born in Pottsville, Schuylkill county, that state, the date of his nativity being the 27th of September, 1839. He is a son of CHARLES and SARAH ANN RUCH, both of whom were likewise natives of the fine old Keystone state of the Union. The father, whose birth occurred in 1817, was summoned to the life eternal in 1901, and the mother, born in 1823, passed to the great beyond in 1904. To this union were born thirteen children, of whom the subject was the first born and five of whom are living at the present time. In 1845 the father removed, with his family to Fort Wayne, Indiana, afterwards locating at Columbia City, where he was interested in the livery business and in general merchandising. During the administration of PRESIDENT BUCHANAN he was postmaster at Columbia City, where he resided during the residue of his life. ALBERT F. RUCH was a child of but six years of age at the time of his parents' removal from Pennsylvania to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and to the public schools of that city he is indebted for his preliminary educational training. As a youth he entered upon an apprenticeship to learn the painter's and decorator's trade. At the time of the inception of the Civil war MR. RUCH's sympathies were with the north. On the 12th of August, 1862, he gave evidence of intrinsic loyalty to the Union by enlisting for service as a member of Company K, Eighty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, his term of enlistment to last three years or during the remainder of the war. He was appointed principal musician of the Eighty-eighth regiment and continued to serve in that capacity for a period of eight months, at the expiration of which he was transferred to the Topographical Engineers' Department, in the Army of the Cumberland, as assistant topographical engineer on the staff of GEN. JOHN C. BEATTY; also in the same capacity on the staffs of GENERALS SCRIBNER, CARLIN, PALMER, JEFF C. DAVIS and then to the office of GENERAL 0. M. POE on GENERAL SHERMAN's staff at Atlanta. From this office he was detailed to the headquarters' office which was trans- ferred from Atlanta to Chattanooga prior to the evacuation of the former city. In the latter connection he went from headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Washington. D. C., then down the coast to More Head City, then inland to Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he was attached to the office of an Adjutant General of the Fourteenth Army Corps, under Colonel A. C. McCLURG, of Chicago. When he left the army GENERAL JOHN M. PALMER requested COLONEL McCLURG to write a letter to COLONEL BRYANT of the Eighty-Eighth Indiana Regiment, for MR. RUCH's promotion. At that time MR. RUCH was a non-commissioned officer under COLONEL McCLURG, until the army marched into Washington. At the time of LEE's surrender and after the close of the war in which he had participated so valiantly, MR. RUCH received his honorable discharge at Washington, and was mustered out of service at Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 24th of June, 1865. Previously, on the 24th of May, 1865, he had been present in Washington at the Grand Review. When peace had again been established throughout the United States MR. RUCH returned to his home at Columbia City, Indiana, where he was appointed postmaster. Later he resigned from that position and turned his attention to business affairs. He opened up a drug store at Columbia City, where he also engaged in the decorating business, in which latter connection he handled a full line of wall paper, paints, oils, etc.; he was also interested in the drug and livery business with his father. In the year 1869 he removed to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and thence to Warsaw, that state. At Warsaw he was engaged in a number of different business enterprises until 1887, at which time he came to Petoskey, where he has resided during the long intervening years to the present time. Here he is engaged in the painting and decorating business. In local politics MR. RUCH maintains an independent attitude, preferring to give his support to men and measures meeting with the approval of his judgment rather than to follow along strictly partisan lines. He was one of the organizers of the Emmet County Real Estate Association, of which important concern he was president in 1908. MR. RUCH has been twice married, his first union having been to MISS JOSEPHINE MERIAM, the ceremony having been performed on the 3d of April, 1866. To this marriage were born two children, both of whom are now deceased. MRS. RUCH was called to eternal rest in 1881 and subsequently MR. RUCH was united in wedlock to MISS CLARA M. CASTETTER, who was born in Akron, Ohio. This union has been prolific of one child, CARL, whose birth occurred on the 28th of September, 1883. MR. RUCH is also very prominent in fraternal orders being a Master Mason, a Royal Arch Mason, a Past Thrice Illustrious of the Council, a Past Captain-General and Generalissimo of his Commandery of Knights Templar; a Past President of the United Order of American Mechanics; Past President of the United Order of Honor; Past President and Treasurer of the National Union; and a Past Noble Grand of Odd Fellows; also a Pythian Knight and a Maccabee. He and his wife are both connected with Beulah Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, he being a Past Patron and she a Past Treasurer; she is also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. They are both devout members of the Presby-terian church. He retains a deep and abiding interest in his old comrades in arms and signifies the same by membership in Lombard Post No. 52, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is a Past Commander. He is likewise con-nected with the National Association of Civil War Musicians, holding a commission as leading drum- major of the Department of Michigan and is identified with all local organizations of vocal and instrumental music and is noted for his willingness to contribute his time and talent not only for the church and social functions when called upon, but to enhance the interests of music in the different communities in which he resided. In their home community MR. and MRS. RUCH are accorded the deepest and most sincere regard of their fellow-citizens and their exemplary lives serve as a lesson and incentive to the younger generation. ================================================================================ If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access more of our growing collection of FREE online information by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ ================================================================================