Jared D. Ryker
Jared D. Ryker, a representative of one of the earliest and first families of Jefferson County, and also one of the most prominent and successful farmers of the county, was born January 8, 1821, at the old Ryker homestead, Jefferson County, Indiana. His parents were John G. and Sarah Ryker (nee Jones), who were respectively born in Shelby and Boone Counties, Kentucky. John G. Ryker was born August 9, 1793, and removed with his father, before he became of age, to Jefferson County. His father was Geradus Ryker, a native of the State of New Jersey, born in 1769, who emigrated in the latter part of the last century to Shelby County, Kentucky, and subsequently to Jefferson County, Indiana, in about 1811.
He brought with him, to Indiana, six sons and three daughters: His eldest son, Samuel, born in Shelby County, 1799; John G., Jacob S., Jared, Abram and William C., born respectively 1793, 1796, 1799, 1804, 1807; Polly S., 1809; Peter V., 1816; Leah, 1818.
John G. Ryker was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was known as one of the "Rangers", and for this meritorious services drew a pension from the Government until the day of his death, in 1875. Jared D.'s maternal grandfather, David Jones, a Revolutionary soldier, emigrated from Kentucky and settled in an early day within tow miles of what is now the village of Canaan.
His mother, Sarah Jones Ryker, was born in Kentucky, in 1798.
He has three times been married; first in 1841 to Miss Eliza, granddaughter of Col. John Ryker, and of this union three children survive -Sarah, Jane and Mary Ann. His second wife was Miss Mary Howard, a native of Jefferson County, and two children of this union are also living -John and Permelius. His present wife, a very estimable and clever lady was Miss Anna Harris, who is still living, and a native of England; this marriage occurred in 1857. the children by this marriage are Benjamin H., Walter H., Thaddeus H., Herbert H., Jared H. and Edgar H.
Mr. Ryker has a farm of 361 acres of well improved land, and is nearly the sole owner of the Madison, Ryker's Ridge and Wolf Run Turnpike. He has long been one of the leading members of the Ryker's Ridge Baptist Church, and is one of its deacons. While Mr. Ryker did not received any of the advantages of a collegiate education, he is nevertheless a man of fine sense, liberal in his views as to both politics and religion, and affable and courteous in his dealings with his fellow-man.
Source: Biographical and Historical Souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott and Washington, Indiana. By John M. Gresham & Co., 1889.
