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Landis Valley Museum Remembers Inventor-Machinist William Chester Ruth of Chester County

William Chester Ruth, son of Samuel and Maria Louisa Pinn Ruth, invented several pieces of farm machinery. He was born 19 July 1882 in Ercildoun, Chester County, one of 12 children to Samuel and Maria Ruth. 

Ruth married Gertrude Miller on 6 June 1906. They moved to Gap, Lancaster County in 1917. He was, at that time, working for Midvale Steel in Coatesville. Six years later, Ruth opened Ruth's Ironworks Shop. 

Ruth became a well-known and capable blacksmith to the farming families of Eastern Lancaster and Western Chester Counties. Among his patents were a machine feeder used between the thresher and straw baler, a cinder-spreading truck, self-raising elevator, and other machines. 

Landis Valley Museum will remember Ruth on 6 June. The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Landis Valley Christian Fellowship, next to the Landis Valley Museum. It will last until 2:30 p.m. After a light complimentary lunch, Dr. Leroy Hopkins will speak, putting Ruth's life and accomplishments in a historical context. He will touch on the Underground Railroad and displaced African Americans, Quaker ethics and abolitionism, Pennsylvania German agricultural and work craft technology, according to Landis Valley Museum's site. The presentation will conclude in the Bitzer Building where three of Ruth's machines are on display.

The program is possible through a grant from the H. F. Lenfest Fund of The Philadelphia Foundation. To register, call Cindy Kirby-Reedy at 717-581-0591.

 RESOURCES:

Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

 Brubaker, Jack. "The Scribbler: African-American inventor made farm work easier" Lancaster Newspapers. Retrieved from: https://dk-media.s3.amazonaws.com/AA/AU/salisburytwphistory-org/downloads/309309/The_Scribbler__Wm_Chester_Ruth-1.pdf

 "Residents celebrate legacy of local inventor" (19 October 2016) Southern Chester County Weeklies. Retrieved from: https://www.southernchestercountyweeklies.com/news/residents-celebrate-legacy-of-local-inventor/article_16e68232-ffd1-507f-9f85-425954e108bf.html 

 Wills, A. (2012, December 31) William Chester Ruth (1882-1971). Retrieved from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/ruth-william-chester-1882-1971 

(c) 2019, Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman

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