William Kreitzer, farmer of Jefferson township, Montgomery county, Ohio, was born in Berks county, Pa., May 24, 1836, and is of German descent.
Peter Kreitzer, his grandfather, was born, reared and married in Berks county, became the father of four childrenJacob, John, Elizabeth and Catherineand died in his native county. Jacob Kreitzer, son of Peter and father of William, was also born in Berks county, and there married Catherine Deckler; he was the owner of two farms in Pennsylvania, one of which he sold in 1838, when he came to Ohio, and settled in Perry township, Montgomery county, on a tract of 120 acres. Here he resided the remainder of his days, dying at the age of sixty-seven years, the father of the following children: Jacob, Catherine, Mary, Henry, Kate, John, Rebecca, Isaac, William, Sarah and Lydia. Mr. Kreitzer was a member of the Lutheran church, in politics a democrat, and a citizen of good repute.
William Kreitzer, whose name opens this biographical memoir, was aged but two years, when brought by his parents to Montgomery county, Ohio, in the spring of 1838. Opportunities for schooling were somewhat meager in his boyhood days, but he made the most of them. At the age of thirty-three years, he married in Madison township, Miss Martha Heeter, a native of the township, born August 12, 1847, a daughter of Samuel and Ruhama (Nation) Heeter. Her paternal grandfather, Sebastian Heeter, was born in Pennsylvania, of German descent, and married Elizabeth Rarick, who was born in Philadelphia county, Pa., February 25, 1777, and was eighteen years of age when she was married to Mr. Heeter, August 11, 1795. She was a daughter of Henry and Katie Rarick. The children born to Sebastian Heeter and wife were born in the following order: Henry, Frederick, Catherine, Abraham, Daniel, Polly, Jacob, Samuel, Sarah, Sebastian and David.
Sebastian Heeter was an early settler of Madison township, Montgomery county, Ohio, and made his home on the farm on which his daughter-in-law, Ruhama Heeter, now livesthe widow of his son, Samuel. For this farm of 160 acres he traded four horses and a wagon, the land being located in a dense forest, through which ran an old Indian trail. Forest and trail were soon annihilated, yet with a great expenditure of labor, and a productive farm substituted in their place. Sebastian Heeter was an ardent Lutheran, and contributed liberally toward the erection of the first edifice devoted to worship by that denomination in Gettysburg.
Samuel Heeter married Ruhama Nation, and by her became the father of the following named childrenMary M., Jacob, Paulina and Catherinewho grew to maturity. There were two others who died in infancy. Mr. Heeter was a democrat in politics; in religion he was a Lutheran, and died in that faith at the age of sixty-six years. His widow is now eighty-three years old.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Kreitzer settled for the time being on a farm of eighty-eight acres which he had purchased in Jackson township, but three years later Mr. Kreitzer bought his present farm in Jefferson township, comprising 160 acres. He has added materially to his lands since residing here, and now owns three good farms, comprising, in all, 389 acres. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Kreitzer were named Samuel J.; William A., who died at the age of nine months; John D.; Ruhama C.; Jacob H., who died at the age of six years; Mary M., who died when three years old; and Noah, who died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Kreitzer are members of the Lutheran church, in which Mr. Kreitzer is a trustee, having taken the place of Samuel Heeter at the death of the latter; in politics he is a democrat. He is a self-made man, and all he possesses he has made through his own good management, assisted only by his wife and elder children.
Elizabeth (Rarick) Heeter, maternal grandmother of Mr. Kreitzer, lived to be ninety years, eleven months and twenty-two days of age. Catherine Rarick, great-grandmother of Mrs. Kreitzer, died in September, 1829, aged seventy-four, and her remains are interred at Allerton, in Montgomery county. Henry Rarick died January 18, 1817, aged sixty-two years. Ruhama (Nation) Heeter was born April 8, 1813, in Campbell county, Tenn., a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Moser) Nation; Thomas Nation was a son of Joseph and Jeretta (Vickroy) Nation; Joseph Nation was a native of North Carolina, of English parentage, and was a soldier of the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Jeretta (Vickroy) Nation was a daughter of Marmaduke Vickroy, also a Revolutionary soldier and, with his wife, a native of England. The children born to Joseph Nation and wife were named Isaac, Labar, Samson, Girten, Joe, Elizabeth, Rebecca and Charity. Joseph Nation eventually settled in Tennessee, where he bought a farm of 160 acres, on which he passed the remainder of his useful life.
Thomas Nation was born in North Carolina, and on moving to Tennessee married Elizabeth Moser, daughter of Jacob and Dorcas (Hunnicut) Moser, of Germany. Thomas Nation and wife, prior to 1813, came from Tennessee to Montgomery, now Preble county, Ohio, but later returned to Tennessee; finally, in 1828, Mr. Nation came back to Montgomery county, Ohio, bringing a four-horse wagon and settling in Eaton, where he became a teamster. Mr. Nation was twice married, and to his first union were born six children, viz: Ruhama, Elizabeth, Joseph, Hamilton, Rebecca and Jacob. The mother of this family died in Tennessee, and Mr. Nation next married, in the same state, Annie Lay. This second union resulted in the birth of thirteen children, who were born in the following order: Isaac, Charlotte, Emeline, Franklin, Freeland, Tabitha, Celie, Paulina, Alfred, Emily, Pliny, Henry and Marks. The father of this large family died in Eaton, Ohio, at the age of sixty-six years, a life-long member of the Methodist church. The children born to Ruhama Heeter were named in the following order: Mary Martha, married to William Kreitzer; Jacob, who married Mary A. Bowman, and has three sonsJohn, Joseph and Charles; Pauline, who was married to Charles Watson, but is now deceased, having left two childrenSamuel and Joseph; Catherine, who was married to Adam Krull, and is the mother of the following children: Silas F., Esta C. and Ada C.
Jeretta (Vickroy) Nation, the wife of Joseph Nation, came to Ohio when a child, her father having been a soldier of the war of the Revolution and having lived to he 105 years old. Joseph Nation took a valiant part in the battle of the Horseshoe.
Source: Centennial Portrait and Biographical Record of the City of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens Together with the Biographies and Portraits of the Presidents of the United States and Biographies of the Governors of Ohio, ed. by Frank Conover, A.W. Bowen & Co., 1897, pp. 1258-1260.