Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Rifenburg, William H. 1834 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 25, 2006, 10:20 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

HON. WILLIAM H. RIFENBURG.

    Hon. William H. Rifenburg, so prominent in the ranks of the citizens of
Hobart, was born in the town of Summit, Schoharie county, New York, October 22,
1834. His grandfather, Henry Rifenburg, was born in Columbia county, New York,
near Poughkeepsie, and was a farmer and a contractor by occupation, having
assisted in the building of the Erie canal. His father, also named Henry, was
born along the Hudson, and was the son of an emigrant from Holland, the family
being a sturdy New York Dutch stock. Aaron Rifenburg, the father of our Hobart
citizen, was a native of Schoharie county, and was reared and educated there and
became a farmer. He passed away at the advanced age of eighty-eight years. His
wife was Mary Banks, and she died when about forty-five years of age. Her
father, William Banks, was a native of the same portion of New York state as the
other members of the family, and was of Holland Dutch descent. Aaron Rifenburg
and wife had seven children, and all reached adult age except one.

    Hon. William H. Rifenburg, the eldest of the family, was reared in New York,
received his education in the common schools, and at the age of twrenty went
west to Allegan county, Michigan, where he spent one year. He came to Lake
county in 1856, among the early settlers, and for a while clerked in a store. He
bought a farm in Hobart township, and was engaged in farming until the Civil
war. In 1861 he enlisted in Company E of the famous old Ninth Indiana Infantry,
and served as a private and second sergeant. At the battle of Shiloh he was
wounded in the shoulder, and in the following August received his honorable
discharge. On returning to Hobart he embarked in the mercantile business, and
from then until 1892 was concerned in various enterprises. In the latter year he
began contracting, and did some important work in that line. In 1897 he was
elected to the state legislature from Lake county, and his Republican
constituents returned him for two years, his record at the state capital being
in every way creditable. He served as trustee of his township for two years,
1864-65, and held the office of justice of the peace from 1864 to 1868. He is a
charter member and was the first commander of Hobart Post No. 411, G. A. R.
During his legislative career he was chairman of the prison committee north, and
it was largely due to his influence that the Michigan City penitentiary was
rebuilt, the contract system of prison labor abolished, and the indeterminate
sentence law passed. He is also recognized as the father of the present gravel
road system of Indiana.

    In 1859 Mr. Rifenburg married Rebecca Stearns, and of this marriage there is
one daughter, Mary, now the wife of John J. Wood. In 1866 Mr. Rifenburg was
married to Anna Howe, by whom there are no children living, and in 1869 he
married Miss Sabrina Sawyer. They have three living chilren: [sic] Grace, the
wife of Joseph H. Conroy, whose history is given on another page; Maude, the
wife of Elmer Armet, an official at the Michigan City prison; and Ruth, single.

    Mr. Rifenburg affiliates with the M. L. McClellan Lodge No. 357, of the
Masonic Order, at Hobart, and is a member and a trustee of the Unitarian church.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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