Jefferson County, West Virginia Biography of Robert C. RISSLER This biography was submitted by Sue Schell, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, Pg. 321 Robert C. Rissler, editor and publisher of the Farmers Advocate at Charles Town, judicial center of Jefferson County, was born and reared in this county, as was also his father, Samuel L. Rissler, the date of whose nativity was September 30, 1830. The latter's father, George L. Rissler, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, January 17, 1787, a son of Thomas Rissler, who settled near Winchester, Virginia, in 1794. Thomas Rissler there owned and operated a gristmill, and he passed the closing years of his life near Terre Haute, Indiana. George L. Rissler learned the miller's trade under the direction of his father, and later operated mills in Frederick and Jefferson counties, Virginia. In 1828 he purchased a farm near Kablestown, in the latter county, and here he continued his operations as an agriculturist, partially with slave labor, until the time of the Civil war, his death having here occurred October 6, 1865, and he thus having witnessed the creation of the new state of West Virginia. In 1817 George Rissler married Mary Roland, who was born April 14, 1789, of Welsh lineage, and whose death occurred October 14, 1848. The names of the children of this union are here recorded: John Gordon, William, Mary Catherine, Thomas Gabriel, Rebecca E., George Lewis and Samuel L. Samuel L. Rissler was reared on the home farm in Jefferson County, and to the land which he inherited here he added by purchase and became one of the most substantial farmers of Charles Town District. When the Civil war came he was loyal to the state and institutions under the influence of which he had been reared, and as a soldier of the Confederacy he became a member of the command known as Botts Greys, in the Second Virginia Infantry. At the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, he was wounded, and after recuperating he was transferred to the ambulance corps. In the fall of 1864 he was captured, and thereafter he was held a prisoner of war until the close of the great conflict between the states of the North and the South. He resumed his farming operations and did well his part in retrieving the prostrate industries of the South, he having been one of the venerable and honored citizens of Jefferson County at the time of his death, September 5, 1905. He married Sarah Johnston, who was born at Kabletown, this county, in August 1832, a daughter of David Johnston, a native of Maryland, his father having been born in Ireland, of Scotch ancestry. The maiden name of the wife of David Johnston was Joanna McHenry. The death of Mrs. Rissler occurred April 1, 1920, she having become the mother of ten children: Margaret (Mrs. S. Lee Phillips), Samuel L., William B., George David (deceased), Charles, Robert C., Annie M. (Mrs. Charles H. Phillips), Frances (deceased), Warren H. and Donna G. Robert C. Rissler gained in the rural schools his preliminary education which, was supplemented by his attending Charles Town Academy and also by instructions by a private tutor. At the age of nineteen years he became a teacher in the Kanawha school, and later he taught at Pleasant Green, Missouri. After his return to his native county he was a popular teacher in the schools of Charles Town, and he continued his service in the pedagogic profession until 1899, when he became a member of the editorial staff of the Evening Press at York, Pennsylvania. He there remained two and one-half years, and in September, 1901, he purchased the plant and business of the Farmers Advocate, a weekly paper, at Charles Town, of which he has since continued the editor and publisher and which he has made an effective exponent of local interests and of the principles of the democratic party. In 1903 Mr. Rissler married Miss Alice M. Kable, who was born in Macoupin County, Illinois, a daughter of Benjamin F. and Anna (Freeman) Kable, the former deceased and the latter still a resident of that county. Mr. Kable served as a Union soldier in the Civil war, in which he was a member of the Seventieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was with Sherman in the Atlanta campaign and the subsequent march to the sea, and served also with the command of General Thomas in Tennessee, where he was wounded at the battle of Franklin. He continued in service until the close of the war, and thereafter refused to accept a pension from the Government. Mr. and Mrs. Rissler have four children, Howard F., Anna Katherine, Mary Johnston and Margaret.