The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: VA
Qualifying Service: Patriotic Service
Photo by permission: William Robert Hill, Ohio Society SAR
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
Photo: 1 of 1
Author: William Robert Hill
Emanuel Ruffner was born March 14, 1757 in the Shenandoah Valley, near Luray, Virginia. Emanuel was the eighth child and sixth son of Peter Ruffner, a German immigrant, and Mary Steinman, originally from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Histories of Fairfield County, Ohio and other sources state that Emanuel served as a teamster during the American Revolution. If true, no muster rolls or original sources have been found to verify this. What is known is he performed patriotic service by providing supplies to the Virginia Militia, namely six bushels of wheat and a horse in 1781.
At about this time Emanuel married Magdalene Grove and the newlyweds lived on a farm near Blackford's Furnace and later, near Big Hawksbill in the Shenandoah Valley. Emanuel is said to have been a giant in size and strength at 6 feet 3 inches tall and with arms as large as an ordinary man's legs. Emanuel and Magdalene had 14 children, and 11 are known to have survived: Jacob, Barbara, John, Henry, Anna, Elizabeth, Magdalene, Joseph, Emanuel ll, Susanna, and Mary Ann. (I'm descended from Mary Ann and her husband William Hill, and also from Barbara and her husband David Pence).
In 1803 Emanuel traveled to Ohio and put a down payment on 690 acres in the Congressional Land District in what would become Richland Township, near West Rushville in Fairfield County. About 1805 the rest of the family came to Ohio, as did many other families from this same area of the Shenandoah Valley, all of whom were against slavery. These families would organize the Predestinarian Baptist Church of Pleasant Run in 1806.
Magdalene died Nov. 20, 1822. Emanuel married Elizabeth Whitman of Fairfield County in 1824. Elizabeth died Dec. 1, 1842. Emanuel would pass away on June 4, 1848 at the advanced age of 91 years, 2 months, and 21 days. His obituary stated: "He was a companion of our Revolutionary sires and Daniel Boone...and has ever been distinguished for the integrity of his character and the purity of his motives. He was the father of eight sons, six daughters, had 60 grand children, 71 great grand children, and one great-great grand child. His descendants in all numbering 146."
The cemetery is located at 39°46´15.96"N, 82°28´22.51"W, on Coon Path Road NE. The zip code is 43163.
To this day, 220 original acres and the spring house Emanuel built in 1803, as well as the brick house his son Joseph completed in 1844, remains in the care of family descendants. In the barn sits the original Conestoga wagon the family used to travel from Virginia to Ohio, estimated by historians to have been constructed in 1775.
"Abercrombie & Slatten Vol. III, VA Revolutionary Public Claims", pgs. 844-845. Also: "The Descendants of Emanuel Ruffner" by Barbara Rowles, Second Edition, Vol. IV.
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