Author: Ruter, Martin
Biography:
RUTER, Martin (1785-1838: WBIS)
The son of Job and Sarah Ruter, Baptists who later became converts to Methodism, he was born in Charlton MA and moved with the family as a child to central Vermont. Though he had limited formal education, he sought knowledge wherever he could, and by self-education made himself into a reputable scholar of ancient languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew) and of French, mathematics, and history. He experienced a call to the ministry at fifteen, studied divinity, was licenced to preach in 1800 and had become an Elder by 1805. He began as a circuit preacher, mainly in the northeastern states but also (1803-5) in Montreal. In 1805 he married Sibyl Robertson (d 1808), with whom he had two children; after her death, in 1809 he married Ruth (or Ruthey) Young and had eight more. He was a dedicated preacher and educator--head of the New Market Academy in New Hampshire 1818-20, of Augusta College in Kentucky 1828-32, and of Allegheny College in Meadville PA 1834-7. Transylvania University in Lexington KY awarded him an honorary DD in 1820. In 1837, he undertook strenuous missionary work in Texas which he accomplished with great success, but he was taken ill on the journey home and died in Washington TX of "typhoid pneumonia" (DAB). He was buried in Washington, the remains being later moved to Navasota TX where a monument was placed. Ruterville TX is named for him. His publications had for the most part educational purposes: primers and textbooks for schools, a history of church martyrs based on Foxe (1830), and a potted history of the Christian church (1832). (ancestry.com 15 Aug. 2020; Sprague 7: 324-33; DAB; Appleton) HJ