The "A Sunday Morning Visiting History In Lancaster County: Part II" Story

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
road sign honoring William Chester Ruth.

It was an ordinary day.  Stopped along Route 30 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to take a photo of  a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission road sign honoring William Chester Ruth.  The sign is just east of the intersection of Rts. 30 and 41 in the town known as Gap.  According to the metal sign, William Ruth was an African American inventor, business owner and community leader in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  His father at one time was a slave, but was liberated during the Civil War when the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment occupied Savannah Georgia in 1865.  

William Chester Ruth showing the design used for
one of his many inventions.

William's mother was born free in Fredericks- burg, Virginia.  Ruth was born on July 19, 1882 and was one of twelve children born on the family farm in Chester County.  His background did not include formal schooling, but he learned farming and blacksmithing from his father.  He married Gertrude Miller on June 6, 1906 and they had one son, Joseph.  In 1917 they moved to Gap, PA and six years later opened Ruth's Ironworks Shop where he did metal work and repairs, primarily for Pennsylvania German farmers.  

William Chester Ruth working with helpers on one
 of his inventions.  Here they are running a metal lathe.

At the time he was the only African American in the area to have his own manufac- turing business.  From 1924 to 1950 he designed and patented numerous agricultural devices.  His first invention was the Combination Baler-Feeder.  He sold over 5,000 of these machines across the United States.  He next invented the farm elevator used to transport hay to silos.  In 1928 he invented an 87-part automatic tie for a hay baler.  It took two years to obtain a patent for this machine due to its complexity.  He sold over 5,000 of the automatic tie machines to farmers in the Great Plain's states as well as Canada.  Next he invented the Mechanical Cinder Spreader and sold 150 of them to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.  Oh, did I mention he had no formal schooling as a child!  At age 60 the U.S. government commissioned him to design and manufacture secret wartime devices for airplanes and bomb sites during World War II.  A few of his inventions were later used in the design of the Trident Missile in the 1950s.  But, he was not only an inventor, but a spiritual leader at the Church of Christ in Ercildoun, PA near his home.  

A family photo of his brother and sister.

Ercildoun is a hamlet of about 100 residents that was founded by Quakers and was an early center of the abolitionist movement.  The entire hamlet is listed as a historic district on the National Regiater of Historic Places.   On April 3, 1971, at the age of 89, William Chester Ruth died in an automobile accident in Lancaster.  My main intent when I left my home today was to visit The Gap Clock Tower, but I came upon so much more during my morning excursion.  Tomorrow I will show you one more thing I discovered this Sunday morning.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.