In the 1880 census with his parents, it appears that his name is written as William J. H. Ruttan.
He is listed at 736 Chestnut in the 1890 Leavenworth city directory, with his widowed mother. Listed at 746 Chestnut with both his mother and sister in 1893 and 1894, when he is listed as a driver for Volz Bros.
In 1900 he is listed at 746 Chestnut St in Leavenworth (b. Jun 1874 IA) with his wife of 4 yrs, Mabel (b. Mar 1878) and sons William and Francis. He is listed as an Ice Dealer, renting his home. The Ice business is named Ruttan & Schrey, his partner being Oscar Henry Schrey who married his sister the next year.
[written by his daughter, Gertrude]
Around 1901/02 he sold his ice business in Leavenworth and separated from Mabel as a result of his affair with Ida May Sacks. He and Ida moved onto a farm at Oak Mills in Atchison Co, between Leavenworth and Atchison, KS. This is also about the time that he and Mabel were divorced, with him keeping the boys. He was remarried shortly thereafter to Ida May Sacks in 1903. Unsuccessful at farming, W'm decided to go to western Kansas and take a homestead - 160 Ac a few miles from Sharon Springs, so he filed a claim. His livestock - two horses and a cow with household belongings, etc, were shipped to Sharon Springs in a freight car. The family, wife and 4 children, went out on a passenger train in time for Merle and Francis to enter school. In the meantime there arose a need in Sharon Springs for a blacksmith. Altho' he had never worked as a blacksmith, Wm took on the work. In February (1906?) the wife and 4 children moved out from Sharon Springs onto the farm. They had to live there 6 months according to the homestead law. They lived in a sod house which they had built. This ended school for Merle and Francis that year. Wm for the most part stayed in Sharon Springs from Monday morning until Saturday night bringing groceries and needed supplies in the wagon drawn by the 2 horses. He continued doing blacksmithing in Sharon Springs for needed income. Merle and Francis did chores and enjoyed the freedom of the prairie, there being no neighbors for several miles and no transportation. In August of the same year the family moved into a house in Wallace, and in September the boys entered school and had other children with whom to play. The school was an ungraded one-room school. The decision to locate in Wallace rather than Sharon Springs was determined by rumors or surmizes that the County Seat would be moved to Wallace. Wm and some of his friends made the wrong choice it proved. Wm moved his shop and while in Wallace branched into some areas of hardware and farm machinery. Wallace was a very small, primitive pioneer settlement - prairie everywhere. Cattle, a big business for some, with ranches, not farms.
In the 1910 census he is listed as 37, married 7 yrs (second time) and a Hardware merchant. All 5 of his chidren at the time were living with them.
The boys enjoyed trapping. They were into everything that kids that age were. Of course they had the responsiblity of chores and helping their father at times. During this time a family came through in a covered wagon. They were strangers, but they took Francis and some of the children for a ride in their wagon out on the prairie. Each Christmas his mother and sisters sent a wooden box by freight with presents of clothing (boys: shirts and sweaters), toys, and candy (each had a box of Xmas candy and nuts to open Xmas Day and another for New Year's Day). Lots of popcorn to pop and black walnuts - all from their own land. In the fall would come a barrel of apples from their orchard. Birthdays and Xmas: books for every age person. He needed to move where he could make more money for his family of 6 children and where the schools were better. So, in 1913 we moved to Brookville, KS and bought out a farm machinery business and hardware. The schools were very good, but business deteriorated because of the advent of the automobile, making it too convenient to drive into Salina, a much larger town. We all did well at school and made good friends. The boys were into all the physical activities available in the community. In the spring of 1917, Wm moved his hardware store to Grainfield, KS, where he took on the agency for Ford automobiles. Wm Merle accompanied him. At the close of the school year the rest of the family moved by train. Francis helped with the loading and unloading of the household goods. When the family arrived by passenger car, the house and furnishings were ready for occupation. In September, 1917 Francis returned to Brookville to finish his high school education and to be where Louise was; that was his main thought.
In 1920 the census lists the family on Oak St in Grainfield, with everyone except Francis. They also have a Wm Grant (22) living with them. And he is still living with his wife and son Russel on Oak St in Grainfield in 1930.
By 1940 he had moved to Ellis and was running a hardware store there, with his wife Ida May and daughter Thelma. It shows he and Ida as having completed the 8th grade, and Wilma with 2 yrs of college and working as a secretary in a Dr’s office.
- from “A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans” by William E. Connelley 1919:
William Henry RUTTAN has an interesting career and business experience and has been identified with Western Kansas as a homesteader and as a merchant for a number of years and is now the leading hardware merchant at Grainfield.
Mr. Ruttan was born at Cresco, Iowa, June 20, 1873 and received most of his education in the public schools of Leavenworth. He was at home with his mother to the age of twenty-three and for twelve years conducted an ice business at Leavenworth and also farmed near there for three years. On November 11, 1905, he arrived in Wallace County, Kansas, and the homestead of 160 acres which he took up is still among his property possessions. He was also in the hardware and implement business at Wallace until May, 1913, then moved his stock to Brookville, and in 1917 came to Grainfield, where he has a large store, well equipped and stocked with hardware and implements. He also owns a local garage and is local agent for the Ford cars. He is a director in the Brookville State Bank.
While in Brookville he served as mayor of the town. He is an independent republican and a member of the Presbyterian Church. Fraternally he is a past master of Wallace Lodge of Masons, No. 318, belongs to the Grainfield Lodge of Odd Fellows, and served as Noble Grand of the Sharon Springs Lodge in 1906 and is a member of the Court of Honor.
By his first marriage Mr. Ruttan has two sons: William Earl, who trained three months in Camp Funston and was then discharged, and Francis Ervin, connected with the Lee Hardware Company at Salina and a graduate of the Brookville High School. In 1903, at Leavenworth, Mr. Ruttan married Miss Ida May Sacks, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Sacks. Her mother is now living in Atchison Co, KS. Mr. and Mrs. Ruttan have four children: Gertrude May, a junior in the Grainfield High School; Russell E., a freshman in the high school; Miles Henry and Wilma May, both in the grade schools.
More of his life is covered in the story of his son Francis, who said that he worked himself into an early grave. “He went to sleep in a chair in his hardware store in Ellis, Kansas.”
[Obituary] St. Joseph News-Press, MO - Wednesday, 4 December 1940, pg 9
W. H. RUTTAN DIES
W. H. Ruttan of Ellis, Kan, brother of Mrs. H. W. Sandusky, 207 East Cliff street, died suddenly following a heart attack Tuesday afternoon at his home. Mrs. Sandusky left Wednesday morning for Ellis. Mr. Ruttan waa sixty-seven years old and was a hardware merchant. Besides Mrs. Sandusky he Is survived by his wife, Mrs. Ida Ruttan; three sons, W. M. Ruttan, Bakersfleld, Franrls Ruttan, San Jose, CaL, and Dr. Miles Ruttan, Excelsior Springs (MO), two daughters, Miss Gertrude Ruttan, Lawrence, and Miss Wllma Ruttan. Ellis, and another sister, Mrs. O. H. Schrey, Leavenworth, Kan.
Died of acute dilation of the heart - coronary occlusion at 67 yrs, 5 mos, 13 days.