The Ryland - Riley controversy raises its head again. What was Riley's family name before coming to Indiana? Was it Ryland or Riley? A book offers new insight. It is entitled The Samuel Burkhart Rylands, written by Rev. H. H. Ryland and published by The Life Line Printing Co., Liconier, Pennsylvania 1938. This family has English roots. From page 3, "We have no Bible record of the children of John and Rachel Sylvester Ryland. Some twenty years ago Dr. Chester Riland, of Baltimore, spent a great deal of time in looking up the ancestry of the Rylands. Due to the increase in his practice of his profession, he had to drop his investigations along genealogical lines. He kindly gave the writer copies of his findings which show that John and Rachel Sylvester Ryland had ten children, as follows: James, John, Sylvester, Rebecca, Andrew, William, Mary, Sarah, Rachel and Henry. James is given as the first born. He had a grant of 80 acres of land in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, surveyed May 16, 1794. He bought and sold land in different times in Bedford County from 1803 to 1818 when he sold a tract to John Puderbaugh. His wife's name was Rebecca. Here again we have to draw on information given us by Dr. Chester Riland of Baltimore. He informs us that he had heard his grandfather and others tell of one of this James Ryland's sons going to the State of Indiana. There the people called him Riley. The result was he changed the spelling of his name to Riley. It was not a great change, as they likely wrote his name Riland as many still do. Dr. Riland gave little thought to this matter till a few years ago when a genealogist from Chicago, who had come to Berks County, looking up the ancestors of James Whitcomb Riley, hearing of his work in looking up his ancestry, came to see him at his home in Baltimore. This man told him that James Whitcomb Riley was a Ryland descendant. This James Ryland had a son, Andrew, named no doubt, after his brother, Andrew. This man went West in 1825, settling first in Western Ohio, and a little later going across into the State of Indiana. Andrew's son, Reuben, married Elizabeth Marine in 1844. Their son, named James Whitcomb Riley, was born in 1849."
More to follow. Any Riley or Riland or Ryland folk out there with more genealogical info on America's "Chilren's Poet?" and thanks for writing to us Mr. Ryland.
Genealogy by other researchers of Riley has been brought to our attention from Ms. Zumwalt and we duplicate pages from it which indicates the following:
Note:
Both
writers may be considering some of the same people and at this late date it is
as we all know difficult to provide conclusive proof as to the family
heritage.
The Ryland connection regardless of spelling seems unlikely since the people
who survived Andrew Riley all used his spelling of the name. James
Whitcomb
Riley's sister's, Eva May's, husband Mr. Eitel might have subscribed to the Ryland
connection in order to join Indianapolis and Chicago clubs. We know being
Irish
or having an Irish wife at the turn of the century was considered taboo in
some
circles. Mr. Eitel was an important banker. In fact from
1840 on changing the
name was more likely to go from Irish to English or German rather than the other
way around.
Hamlin Garland did an interview of Mr. Riley for McClure's Magazine about 1893. He asked Riley if his father was Irish. Riley answered, "Both yes and no. His characteristics are strongly Irish, but he was born a Pennsylvania Dutchman, and spoke the German dialect before he spoke English. It has been held that the name probably comes from Ryland, but there's an O'Reilly theory I muse over very pleasantly." The real question is whether Andrew Riley's father was John Ryland or John William Riley of Tornagh, County Cork Ireland as the tombstone in Bedford Pa. is said to state.
In the spring we hope to take a trip to Bedford in order to check out the information on the Riley tombstone. The remainder of the family tree does not seem to be in question in regards to this matter. Riley's have been located in other cemeteries in eastern Indiana. For example, there are early Riley's buried at Fountain City, Indiana.
Perhaps people researching Riley can use
these materials from both sides and
discover the truth no matter what it turns out to be. Mr. Riley implied
Irish, and Mr.
Eitel
said the Ryland connection was likely correct. The other family members all
said that Andrew's family was Irish on his father's
side. The German language and background was thought to come in
their minds from the Schlick family which would be Reuben's mother's family.
Larry L. Fox, Historian BS /MA 1966 Ball State University
