Michael C. Ryan
Michael C. Ryan was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, of which place his mother and father were natives, in 1820, and removed to this State in 1832. He soon began his preparatory studies for Miami University, and was admitted to that school in 1835, graduating with the highest honors in 1839. During the last year of his stay in college, he, with seven others, founded the Beta Theta Pi, a Greek Ooxford, and became the partner of his brother-in-law, John B. Weller, who then was one of the most important men in the county. From 1848 to 1852 he was prosecuting attorney, and from 1852 to 1858 was clerk of the courts. In 1856 he was a delegate from the State of Ohio to the Democratic National Convention which met in Cincinnati that year, and which nominated James Buchanan. He was clerk of the fund commissioners of this county to distribute the surplus revenue of the United States among the various States. In November, 1847, in conjunction with O. S. Witherby, he purchased the Hamilton Telegraph, and in October, 1849, became its editor. Mr. Ryan was a Mason, having taken the degrees of knighthood, and for one term presided in the chapter. At the outbreak of the civil war he took a strong stand for the government, and was made colonel of the Fiftieth Ohio, but his death, which followed soon after, prevented him from takng any active part in the field. That occurred on the 23d of October, 1861. He was a great lover of books, and gathered a large and valuable library. He was married in 1845 to Emily Lefflar, and had three children. Sophia is now dead, Emma is Mrs. Samuel L'Hommedieu, and William is the only son. He was married in December, 1860, to a daughter of Dr. Hale, of St. Louis. The father of Colonel Ryan, Isaac Ryan, was born in Pennsylvania, and was a merchant; he married Sophia Davis, the granddaughter of a Swiss noble. Mrs. Emily Ryan was the only child of William and Margaret Lefflar, also of Pennsylvania.
From A History and Biographical Cyclopædia of Butler County Ohio, With Illustrations and Sketches of its Representative Men and Pioneers, Western Biographical Publishing Company, Cincinnati Ohio, 1882.