Biography of Ira Ricketts, page 542.  History of De Kalb County, Indiana.  
Inter-State Publishing Company, Chicago, 1885.

Ira Ricketts, farmer and stock-raiser, Concord Township, is a native of De 
Kalb County, born May 20, 1838.  His father, Jonathan Ricketts, was a native 
of Kentucky, and when a young man went to Morrow County. Ohio, where he 
married a Miss Van Treese, who died, leaving five children.  In 1835 he 
married Mary Runnels, and to them were born five children---Jeremiah, Ira, 
Elza, Zerus, and Jacob I.  In August, 1837 he came to De Kalb County, Ind., 
and bought 240 acres of wild land, to which he moved his family.  Here he 
passed through all the hardships of pioneer life.  He lived to get thirty 
acres cleared and improved and died in Septemeber, 1846, aged forty-two 
years.  His widow still lives in Illinois.  Ira Ricketts remained with his 
mother till manhood.  The care of the farm and the maintenance of the family 
fell on him and his elder brother after the death of his father, and although 
so young they went bravely to work, and by the time they arrived at man’s 
estate had the farm cleared and under cultivation.  He was married Feb. 5, 
1857, to Lydia Draggoo, daughter of Peter and Nancy (Williams) Draggoo, who 
came to De Kalb County from Ashland County, Ohio, in 1837.  The father died 
in 1867 and the mother in 1872.  After his marriage Mr. Ricketts lived in 
Elkhart County, Ind., a few months, and then returned to the old homestead, 
where he lived till the spring of 1872, when he moved to Dallas County, 
Iowa, and two years later to Macomb County, Ill., where he lived three 
years.  In 1878 he returned to DeKalb County and bought eighty acres of 
the old homestead where he has since lived.  Mr. and Mrs. Ricketts have 
had three children, but two of whom are living---Charles S. and Nancy.  
Mary A. died in October, 1881.  Politically Mr. Ricketts is a Democrat.  
He and his wife are members of the Protestant Methodist church.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com