Favorite Ancestors: Wilhelm Rittenhouse

Wilhelm Rittenhouse was a native of Mulheim in what is now Germany. He learned the paper-making trade, possibly from his brother-in-law, in Arnheim, The Netherlands. In 1688, Wilhelm and his three children settled in the Philadelphia suburb of Germantown, where Rittenhouse became the first papermaker in British America. He would also become the first Mennonite Bishop in the colonies.