The Ritter Family - and the History of Hydro-Electricity in Roe Park

The story of the Ritter's goes back to the mid nineteenth century and the Alexander family who were landed gentry in the Roe Valley at that time.

A Story of Love, Scandal and Australian Gold

The Alexander's retained the services of a young music teacher, Edward Frederick Christian Ritter, who came from the Alsace-Lorraine region. Edward Ritter proved to be an excellent music teacher and was very handsome. Soon Jane Alexander, a daughter of John and Margaret Alexander, fell in love with her teacher and they married in secret on August 31^st, 1850 - she was just 17 at the time.

Through the desires of the rather annoyed family - or more likely to escape the scandal their marriage caused - the young couple emigrated to Australia arriving in Melbourne at the time of the famous gold rush. They staked their claim at Ballarat and promptly struck it rich - although letters from Jane to her parents tell frequent stories of defending their claim against armed bandits.

Edward opened a business in Melbourne for sale of precious metals and property and the couple raised 2 boys and 3 girls before setting sail back to Ireland in 1870's.

In 1872, Jane Ritter's brother S.M. Alexander bought Roe Park estate from Nicholson's of Derry for £12,150.00 but died in 1886 with no heir to his estates. He willed his estates to his two nieces one of whom was his sister Anna's daughter - Elizabeth Jane Smith Stanton who inherited the Roe Park estate. Shortly after this she married her cousin John Edward Ritter (who had been born in Australia) and so the Ritter's came into possession of Roe Park which they would hold until 1951.

J.E. Ritter and Hydro-Electricity

Although not an engineer, J.E. Ritter was a very practical man and as early as 1893 was generating electricity to drive some farm equipment and lighting for the big house using a paraffin oil engine and dynamo. He then turned his attention to the possibility of producing electricity from water power and using the water wheel at the Largy Green for this purpose.

This wheel was at the time driving machinery for a sawmill and corn crusher. He was soon supplying electricity to Roe Park from Largy Green but supply was erratic as the water supply to the wheel frequently became clogged with logs.

In 1896 he built the Power House (still standing) at the Large Green and installed water turbines. Soon he turned his thoughts to expanding electricity to Limavady town - making it the first town in Ireland to be supplied by hydro electric power. And despite opposition from the gas company and the town council proceeded to run power to sub stations in the town and lines along private houses. The first electricity was delivered to the lodge in Limavady in 1897 and by 1900 he had 75 customers in the town.

Mrs Ritter Takes Charge

Sadly J.E. Ritter died on May 1^st, 1901; leaving a widow and 5 children, the eldest being 13 years old. Mrs Ritter now took over the running of the electricity in addition to running a dairy farm, a market garden, a mineral water works, raising a family of five and managing a large staff. A 1905 photograph shows a staff of 35 employees.

Mrs Ritter continued to expand the electricity business helped by her eldest son Stanton who had trained as an engineer and traveled from England each weekend to supervise any ongoing work. Mrs Ritter's battles with local gas company and later the town council continued after they (the council) bought the gas works. However things changed dramatically in1917 when supply of coal dried up due to the first World War. Suddenly the council was pleading with Mrs Ritter to light town streets with electricity.

Mrs Ritter retired in 1926 and Major John Alexander Ritter retired from the army to run the electricity company and his brother Alfred looked after the farm and other interests. As demand for electricity increased, J.A. Ritter acquired the corn mills at Roe Mill and converted to them electricity production. He died in 1931 aged 42, but his widow continued to expand supply, helped by J.T. Irwin an electrical engineer hired by the company in 1926.

In 1946 the Limavady electrical supply company was taken over by the Electricity Board for Northern Ireland (EBNI) who ran the business until 1965 when it was decided that hydro electric power was too expensive compared to power generated from oil which at that time was very cheap.

When EBNI took over the local company it had 1095 customers supplied by 7 miles of 11,000 circuits, 7 miles of 2200 circuits and 24 miles of low voltage distributors - quite an achievement for a small venture started in 1893.