admin GEORGE ALFRED RICKER is of New England ancestry. George and Maturin Ricker, brothers, came from England to Denver, New Hampshire, in 1670, and in 1672 respectively. Both were killed by Indians on June 4, 1706, at Garrison Hill in Dover, N. H. George Ricker married Eleanor Evans. Ephraim, son of George, was a soldier in the Colonial and French wars, taking part in the Crown Point expedition in 1748. Moses Ricker, son of Ephraim, was a soldier, serving in the French and Indian War, and also in the Revolution. Henry Ricker, son of Moses, had a son, Charles, grandfather of our subject, and who served in the navy in the War of 1812. He had a son, Charles Clement Ricker, father of George A. Ricker, who at an early age entered the United States Navy, and served with distinction throughout the Civil War, and for several years thereafter, as Acting Master’s Mate and Acting Ensign on the U. S. frigate, Santee; Acting Master on the U. S. ironclad, Nahant, during which time he took part in all the fights in which the ironclads of the South Atlantic Squadron were engaged. He later served on the ironclad, Passaic, and did special duty off Charleston. After its evacuation he commanded the U. S. ship, F. A. Ward, and the same year was promoted Acting Volunteer Lieutenant. He later served on the U. S. ship. Supply, in the East India Squadron in the China and Japan seas, and received from President Andrew Johnson a commission as Acting Volunteer Lieutenant. The succeeding year, returning to the United States, on August 30, 1868, he received his honorable discharge from the service. For many years after leaving the Navy, Lieutenant Ricker continued to follow the sea as a profession. In 1880 he retired and came to Buffalo, becoming Superintendent of the Erie Elevator.
Charles Clement Kicker married Sarah M. Joy of Portsmouth, N. H. The children were: George A., and Charles William.
George Alfred Joy Ricker was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, June 30, 1863. When seven years old he began to go to sea with his father, and continued a sea-faring life until he was fifteen years of age, during which period he made thirteen voyages across the Atlantic and lived for two years in Liverpool, England. In the eight years which he spent mostly in following the sea, young Ricker studied at Vernon Academy, Liverpool, and with some instructors at Portsmouth. In 1880 he came to Buffalo. In February, 1881, at the age of sixteen, he joined the engineer corps of the Erie Railroad. In 1882 he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, taking a special civil engineering course for three years.
In 1885 he became Division Engineer of the Erie. In 1886 he went to Montana as a member of the engineer corps of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Returning to Buffalo in 1887, he opened offices for private practice. Since that time Mr. Ricker has attained high standing in his profession. Among the positions held by him may be mentioned that of Second Assistant to Roadmaster, Buffalo & Rochester Division of the Erie R. R. (1885-1886); Assistant Engineer, Helena & Red Mountain Railroad (1886); First Assistant to Roadmaster, Buffalo Division of the Erie R. R. (1886-1887), and Engineer of the Buffalo Creek Railroad. In 1890 he located and surveyed the line of the Niagara Gorge Railroad, which was built under his direction; of this road he is Chief Engineer. He built the lines of the Buffalo Traction Company, the Buffalo and Depew Railroad, and projected its extension to Rochester; and is Chief Engineer and a member of the Board of Directors of the Buffalo & Rochester Traction Company. At the time of the agitation of the grade crossings issue, Mr. Ricker was employed by the Lumber Exchange to examine the engineering questions involved. He was Chief Engineer of the first Pan-American Exposition Company, and accompanied President McKinley and Gen. Alger, then Secretary of War, on the occasion when Mr. McKinley drove the first stake on Cayuga Island, which was originally intended for the site of the Exposition. He is also President and General Manager of the Buffalo Testing Laboratory.
In politics Mr. Ricker is a Democrat. He has three times served the city as a member of the Civil Service Commission, and for twenty years has been a member of the Civil Service Reform Association.
Mr. Ricker was one of the organizers and second President of the Engineers’ Society of Western New York, is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a member of the Institute of Engineers of the Republic of Chile, the Historical Society, trustee of the Charity Organization Society, and for six years trustee of the Unitarian Church. He is a member of the Buffalo, Ellicott and Technology clubs, and President of the last named.
November 24, 1887, Mr. Ricker married Bessie H. Turner, daughter of Frederick M. Turner and Agnes Cutler of Buffalo.
SOURCE: Memorial and Family History of Erie County New York; Volume I