OF A CERTAIN PENNSYLVANIA FAMILY. 15 



About the time Aaron and Mary Rufer came to this country, 

 another couple, whom we will call Thomas and Martha Riel, also of 

 German descent, settled in an adjoining county, where they owned a 

 small farm. Both were very tall and possessed great physical endur- 

 ance. Thomas belonged to a good fraternity, but had certain vagrant, 

 irresponsible tendencies, which made him slip away and leave to his 

 wife the care of the farm and the bringing up of their twelve children. 

 These children, too, were noted for their great strength and stature, 

 and this in some measure was combined with extreme shyness, good 

 nature, and mental dullness. Four of them died without marrying, 

 and six married into fair strains, which are, in the main, socially effi- 

 cient. Their history is not included here. Two daughters (Chart B, 

 II-2, 4), among the dullest and slowest of their fraternity, but pos- 

 sessing great strength and endurance, married into defective stock. 

 Their descendants show certain characteristics in marked contrast to 

 the former network and will be considered under Lines F and G. 







.■:/" 



