His wife, Mary Jane Shelledy Ritchie, was the fifth woman to settle in Topeka and their young son, Hale was the third child.

As early settlers they lived in a dugout through the first winter and around 1856 had constructed and moved into a limestone house that still stands in Topeka today, located at 1116 SE Madison.

In January 1859, Ritchie helped John Brown and eleven slaves elude federal troops and escape to Nebraska.

[1] After the Civil War a number of newly freed African Americans settled in Topeka both before and during the exodus movement and built homes on land that Ritchie sold or gave them.

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton stayed with the Ritchie family when they were in Topeka to speak at the state capitol.https://web.archive.org/web/20121014034455/http://skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/schs/ritchie/education/resources/ritchiebookparts/JR-UndergroundRailroad.pdf