Ritty Ann Sanders (maiden name: Selsor) was born around 1829 in Indiana to Andrew and Nancy Selser. Her father was a farmer who owned $400 of real estate by 1850. The family lived in Brown, Indiana. She married John W. Sanders in the early 1850s, and they had at least six children: Minerva, born around 1852; Emily, born around 1854; Nancy, born around 1856; Jacob, born around 1859; Laura, born around 1866; and Eliza, born around 1868. The family lived in Indiana until the late 1850s, when they moved to Medicine, Missouri. Her husband worked as a farmer, and by 1860, they owned $400 of real estate and $175 of personal property. A decade later, they owned $1,500 of real estate and $300 of personal property. She died sometime after 1880.