Dewey Ringhiser / Ringhiser and his Rhythm Drifers / the Country Beaver

Logan, 1940-2000s

The logo in the center was used on the R.D. Globe label

Dewey Ringhiser started performing as a young teen, before World War II. His main instrument was mandolin and when he joined the Merchant Marines in 1943, he acquired the tag "mariner mandolinist". 

When post war life returned in 1946, Dewey was ready with his band, the Rhythm Drifters, who played dances in Dewey's home town Logan, across Hocking County, and other towns nearby such as Lancaster. Most of the dances were billed as square and round dances, with Dewey doing the calling along with his mandolin.

Dewey started a record label., R.D. Globe, which was located in a building behind his house, for some time. He lived off a highway south of Logan's center. Dewey's first recording, and the first record for the label, was a bluegrass/string band recording of two original songs., one vocal, one instrumental. The mention of RCA recording in Cleveland is not accurate, there was no such place, the studio was probably Schneider.

Both articles from Feb 1956

The band members for the Rhythm Drifters are not well documented. The first ad posted mentions a 7 member band....a lot for a string band. The article around the time of the record lists Sheilda McClaskey on guitar, Suzann McClaskey on vocals, and Dewey on mandolin. Sheilda and Suzann were sisters. Another story adds Connie Saran on string (upright) bass.

The band continued to be very active locally. In 1959 Dewey made a second record, this time a 4 song EP with just him, singing and playing the mandolin. The record seems like it was intended as promotion or souveneir of a Rhythm Drifters square dance. This record was the first numbered release on R.D. Globe. The 3 year gap between records suggests the first 45 was a one-off and later by 1959 Dewey decided to get into the record business for real.

May 1960 story

The band's next 45 featured a vocal by Ted Covert. Ted was a DJ on WATH in Athens. The flipside was another mandolin instrumental, this time with rock-n-roll influences. Dewey was a country musician but from his comments in the R.D. Globe story he was a supporter of the new sounds.

Dewey and the band continued to be active during the early 1960s, although the record label went dormant. He moved to Arizona in 1964 and acquired the nickname "Arizona Beaver"...later changed to "Country Beaver"....by country legend Bill Anderson when Dewey was an opening act. 

Story from July 1967. There is no evidence for the movie, or even that the filming was done...would have been a fascinating time capsule!

Dewey moved back to Ohio in 1968, settling in Lancaster, where he remained the rest of  his life. He was right back on the local music scene, hosting square dances, playing many festivals, holiday shows, etc.

June, 1970 story

In 1970 Dewey joined a Logan based country gospel group, the Miracle-Aires. He was probably as much as a mentor than anything else. This led to the group recording an album and the reactivaion of R.D. Globe. The Miracle-Aires LP just listed the studio and did not have a label name. Around the same time, Dewey recorded an album with the Rhythm Drifters. The LP was released under his Country Beaver nickname with the title "Best Of" although it only has one of the group's earlier songs, a re-recording of Mandolin Polka. The players on the LP included Roger and Penny Wilson as featured singers, and Windy Richards on guitar, Les WIlson on banjo, Burt Perkins on electric bass, Hazel Perkins on steel guitar, and Dewey on mandolin and banjo. Jon Sain is shown with a washboard, he was the comedian for the band's shows, we assume. A comedy bit was very common for country shows at the time (reference the Hee-Haw TV show).  The LP uses the R.D. name on the label with a new beaver logo. The record is numbered 018, the last known previous number was 011, suggesting the very unlikely possibility there are undocumented records on the label.

The Miracle-Aires and the Country Beaver records seem to be the end of Dewey's recordings. Dewey continued to lead many different incarnations of the Rhythm Drifters (sometimes he was billed as Dewey, sometimes as the Country Beaver) into the 2000s. The last public appearence we could find was 2007, when he was 81 years old! 

1992 story

Dewey passed away in 2016. The other early Rhythm Drifters members, the McClaskey sisters, are a mystery. There is basically nothing about them in the papers or the internet. It's possible they moved to Columbus as Suzann was listed as a student at Marion Harding HS there.

Thsi 2007 story shows Dewey at 80! He always looked much younger than his age....

Discography
The Girl In Red Across The Ocean / Mandolin Polka - R.D. Globe No # (RCA master G8OW-1144/5) 1956
Apple Tree In The Orchard ; Lucy Doll / My Little Girl ; The Old Mill Wheel - R.D. Globe 001, 1959 (pic sleeve lists a title "Modern Square Dances")
Aren't We Glad  / Madolin Boogie Rock - R.D. Globe 007, 1960

LP - Best Of Country Beaver and the Rhythm Drifters - R.D. Globe 018, c. 1970