He was born on March 13, 1875, near
Collinsville, Ohio. Ramseyer moved to
Davis County, Iowa, in 1887 and settled near
Pulaski. He attended the public schools. He graduated from the Southern Iowa Normal School in 1897 and from
Iowa State Teachers College,
Cedar Falls, Iowa, in 1902. He taught school for nine years, and was principal and later superintendent of the Bloomfield High School in
Bloomfield, Iowa. He was graduated from the
University of Iowa College of Law in 1906. He was
admitted to the bar the same year and commenced the practice of law in Bloomfield. He served as
prosecuting attorney of Davis County from 1911 to 1915. In 1914, Ramseyer was elected as a
Republican to the
Sixty-fourth Congress. He was re-elected eight consecutive times. However, in 1931, Iowa lost two congressional seats, and the resulting
reapportionment placed Ramseyer and former
8th congressional district congressman
Lloyd Thurston in the same district (
Iowa's 5th congressional district). In 1932 the two incumbents opposed each other for the Republican nomination for that district, but Thurston prevailed in the primary. In all, Ramseyer served in the House from March 4, 1915, to March 3, 1933. After his defeat, he served as commissioner for the
United States Court of Claims from 1933 until his death in
Washington, D.C., on November 1, 1943. He was interred in Odd Fellows Cemetery in Bloomfield. ==Legacy==