JOHN RIDGEWAY, deceased, who in his lifetime lived in Fairbanks township and was numbered among the most thrifty and successful farmers of Sullivan county, was born in Gill township, four miles west of Sullivan, January 13, 1851. He was the son of Otho and Nancy E. (Pinkston) Ridgeway, natives of Kentucky. The parents came to Sullivan county, Indiana, as children, and when old enough were married. They owned a farm in Turman township until the death of the father in 1863. His wife, now eighty-one years old, lives with her children.
There were four sons and four daughters in this family and the third born of the four sons was John Ridgeway of this memoir. He attended the district schools until twelve years of age, at which time his father died, and afterward he, with his older brother Albert, conducted the home farm until Albert married and then John carried on the place until after his own marriage, July 30, 1871, to Violet Kelley. She was born in Fairbanks township, a daughter of Perry and Martha (Whitlock) Kelley, both natives of Kentucky. A few years later Mr. Ridgeway purchased a farm of his own in Fairbanks township, upon which he erected a large two-story house in 1882, having previously built the barns. The old one-story house on the place is still in use as a cellar and smokehouse. This farm contains one hundred and seventy-one acres, fifty acres being in timber land, which Mr. Ridgeway cleared off and placed under good cultivation. The farmhouse is in fine view of the famous and picturesque Wabash valley, and the house is surrounded by beautiful shade and ornamental trees. Besides this homestead Mr. Ridgeway secured for himself three hundred and sixty acres on the river bottoms, six hundred and forty acres in Kiowa county, Kansas, and one hundred and six acres in Clark county, Illinois, and several other places within the state of Indiana. He always followed farming for his occupation, and in it achieved merited success. He made a specialty of stock raising in conjunction with his agricultural operations.
Mr. Ridgeway was twice married, first to Violet Kelley on July 30, 1871. By her he had the following children: Otho C., born December 30. 1874, died September 5, 1875; Carsa E., April 5, 1877, now Mrs. George Adams, of Vigo county, Indiana; Harold G., born May 6, 1883, died May 25, 1883. Mrs. Ridgeway died June 8, 1883. For his second wife Mr. Ridgeway married, December 24, 1884, Jerusha A. Rose, born in Turman township January 24, 1866, a daughter of John T. and Rebecca (Drake) Rose. The father was born in North Carolina and the mother in Fairbanks township, Sullivan county, Indiana. The grandparents were Thomas and Jerusha Rose. By his last marriage the children born to Mr. Ridgeway were: Lora A., born April 26, 1887, a student in Georgetown College, entering in 1904, is now Mrs. Thomas M. Durham, of Turman township, and Hervey J., born August 7, 1896, entered Notre Dame College January 2, 1909, for collegiate training.
Mr. Ridgeway died February 3, 1905. He was a Republican in politics and was a member of the Odd Fellows' order at Graysville. In church connections he was a Methodist, a member of the Kingsley chapel in Fairbanks township, as is also his wife.