Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 681
WILLIAM O. RIDDELL

William O. RIDDELL, of the Woodbine Normal School, will form the subject of this biographical notice.

Mr. RIDDELL was born in Allamakee County, Iowa, February 7, 1858. He is the son of William B. and Anna M. (PROVINES) RIDDELL, both natives of Ohio. His father was born January 22, 1824, and his mother March 7, 1833. In the spring of 1859 the family moved to Harrison County, Iowa, and first settled in what is now Union Township, where they remained eleven years, and then bought an improved farm in La Grange Township. Our subject remained at home until the summer of 1872, when he entered the Missouri Valley High School, which he attended one year, and the following year clerked in the general store of BUMP & SMITH, of Missouri Valley. In September, 1874, he entered the Nebraska State University at Lincoln, where he remained three years, between 1874 and 1878, during which time he taught several months. From 1878 to 1881 he attended Knox College, Galesburg, Ill., Ann Arbor, Mich., and the Indiana University. During all the time he was not in school he was teaching. September, 1881, he was made Principal of the schools at Andrews, Ind., where he remained until June, 1883. From June, 1883, to June, 1885, he was Assistant Principal of the Missouri Valley High School, and from June, 1885 to June, 1887, he was Principal of the Magnolia High School. During the last named year he was one of the organizers, in company with Profs. KINNEY and MATTER, of the Woodbine Normal, with which he is still connected.

Besides the school work above named, Prof. RIDDELL has been connected with teachers' institute work in Harrison, Plymouth, Crawford and Hardin Counties, in Iowa, and Huntington County, Ind. In this work he spends his entire summer vacations.

He was united in marriage in Osceola, Neb., July 30, 1885, to Miss Marie WALDT, the daughter of Franz and Wilhelmine (RAUSCHER) WALDT, both natives of Hamburg, Germany. Mrs. RIDDELL was born in Hamburg, Germany, April 11, 1863, and in 1880 bade farewell t the scenes of her childhood home and came to America. The first two years she taught school in New York, and the two years following taught in Lincoln, Neb., where she remained until the date of her marriage, since which time she has followed teaching with her husband. She graduated from the Hamburg (Germany) High School in 1877, and from the Normal School of the same place in 1880.

In February, 1891, Mr. RIDDELL purchased the old home farm in La Grange Township, the same consisting of two hundred and forty acres of well improved land, provided with a good two-story farm house. <br>br> Politically, our subject is identified with the Republican party. In 1889 he was a candidate for State Representative on the Republican ticket, but was not successful in securing the office. When one considers that the subject of this notice is but thirty-three years of age, and reviews the work he has already performed for himself and for others, it will go without saying that his has been a busy life, and that he has accomplished more than a majority of men do in a lifetime.

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