F. W. RIDGLEY.
The gentleman whose name the reader is asked to note at this point in the biographical history of Audubon county, F. W. Ridgley, the well-known and popular trustee of Greeley township, is a native of England, who, as an infant, was brought to America by his parents in the latter part of 1871, the family passing through the city of Chicago during the time of the great fire which destroyed that city in October of that year.
F. W. Ridgley was born in Fen Stanton, Huntingtonshire, England, February 13, 1871, the son of Francis and Sarah A. (Johnson) Ridgley, natives of the same shire, the former of whom was an extensive landowner, though a miller by trade, carrying on his farming operations in connection with his milling.
In the fall of the year in whicli the subject of this sketch was born, Francis and Sarah Ridgley, with their infant son, their first-born child, came to America, reaching Chicago on their way west during the time that city was wrapped in flames. The family first settled on a prairie farm in western Illinois, and remained there but a year or two, at the end of which time they moved farther west, coming to Audubon county, this state, where the parents spent the rest of their lives, and where five other children were born to them.
Mr. Ridgley's first recollection is of his family moving onto the tract that is now comprised in the county farm, his father having rented land there. After a season or two spent there, the Ridgleys moved to a farm near Lickets Grove, in Melville township, and in 1878 and later, bought a farm of four hundred acres in sections 28 and 33, in Greeley township, two hundred and forty acres of which is included in the farm on which Trustee Ridgley now lives and on which his parents passed their last days. Receiving his education in the early schools of his home township, F. W. Ridgley herded cattle on the unfenced plains thereabout during his boyhood, and as he grew older helped his father on the farm and has been a farmer all his life. The elder Ridgley had been an active Democrat and his son followed in his footsteps, becoming one of the leaders of that party in his part of the county and served his township as trustee very acceptably for three terms, during which time he did much to promote the best interests of the township in both a material and educational way.
On June 12, 1901, in Audubon township, this county, F. W. Ridgley was united in marriage to Winifred Martin, who was born in that township on November 14, 1879, the daughter of James H. and Elizabeth (Goforth) Martin, natives, respectively of Virginia and Kentucky, who were married in Linn county, Iowa, coming to this county about 1866 and settling in Audubon township. The genealogy of the Martin family is set out on another page of this history.
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To F. W. and Winifred (Martin) Ridgley have been born two children, Sarah Geraldine, born March 17, 1903, and Joy Rena, born July 29, 1905. Mr. and Mrs. Ridgley are members of the Congregational church and are active in all the good works of their neighborhood, being a very popular couple, admired and respected by all who have the pleasure of their acquaintance.
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Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 560-561.
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