| According
to Billon's biographical sketch of Riddick, he
was born Thomas Fiveash Riddick in Suffolk,
Nanesmond Co., Virginia on 05 Jun 1781, and was
the son of Thomas Riddick and Fanny Fiveash. He
came to St. Louis in about 1804 and on the 8th of
August in 1812, he married Eliza Carr, the
daughter of Charles Carr, in Lexington, Kentucky. In November of 1816 Riddick
opened a downtown auction house with Joshua
Pilcher, who had come to St. Louis from Lexington
and had had a business partnership with N.S.
Anderson selling dry goods and renting space to
other merchants, and before coming to St. Louis
had apprenticed under his brother-in-law, Hiram
Shaw, who was a hatter.
Riddick, Thomas
Benton, and probably Joshua, allied themselves to
the new banking institution which was backed by
several powerful French families who needed a
bank to support their investment in the fur trade
north and west of St. Louis, and for two decades
Riddick would be an extremely influential
businessman in that city.
He built his home,
pictured above, on Fourth Street in the
neighborhood that would come to be known as
Carondolet, and it was set on a stone foundation,
made of brick, and had a double rear porch. Built
in 1818, this was Riddick' home until he removed
to Jefferson county in 1827. He died there at
Sulphur Springs on 15 Jan 1830 at the age of
forty-eight years, seven months, and ten days. He
was survived by his widow Eliza (Carr) and
children: Walter, Dabney, Virginia Brooks and
Frances Billion.
Joshua, who became
a fur trader, Indian Agent, and succeeded William
Clark as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, died
in 1843. It is clear that his relationship with
Riddick was a close one as he included Riddick's
widow and family in his will. He appointed Edward
Brooks, Druggist of the City of City Louis, as
his sole Exector, and mentions Susan Brooks, his
sister Margaret Shaw of Lexington and her sons
Nathaniel and Hiram; John Haverty of St. Louis,
Mrs. Eliza M. Riddick, wife of the late Colonel
Thomas F. Riddick; daughter of Charles P. Billon;
and John Randolph Benton, the only son of Colonel
Thomas H. Benton.
Bellefontaine
Cemetery if the final resting place of both
Riddick and Pilcher as well as many other
notables of St. Louis.
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