Ridge Family History

Dec 2008

lizabeth, Permelia, Amanda, Ulysses, and Perry, five of the children of Samuel and Barbara Ridge, settled in Kansas after gradually progressing across Missouri with the rest of their extended family. They and their siblings were born in Pulaski County, Kentucky, between the years 1826-46 before the family left for Scotland County, Missouri.

Elizabeth Ridge

Tombstone of
Elizabeth Ridge,
2006 Elizabeth Ridge was the oldest daughter, born 07 May 1832, and the first of these children known to marry after arriving in Missouri. Although her obituary states that Elizabeth was married three times, records clearly show that there were four husbands. The first of these was Mansford Norton (who may have gone by Stephen) who married Elizabeth on 4 Aug 1850. She married for the second time on 21 Oct 1857 to Isaac Crouch in Holt County, Missouri. Her third marriage occurred in the same county on 23 Feb 1862 to Joshua Gullett, a man who was fifteen years her senior.

Ridge Family Migration to Kansas
1. Pulaski County, Kentucky
2. Scotland County, Missouri
3. Holt County, Missouri
4. Brown County, Kansas By 1865, Elizabeth and Joshua had moved to Claytonville Township, Brown County, Kansas, where various members of Elizabeth's family would reside with her over the next forty years. Joshua died 16 Mar 1879, and Elizabeth remarried for the final time on 11 Jan 1880 to Henry W. Shoup. Henry died 23 Jan 1894, and Elizabeth died 01 Mar 1908 in Robinson, Brown County, Kansas. They were buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery south of Robinson. Elizabeth had no known children, but was very involved with her nieces and nephews.

Permelia Ridge

Amelia "Permelia" Ridge was born in June 1836. Permelia married a plasterer named William W. Hilton (or Hinton) on 3 Jul 1852 in Scotland County. They probably moved to Holt County, Missouri, along with other family members before William showed up on the 1859 territorial census of Kansas. It shows that they had moved to Irving Township in Brown County in May 1859. Kansas obviously wasn’t to their liking, however, since they appeared back in Holt County on the 1860 census.

Tombstone of Amelia
"Permelia" Ridge,
2006 At the time of this census, Permelia and William had three children, and two more would be born within the next two years. Unfortunately, Permelia would also lose two of her older children as well as her husband before 1870. Moreover, her three surviving sons would all be listed as "idiotic", or mentally handicapped, in subsequent census records. This last fact makes one speculate that perhaps something occurred which may have struck the entire family.

Since their youngest child was born about 1862, William probably died within a few years of this date. Their five known children are the following:

William Minor (Minor) (c.1853) who lived until at least 1915.
Rebecca (c.1855) who was only found on the 1860 census. She was curiously listed with both her own family and with that of her aunt, Elizabeth Crouch.
Stephen N. (c.1856) who was also found only on the 1860 census.
James "John" (c.1858) who lived until at least 1920.
Edward (c.1862) who also lived until at least 1920.

By 1880, the oldest son, Minor, began living with the family of his aunt, named Elizabeth Shoup at the time, where his cousin, John Marshall Ridge, was also living. The household was later headed by John, and Minor remained through at least 1910. He is last found on the 1915 Kansas State Census living in Nemaha County in what is probably the County Farm. John and Edward would eventually live out their adult lives on the County Farm in Brown County, Kansas. They have not been found after 1920.

Permelia remarried to James Lee Wilson on 24 Feb 1870 in Brown County. They lived on his farm near Robinson where he already had five children from a previous marriage to add to Permelia's three. James died in 1894, and Permelia remained here with their children until passing away on 16 Apr 1903. She was buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery next to James and near several other members of the Ridge family. Permelia and James had seven children together, including two sets of twins:

Henry (1870).
Sarah (1870).
Frank G. (1873-1949).
Alice (1874).
Warren D. (1877-1937).
Charles Ervin (1877-1958).
Hattie (1879).

[See Wilson Family History for more details on these children.]

Amanda Jane Ridge

Amanda Jane Ridge was born 22 Oct 1837. She first married James G. Gannon 24 Mar 1858 in Holt County, Missouri, with whom she had two children:

Samuel R. (1860-1943) who married Mary Elizabeth Trapp 1883 and later Mrs. Sarah Stewart in 1918.
Barbara Elizabeth (1862-1953) who married John W. Baker c.1883 and lived in Canadian County, Oklahoma.

By 1865, Amanda was widowed, and she and her children were living in Kansas with her sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth and Joshua. Amanda remained with her sister until remarrying to Charles Ben Cowley Sr. in March 1878. Charles was about 17 years older than Amanda with several children from a previous marriage. They had one child together named George Frank (Frank) (1882) Cowley. Amanda died 16 Dec 1915 in Lewiston, Nebraska, while living with their son.

Ulysses and Perry Ridge

The two youngest siblings were Ulysses S. Ridge, born January 1843, and Perry M. Ridge, born 08 May 1846. Both were living in Holt County with their parents in 1860, but they must have been residents of Kansas when they were sworn into the Kansas State Militia on 27 Sep 1864.
Tombstone of
Ulysses Ridge,
2006 This was to defend against the rebel invasion led by General Price during the Civil War. Ulysses was credited with serving 20 days, but Perry was absent from the state when they were to begin active service in mid-October. In 1865, both were living in Kansas with the family of their sister, named Elizabeth Gullett at this time, along with Amanda and their mother.

On 29 Oct 1868, Perry married Elizabeth Jane (Jane) Pitchford in Brown County. They moved back to Missouri by 1870 taking Ulysses and their mother with them. Then by 1875, Ulysses had gone back to Kansas again. Although not in the same household, Ulysses was then the guardian of his nephew, Minor Hilton. Ulysses married Phoebe Gamble 25 Oct 1876 back in Holt County, but they were to live in Brown County.

Perry died 16 Nov 1878 at the age of 35, and was buried in Forbes Cemetery in Holt County. He and Jane had two children:

Jesse (1869).
Ulysses (c.1872).

Ulysses died 03 Feb 1885 at the age of 39, and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Robinson. He and Phoebe had the following children:
Wedding Photo of
Maud Ridge and Maj.
Harry Cheal, 1902

Nellie (1877-1913) who married Horace Greeley (Greeley) Trapp, a sister of Mary Elizabeth Trapp, in 1893 and moved to Colorado.
Elizabeth (1880) who married Albert Byron Cheal 1899.
Ulysses Grant "Ulley" (1881-1972) who married Louise Kopplin and moved to Colorado.
Maud (1884-1972) who married Maj. Harry Harrison Cheal 1902. They lived in Manilla, the Panama Canal Zone, and Washington D.C. while Harry was in the U.S. Army. They were buried in the National Cemetery in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Perry’s wife, Jane, remarried to David Balm in 1880. In 1886, Ulysses’ wife, Phoebe, remarried to Frank Trapp who was a third Trapp sibling as well as a brother of her son-in-law. The father of Mary, Greeley, and Frank Trapp was Charles Franklin Trapp. A fourth child was Martin Edwin Trapp, who became Governor of Oklahoma in 1923. Phoebe died in 1899.

Samuel Ridge

Tombstone of
Barbara Aker,
2006 The parents of these children were Samuel R. Ridge who was born c.1800 probably in North Carolina, and Barbara Aker who was born January 1807 in Virginia. The two married 14 Aug 1826 in Pulaski County, Kentucky, where all of their children were born. They remained until 1849 when they removed to Miller Township, Scotland County, Missouri. Samuel owned 40 acres here and a William Ridge (probably his son) owned an adjoining 80 acres in 1858. Samuel is last found in 1860, after he had moved to Holt County along with most of the other members of their family. Barbara was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, and her tombstone shows her date of death to be 25 Mar 1870. She was then inexplicably listed on the census in June as living with her youngest sons, Ulysses and Perry, back in Missouri.

Samuel and Barbara had ten children, the first two of whom are only known from the earliest census records which do not list individual names:

unidentified son.
unidentified son.
William A. (c.1830-1873) who married Melvina Turnham 1860 and died in Holt County.
Elizabeth (1832-1908) previously discussed.
Sarah Anne (1834-1916) who married Groverner Norton (probably a relative of Mansford) in 1851 in Scotland County and settled in Holt County, Missouri. They briefly lived in Lawrence, Kansas, where one of their sons was born in 1855.
Amelia "Permelia" (1836-1903) previously discussed.
Amanda Jane (1837-1915) previously discussed.
Samuel R. (c.1840) who married Bartha Turrem (or Turnham) 1862 in Holt County.
Ulysses S. (1843-1885) previously discussed.
Perry M. (1846-1878) also previously discussed.

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