Robert Ridgway (congressman)
Robert Ridgway | |
---|---|
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 5th district | |
In office January 27, 1870 – October 16, 1870 | |
Preceded by | Thomas S. Bocock |
Succeeded by | Richard T.W. Duke |
Personal details | |
Born | Conservative (after 1869) | April 21, 1823
Alma mater | Emory and Henry College University of Virginia |
Profession | Politician, Lawyer, Newspaper Editor |
Robert Ridgway (April 21, 1823 – October 16, 1870) was a nineteenth-century congressman, lawyer and journalist from Virginia.
Early and family life
Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Ridgeway attended Emory and Henry College and graduated from the University of Virginia after studying law.
Career
Admitted to the Virginia bar, Ridgway began his legal practice in Liberty, Virginia (the Bedford county seat, which was incorporated in 1839 as a town, and renamed Bedford two decades after his death). He also was editor of the Bedford Sentinel. In 1850 Ridgeway lived in a boardinghouse in Amherst, the county seat of Amherst County, Virginia, on the other side of Lynchburg, with the innkeeper's family and several clerks and a schoolmaster.[1] In that census, he owned fifteen enslaved people, eight of them women (ranging from 65 and 56 years old to 16 and 12 year old girls) and seven men (ranging from 28 years old to 15, 12 and a 3 year old boy).[2] In 1853, Ridgway moved to Richmond, Virginia, and became the editor of the Richmond Whig. However, in 1860 he continued to own 10 slaves in Amherst County (two 70 year old women, women aged 25, 22 and 20, a 20 year old man, girls aged 7 and 2, and a 10 year old boy).[3]
At the outbreak of the
Shortly the war's end, in 1866, voters in Bedford, Amherst and nearby counties elected Ridgway as a
Death and legacy
Congressman Ridgway was interred in the family cemetery in Amherst.
See also
References
- ^ 1850 U.S. Federal Census for Eastern District, Amherst County, Virginia p. 141 of 161
- ^ 1850 U.S. Federal Slave Census for Eastern District, Amherst County, Virginia p. 53 of 71
- ^ 1850 U.S. Federal Slave Census for Amherst County, Virginia p. 66 of 84
- ^ Michael Musick, 6th Virginia Infantry p. 149
- ^ 1870 U.S. Federal Census for Elon District, Amherst County family 463, p. 63 of 80
External links
- United States Congress. "Robert Ridgway (id: R000248)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.