JONES COUNTY, GA - BIOS  H.B. Ridley

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Memoirs of Georgia, Vol. II, Atlanta, Ga., Pages 448-
449 Published by The Southern Historical Association in
1895



H.B. Ridley, planter, Cornucopia, Jones Co., Ga., son
of Dr. Charles L. and Susan Ann (Bonner) Ridley, was
born in Hancock County, Ga., Oct. 21, 1828.  His
grandfather, Dr. James Ridley, was an eminent physician
in Oxford, Granville Co., N.C., where he died.  Four of
his sons came to Georgia, and all became prominent in
the several localities in which they lived.  His
father, Dr. Charles L. Ridley, born July 5, 1802, was a
well-educated man, a skillful physician, who practiced
in Hancock and Jasper Counties and amassed quite a
fortune.  He was a whig in politics, very prominent in
public affairs, and was a member of the convention
which adopted the ordinance of secession, against which
he voted.  He married Miss Bonner, who was of Scotch
descent, in Hancock County, where she was born and
reared.  They had three sons who grew to manhood: James
B., a physician, who, enlisting in the Confederate
service, was appointed surgeon of the Thirty-Second
Georgia regiment, and died in 1862 of typhoid fever;
H.B., the subject of this sketch, and Robert B.,
farmer, who died in 1863.  Dr. Ridley died in April,
1873.  Capt. Ridley arrived at manhood in Jones County,
and has been a planter all his life.  He settled his
plantation, 3,000 acres, in 1851.  When hostilities
began he raised a company (Company B, Thirty-Second
Georgia regiment), and was made its captain.  In 1861
they were stationed a short time near Savannah, in the
state service, then transferred to the regular service,
and served through the war, surrendering in North
Carolina.  In 1875 he was elected to represent Jones
County in the general assembly one term, and in 1884-85
he represented the Twenty-First senatorial district in
the same body.  Capt. Ridley is a quite important
factor in county politics, being exceptionally well
informed and a shrewd politician.  He has been a member
of the democratic state executive committee, and
chairman of the county executive committee repeatedly. 
In 1849 he was married in Bertie County, N.C., to Miss
Mary E., daughter of Thomas Speller.  They have no
children, but have reared a niece, Lillie Watson, his
wife’s sister’s daughter, now a charming and
accomplished young lady, whose mother is also a member
of the household.  Capt. Ridley is a fine type of the
old-time country gentleman; has his blooded horses, his
broad acres of fertile lands yielding abundantly, and
the entire household being good musicians, he
entertains most royally.  He is an uncompromising
democrat and a master Mason.