George Ridley

Abt 1733 - 1835  (102 years)

• Name	George Ridley
  Birth	Abt 1733	Virginia, British Colonial America
  Gender	Male
  Death	29 Nov 1835	Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA
  Person ID	I15	Doby
  Last Modified	25 Feb 2024

  
  

  Family	Sarah "Sally" Vincent,   b. 01 May 1754, Sullivan Co. North Carolina (now Tennessee) d. 20 Mar 1836, Mill Creek, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA (Age 81 years)
  Children	1. Vincent Marr Ridley,   b. 26 Jun 1778, Tennessee, USA d. 16 Nov 1852, Mount Pleasant, Maury County, Tennessee, USA (Age 74 years)   2. Thomas Ridley,   b. 16 Feb 1780, Tennessee, USA bur. 16 Nov 1852, Grenada County, Mississippi, USA (Age ~ 72 years)   3. James Ridley,   b. 24 May 1784   bur. 30 Aug 1847 (Age ~ 63 years)   4. Samuel Jones Ridley,   b. 1 Oct 1791   d. 6 Dec 1827 (Age 36 years)
  Family ID	F2888	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	25 Feb 2024

  
  

• Notes

  OBITUARY: (RESEARCH BY JANIE RIDLEY BICE TAKEN FROM THE DRAPER COLLECTION OF MANUSCRIPTS PUBLISHED BY THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN, CALENDAR SERIES, VOL. III, pp 21-23 FOUND IN THE DALLAS PUBLIC LIBRARY GENEALOGY DEPT.) Died at this residence, three miles south of Nashville, on Sunday, the 29th day of November, 1835 in the 98th year of his age, Captain George Ridley, for the last forty-seven years, an inhabitant of this county. A few words more concerning this ancient patriarch can not be unacceptable to the publick. (sic). Capt. Ridley was, at his death, among the oldest of the living who commenced the settlement of Tennessee. Born in Virginia near one hundred years ago, he was of the bold race of pioneers, who following in the pathways blazed out by Boone, braved the wilderness and its savage inhabitants and built their rude cabins west of the Alleghany mountains and on the waters of the River Holston. Blessed with a constitution of iron and an unheard of intrepidity that induced him to court rather than show hardship and dangers. He continued to reside in East Tennessee until the increase of population overawing the neighboring Indians gave the country some promise of peace and tranquility. About this time a new scene was opened up to the restless spirit of enterprise. The hunters had visited the far west and returning aroused the feelings of the people by their glowing accounts of the fertile lands and the abundance of wild game that distinguished the valleys of the Cumberland River. It mattered not that the foot of civilized man had never pressed these valleys and that a savage foe lurked in every bush. Dangers told and untold added interest to the enterprise. Companies were soon organized for the purpose of colonizing these distant wilds and the veteran to whom memory these hasty lines pay tribute pressed onward with the foremost - he showed in the toils, the dangers, the hardships, the battles, and the blood of the day. In the wealth, in the intelligence and prosperity of this country, having lived to witness the astonishing triumphs of civilization, this venerable sire of five generations numbering more than six hundred living descendants sunk into his grave covered with years in the full enjoyment of his intellectual faculties and with unclouded hopes of eternal rest beyong "the dark valley of the shadow of death." In all of life the deceased was a disciple of the old school; unsophisticated in his ways, alike resisting and despising the idle fashions, follys and vain refinements of the world. He called everything by its true name and would learn no smooth words for the sake of softening the force of an honest opinion however unpleasantly a blunt truth might strike ears of us hearing. It was his fashion to avoid all circumlocution and to speak plainly. He flattered no man, feared no man, and courted no man. When he spoke he was believed. When he promised, his word was never forfeited. What he felt he professed and what he professed he always felt so that he never could be justly charged with duplicity or deceit. Wisely tenacious of his own rights he was never known to forget the just claims of others and considering good faith and punctuality as cardinal virtues, he never would consent that a man who offended against either should be called honest. Thus he lived and so he died. Honored, cherished, and respected by the world. The thoughts of the grave brought no terrors to his mind. For many years he anxiously waited his great account, looking forward to the last as the happiest day of his long life. In this there was no affectation for it is a singular fact in the history of this virtuous old man that for more than ten years before his death, the coffin in which his withered frame now sleeps was prepared under his own directions and kept in an adjoining rom. If Socrates died like a philosopher, it may be said of this honored dead of whom we now speak, he died like a Christian.