Also see [Railway Officials in America 1906]
This gentleman was born in the State of Ohio, May is, 1830, and was the sixth of a family of seven children, the
offspring of Jacob and Lettie (Brown) Ridenour. Jacob Ridenbur was a native of Maryland, and at an early age removed
to Ohio with his Lather, who was a German by birth. The wife of the latter was born in Virginia, in 1795, that
being also the native State of her father. Her mother, who was a native of Kentucky, survived to the great age
of one hundred and four years. The parents of William Ridenour are still living, at an advanced age. In the fall
of 1832 they removed to Michigan, and located near the Crystal Springs in Cass County. When William had reached
his sixteenth year he made his first purchase of land, including forty acres in Cass County, paying for the same
at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per acre, and laboring by the month in order to earn money to meet the
payments. His life away from home was, therefore, begun as a farm-hand for wages usual at the time. By industry,
perseverance, and economy he at length was in possession of a well-improved though small farm. In 1854 he disposed
of it, and purchased that on which he now resides, a view of which is inserted in this work. In this same year
(1854) he was married to Miss Brown, who bore him two children. They, with their mother, were all buried by the
stricken husband and father during the year 1861. In June, 1862, Mr. Ridenour was married to Mary, daughter of
Henry and Lodema Shaul, who were natives of New York, but removed to Michigan when their daughter was but seven
years of age. This union has been blessed with one child, a son, Henry, born May 27, 1863. The advantages for obtaining
an education were limited in Mr. Ridenour's case, as the backwoods schools were hardly up to the standard of those
of the present day. His religious views are of a liberal nature, and in politics be is a Republican.
History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties, Michigan
With Illistrations and Biographical Sketches
of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers.
D. W. Ensign & Co., Philadelphia 1880
Press of J. B. Lippincoff & Co., Philadelphia.