Individual Details

When he was a young man, Thomas rode logs down the Saint John River around Fredericton NB, and helped to break up log jams. He was a woodsman. Then he moved to Maine and worked thirty years for Thomas Laughlin running a drop forge (a drop forge was a huge hammer used to make anchor chains for ships). In South Portland, after he retired, he had a home garden with twenty apple, pear, and other fruit trees, and maintained a regular vegetable garden. Exa loved her work as housewife and mother of nine children. She cooked and made her own maple syrup, and would invite the whole family to enjoy huge holiday dinners. About 1928 they moved to Buxton ME and lived there for many years. During his school years , their grandson Roy Ryder would saw wood, hoe weeds, take the horse and buggy to town to buy groceries, and do numerous other chores. [Roy and Geneva Ryder]

Birth	1860	New Canaan, Brunswick Parish, Queens County, New Brunswick
Death	4 Feb 1941	Portland, Cumberland County, Maine
Marriage		EXA CAROLINE ALLEN
Burial		Forest City Cemetery, South Portland, Cumberland County, Maine

Spouse	EXA CAROLINE ALLEN (1866 - 1936)
Child	ERNEST HARTLEY RYDER (1886 - 1918)
Child	Living
Child	Living
Child	FREDERICK WILLIAM RYDER (1893 - )
Child	MAE ETHEL RYDER (1896 - 1987)
Child	STELLA GOLDIE RYDER (1899 - 1986)
Child	SEAMAN ALLEN RYDER (1904 - 1981)
Child	HARRY CLIFFORD RYDER (1907 - 1952)
Child	FLORENCE ANN RYDER (1910 - 1989)

Father	HENRY RIDER (1810 - 1892)
Mother	ELIZABETH ANN CURRY (1824 - 1907)
Sibling	PENNIAH RYDER (1849 - 1902)
Sibling	BENJAMIN RUFUS RYDER (1854 - 1894)
Sibling	MARY JANE RYDER (1855 - 1917)
Sibling	DAVID PHILLIP RYDER (1858 - )