Individual Details

1850 Census. Lafayette Co, MO, Hh 1052
A. W. Ridings, age 34, school teacher - a number of students listed with him - was this a resident school or did the enumerator visit the school during the day and record everyone present? He was enumerated next to brother Thomas W. Ridings.
Mary J., age 29
Jessy, age 74. Mary W., age 76, b. born NC - obviously his parents
William Ragsdale, 22. Joseph, 20. Students
John M. Lepp, 28, School teacher
Martha M. Lepp, 24, listed as a student, but most likely also his wife, although she could have been a sister....
Students:
Alfred C. Bent, 17
Narcisis Pallett, 21 (marked as a male)
Barnet Chambers, 17
Mary W. Davis, 16
Louisa Davis 14
Martha Ish, 12
Pheba Ish, 14
Martha Jack, 11
Leonidas Jack 13
John Patton, 22
Saraphena Ridings 11
Berilla Ridings 9 (female) - they may have been nieces, daughters of brother Robert, but they were also counted with his household in Henry Co, MO, both marked as attending school
Thomas Lake 18, Mail Carrier
John Lake, 15., student

Archibald William Ridings was born 8 Dec 1815 near Siloam, Surry, NC. (So was Archibald Wellington Ridings). Don’t know which name is correct.
He was the son of Jesse Ridings, a man of fine natural abilities and stern integrity. He was a farmer in good circumstances, who moved to Missouri in 1836, and settled in Lafayette county, where he died in 1850.
He descended from an old family of French Huguenots, who were driven from their native country, took refuge in England, and finally came to America, landing in Virginia about the year of Bacon’s rebellion (1676), and settled near the Roanoke River.
John Ridings, grandfather of A.W. Ridings, moved to North Carolina, and settled on the Yadkin River, where some of the family still reside.
W. Ridings was one of a family of 5 children, three of whom are now dead. The survivors are: Thomas Wentworth Ridings, a farmer residing in Wellington, Missouri; Berilia Ridings McKinney, of Kingsville, Missouri.
A. W. Ridings mother’s name was Mary Wentworth Poindexter, daughter of Thomas Poindexter, who was of German extraction.
A. W. Ridings received his early education at Patrick Henry Academy, in Henry County, Virginia. He finished his classical course at Randolph Macon College, Virginia. He was always strictly temperate, and had absolutely no habits, and at all times during his life he maintained a very high moral character. After completing his education he taught school, and in 1837 came with his father (Jesse) to Missouri, and continued teaching at Lexington.
In 1838 he was in the Mormon war, and was present at the capture of Joseph Smith, the great Mormon prophet.
From Lexington he moved to the southwest part of the county and entered a large body of land, and commenced improving a farm, but was not considered a success as a farmer. He felt a dep and abiding interest in the education of the masses of his adopted state, and he naturally turned to a vocation in unison with the noblest instinct of his mind.
In 1845 he established a high school, under the patronage of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and named it Chapel Hill, in honor of the university of his native state. It was almost immediately successful, and during the years of its great prosperity it exerted a widespread influence in church and state. He must have felt much pride and gratification when he reflected on the high positions many of his pupils have attained.
One of them, Hon. F. M. Crockrell, occupying the second position in the girt of the people, that of United States Senator. Among prominent lawyers are Judge George Miller, of Denver Colorado; Milton Moore, of Kansas City; Vincent and John Marmaduke, of St. Louis. Among bankers are George L. Simpson, of Wallstreet, New York; Thomas Tidbald, of Fort Worth, Texas; and James Ward and L. W. Jack, of Warrensburg. The following ministers were educated by him; Rev. A. C. Davis, late of Memphis; Rev. Wesley GaDimore, of Califormia; Rev. G. L. Moad, of Clinton; and Rev. J. I. Houx, of Warrensburg.
In the early training of these young men, and the pecuniary aid extended to them, Mr. Ridings has woven a beautiful garland to lay on his monument to education. Thus the best years of his life were spent in the cause of education and progress.
After leaving Chapel Hill in 1858, he moved to Jackson county and to several other places, but finally settled down in Lexington and engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1866 he executed a contract to transport government supplies across the plains to Fort Laramie. In August, 1866, he moved to Warrensburg and opened the banking house of A. W. Ridings & Co. In 1872 this was changed to the First National Bank, and he became President. He was a business man of more than ordinary ability, a shrewd calculator, and it seemed almost intuitive for him to know the consequences events would bring about. He has been active and public spirited in building up the town in which he was a resident, and was always among the foremost in aiding suffering humanity, whether from the cyclone, the scourge, or fire.
He had been engaged for a number of years in raising stock at the well, known as O. Z. Ranch, in Colorado, and is represented there by Dr. Joseph Ragsdale, one of his old students.
He was a member of the board of regents of the South Missouri Normal School at Warrensburg, and has spent much time and money for its progress.
He became a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1840. He was a Whig until and dissolution of that party, and has since been a Democrat.
He was married October 8th, 1840, to Mary J. Stapp, of Lafayette county. Mrs Ridings is of a family of ten children, two brothers, and eight sisters.
(Something out of sequenced) See “Young’s history of Lafayette County, Missouri (1910)”
https://archive.org/details/youngshistoryofl01youn
When the interview had ended and the party had left the premises, the doctor asked Mr. Ford the condition of Mr. Ridings’ business, saying that if it was not in good shape it should be placed that way as soon as possible. Mr. Ford asked what he meant, and the doctor replied that he would be a dead man in less than a month, that the seal of death was already upon him and that he was liable to go at any moment. The remark was a great surprise to Mr. Ford, who had been attending to Mr. Ridings’ business during his confinement, and he promised that everything should be put in shape.
Dr. King says that Mr. Ridings was receiving as good care as a man could have in that country. Dr. Ragsdall, a gentleman who had been raised by Mr. Ridings, had abandoned his other business and was devoting his entire time to nursing his benefactor. But the old banker was beyond a point where human skill could save him, and he died without carrying out his cherished object of paying off the creditors of his bank. But let his good intentions live after him, and his faults be buried with his bones.

Birth	8 Dec 1815	Surry County, North Carolina
Death	7 Apr 1879	Warrensburg, Johnson County, Missouri

Father	Jesse Ridings (1777 - 1850)
Mother	Mary Wentworth "Polly" Poindexter (1775 - 1863)
Sibling	Sarah Ridings (1805 - 1874)
Sibling	Berrilla Ridings (1809 - 1880)
Sibling	Robert Troy Ridings (1811 - 1855)
Sibling	Thomas Wentworth Ridings (1819 - 1891)
Sibling	Living
Sibling	Living