Charles RIDGELY

                   SOURCE: She is listed in CORNEAU 0005 as a member of the Every
Wednesday Club of Springfield, Illinois; the comprehensive subject for
the Club for 1893-1894 being the Philosophical Study of United States
History; her residence is given as 631 South 4th Street; on April 4, she
led the discussion on Issues of the Day.
CORNEAU 0057 (Road of Remembrance) says of her: Uncle Charles
Ridgely's wife, Aunt Jinny... was Kentucky born and so brave she might
have led an army to battle.  Her profile was like an eagle's.  We liked
thinking about her courage.  Once in the middle of the night while her
husband was out of town the burglar alarm sounded.  She immediately
went down stairs in search of the intruder only to discover,
of the more timid members of the family, that the peal had been due to a
short circuit.  Another time when a drunken sailor staggered into her
summer cottage, terrorizing her daughter, she knocked him senseless
with a club.
Charles Ridgely... married Miss Barret, daughter of James Winston
Barret, son of Captain William and Dorothy (Winston) Barret.  Their son
Hon. James Barret Ridgely was Comptroller of the Currency.
SOURCE: Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, by J.D.
Warfield, pp. 82-83., available from Maryland State Archives.
SOURCE:  Illinois State Journal biography (published 1956) of Jane M.
Huntington (Mrs. Nicholas Ridgely), gives her name as Jane M. Barrett.
SOURCE:  Springfield Society Before the Civil War by Caroline Owsley
Brown, published by Edwards Brown, Jr., January 1973. In the Historical
collection of the Lincoln Library, Springfield, Illinois:  When the
governor's mansion was built under Governor Matteson's supervision, the
Governor gave a great Reception....  Mrs. Ridgely [Jane M.
the unpaved streets were so deep with mud that she walked to the
reception under the escort of the Secretary of State, Mr. Hatch, who
carried a lantern by which they carefully picked their way down 6th
street....  [she] gaily danced until the wee small hours, but
rule that those who dance must pay the piper.  Next morning two of the
elders of the church waited on Miss Barrett to reprimand her for
disobeying the laws of the First Presbyterian Church Session [against
dancing].  The Elders said if Miss Barrett would promise not to
transgress again, the matter would be dropped.  The promise was given
and I presume not broken until the next dancing party.
... Mrs. Ridgely said her mother was quite scandalized at the manners of
the rising generation, and asked her young daughter if it was considered
proper for a girl to retire to dark corners under the stairs
a man.  She had actually seen such conduct with her own eyes and could
scarcely believe their testimony.
... Mrs. Ridgely also gave me a description of her own wedding, which
took place at the Fonday home.  It was an evening wedding ....
o'clock as Mr. Watson was bringing in the three tall pyramids of
maccaroons and oranges that were to ornament the table, a terrific clap
of thunder caused him to drop the trays and shattered all the lucious
sweetness.  Of course, it was too late to make more, how should they
remedy matters, for the rain descended and the floods came, and beat
upon that house.  But all available hands were hastily set to work, and
calf foot jelly of pink and white, sparkling in tiny wine glasses were
built up into pyramids by means of glass cake stands, and great bowls of
fragrant white madonna lilies stood in the snowy loveliness along the
table; and while solids were not lacking, champagne flowed in such
quantity that the guests were quite jovial.  Mrs. Ridgely wore four
illusion skirts over white satin, and had on a hooped
the double skirt was looped with dew gemmed stars of Bethleham.  The
white satin waist was finished by a valencennes bertha and the long
tulle veil fell from a coronet of orange blossoms.  The bride and groom
spent their honeymoon with Mrs. Ridgely's sister, Mrs. Pascal Enos. ...
Mrs. Rigely said she was completely dressed at six o'clock and married
at eight, but meanwhile was not suffered to sit down lest she should
mar the effect.  Among the guests was Stephen A. Douglas....  As Mr.
Douglas congratulated Mrs. Ridgely he said, I have never seen you since
you were a little curly headed girl, do you remember me?
replied the bride, you came home with my father from a political
meeting and seeing me in the yard said 'little girl where were you born'
and when I told you in Illinois, you said 'then you are a mud
felt I could never forgive you.
... In those ante-bellum days when a man was elected to the Senate, he
gave a great Ball, unless he belonged to some of the more strict
religious denominations, then he gave a Promenade party.  Mrs. Ridgely
said she could remember the one Gen. Shields gave on his election and it
was a Ball.