From: Henry Burke Friday, May 10, 1996 MARIETTA TIMES Column "Window to the Past" by Henry Robert Burke Thomas Ridgeway This week's article begins a series of profiles about some Washington County, Ohio Abolitionists and Underground Railroad activists. I don't assign a level of importance to one Underground Railroad worker over another, nor did any of them every claim to be more important than his fellow collegues. They truly functioned without rank. They simply called themselves "soldiers in the cause of freedom for all Americans." One such solider was Thomas Ridgeway, born January 22, 1796, of English ancestors at Shelbourne, Nova Scotia, where he resided until he was thirteen years of age. He obtained his education by attending night school, since he worked a full time job during the day. Thomas was trained in the trade of a cooper. As a young man, he was engaged in superintending the cooperage department of one of the largest mackerel fisheries on Cape Brenton Island. Later he was employed at other fisheries along the coast of Newfoundland. During the War of 1812, Thomas Ridgeway was a British sailor and survived a terrible shipwreck. In 1821 Ridgeway went to New Orleans to seek his fortune working in the sugar refineries, but his health failed and he was forced to return Halifax, Nova Scotia later that same year. In the spring of 1822 he returned to New Orleans where he resumed his old job until autumn, then he traveled to Washington County, Ohio to visit Dyars, distant relatives who lived on the old Muskingum River homestead. He stayed with the Dyers until spring, when accompanied by Joseph P. Dyar, they pushed a boat up the Kanawha River to the salt works near present day Malden, West Virginia. After disposing of their cargo at a nice profit, they contracted to produce salt barrels at the rate of 1 bushel and one peck of salt for each barrel. The following fall they brought the salt up the Ohio River and sold it at places between Marietta and Wheeling. They returned to the salt works where they continued for a couple of years before returning to Marietta to jointly buy some land. Around 1825 Thomas Ridgeway and Joseph P. Dyar dissolved their partnership and Thomas took the farm of his residence. He soon married Esther Ann Dyar, sister of his partner, and they eventually had five children: James, John, George, William and Francis. Esther died in 1936 and he married Mrs. Sarah A. Doane in 1838 and had five more children: Caroline, Thomas, Mary, Isaac and Sidney. The second Mrs. Ridgeway died in 1862 and in 1866 he married Mrs. Caroline Johnson who died in 1872. Thomas Ridgeway operated a ferry across the Muskingum River between his house and land he owned on the east bank of the river. From its beginning he was a staunch Republican supporter. Ridgeway's house was an asylum for pursued fugitive slaves, where they always found food and shelter on their journey north along the Muskingum River. He is credited with sheltering more than 50 fugitives slaves during the Underground Railroad days. During the American Civil War he supported the Unionists, losing two sons in support of its cause. Thomas Ridgeway was a civic minded man who supported many causes including temperance and the Congregational Church at Lowell. Thomas Ridgeway died April 23, 1883 at the age of 87 years and is buried beside his three wives and several children at the Rainbow Cemetery in Muskingum Township, Washington County, Ohio. I believe part of his original house may still be standing across the Muskingum River from Fern Cliff in Devola. Henry R. Burke burkeh@mcnet.marietta.edu URL: http://www.marietta.edu/~burkeh