Death Comes to H. W. Riddle
Ravenna's Foremost Citizen Succumbs to Short Illness — Passes Away at 2:50 p.m., Thursday — Funeral at 2 O'Clock Saturday at the Riddle Residence on Main Street
Henry W. Riddle, founder of The Riddle Coach and Hearse Manufacture and the foremost citizen of Ravenna and of Portage County for sixty years, passed from this life at his home, No. 160 East Main Street, at 2:50 o'clock, Thursday afternoon, after an illness of 15 days, aged nearly eighty-three years. Funeral services will be held at the home at 2 o'clock, Saturday afternoon. Rev. I. J. Swanson will officiate and Unity Lodge will assist in the services.
How much this community owes to Henry W. Riddle as promoter, builder, manufacturer and co-worker for the common weal, it is impossible to estimate. The instances of direct contribution and practical initiative need not be enumerated to his appreciative contemporaries. His work will follow him through generations that shall inherit his record, the inspiration of his ambitions and the lessons of his splendid loyalty to home interests and home institutions.
Mr. Riddle was eminently practical, with a sturdy constitution which enabled him to remain active in his pursuits to an unusual age. He rejoiced in the battle of life, meeting adversities of earlier years with the spirit of the warrior and overcoming great and at times apparently insurmountable obstacles by sheer will and resolution. "Can't" apparently had no place in his vocabulary. Fire swept the Riddle plant in 1870, but with the credit born of enterprise and square dealing, new buildings arose out of the ashes and the industry speedily took its place among the foremost of its kind in the country. The plant was destroyed by fire in June 1903, and again rebuilt to its present proportions.
Henry Warner Riddle was born in Allegheny, now a part of the city of Pittsburgh, Pa., on February 8, 1838. He was the third in a family of six children. His mother died when he was very young and he was obliged to begin work at an early age, selling papers, doing errands and whatever a young boy can do. At one time he carried the mails on horseback from Pittsburgh to Bethany, W. Va., going out one day and returning the next. Later, he made a trip down the Ohio River as cabin boy. At the age of thirteen years he began an apprenticeship under John South of Allegheny to learn the trade of carriage wood working, with whom he remained for three years, becoming a specially skilled artisan. "Some of my happiest days were at the bench," he often said.
July 5, 1856, he started to work his passage down the river to New Orleans, making short stops at Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez and the Crescent City, where he worked at his trade in carriage shops. On his return he was located for a time at St. Louis and Cincinnati, and eventually in Dayton. He then went to Florence, Ky., where he worked in various shops, and later bought carriages in Pittsburgh which he sold about Florence, Covington and Cincinnati. When the Civil War broke he came north and in 1861 located in Ravenna where he and his brother-in-law, the late Chas. Merts, bought the carriage manufactory of the late N. D. Clark, operated under the firm name of Merts and Riddle for thirty years. In 1891 he purchased the interest of his partner and organized the Riddle Coach & Hearse Company.
He was married to Miss Emily H. Robinson, daughter of the late George Robinson of this city, prominent banker, in 1866. In 1878 he built the house of their present abode on East Main Street in which he spent the remainder of his life. Four children were born to them: Bessie, now Mrs. F. M. Paltzgroff; Maxwell Riddle and Henry Warner Riddle Jr., of Ravenna; and Aimee, now the wife of Judge C. M. Merrill of Glens Falls, N. Y. There are also seven grandchildren.
Mr. Riddle was a member of the First Congregational Church of Ravenna. He was also a member of Unity Lodge No. 12, F. & A.M., a member of Cresset Lodge No. 225, Knights of Pythias, and was a charter member of Ravenna Lodge No. 1076, B.P.O.E. He was a Democrat of life-long affiliations and while he never sought public office or public preference, he was liberal in his contributions to the success of the party principles.
Ravenna was the center of his interests and of his ambitions. Besides the buildings included in his factory group, he erected eleven large business blocks and built a score or more of houses in different parts of the city, besides erecting several factory buildings and donating land for other enterprises. It has not been written that the contributions of any one citizen have equaled those of Mr. Riddle or have given the tone and dignity to the architecture of the town he loved so well.
CLOSE FOR FUNERAL: As a slight expression of regard for a life of zealous work for the upbuilding of Ravenna by our departed fellow citizen, Henry W. Riddle Sr., it is requested that all places of business be closed during the funeral services, 2 to 3 o'clock, Saturday afternoon, December 18. — Ravenna Chamber of Commerce. W. J. Beckley, President. V. W. Filiatrault, Secy.
Funeral services for Henry W. Riddle were of simple but impressive character, conducted at the home at 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon. The body was laid to rest in Maple Grove. In a brief talk Dr. Swanson rendered fitting tribute to the personal and civic worth of Mr. Riddle and to his service to the community in which he has left so many visible testimonials.
The bearers included James Webb, George Whitlock, George Hartlerode, Albert Kemp, H. L. Smith, J. S. Beazell, Joseph Ely, and Lewis Barton — all of them employees of the Riddle establishment, whose service represents an aggregate of three hundred years.
