Member Biography

Jacob Elwood Ridgway 

Member
Sessions Office Position District Party
1863       1 Republican
1864       1 Republican
1865       2 Republican
1866       2 Republican
1867       2 Republican
1868       2 Republican

COUNTIES: Philadelphia  


Biography

08/19/1824 - 05/06/1909


Jacob Elwood Ridgway (R1) 1863-1864 and (R2) 1865-1868 

Early Life: 

Jacob Elwood Ridgeway, born, August 19, 1824, Salem, Salem County, New Jersey; son of Job and Rebecca Elbin Ridgway; attended, Quaker School; captain, Civil War, 1862, Civil War; carpenter; master builder; engaged, shipping business, 1853-1880; elected, city council, Philadelphia, 1855-1857; elected,  Republican, Pennsylvania House of Representatives, 1860-1861; elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1863-1868; founder, vice president, Union Passenger Railway, 1864-1883; owner, various coal, gold and silver mines; president, Quaker City National Bank, 1892-1909, president, Atlantic City and Chelsea Improvement Company; director, vice president, Keystone Telephone Company; married Sarah Shreve, 1848 (d. 1881) remarried, Barbara A. Kuhlmeyer, 1894, children, Caleb Shreve Ridgway, Anna Ridgway Bishop and Martha Shreve Ridgway Bement;died, May 6, 1909, city of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania; interment, Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.

Early Career:

Captain, Company I, 119th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Civil War, 1862.  

Carpenter; master builder; engaged, shipping business, 1853-1880.

Founder and vice president, Union Passenger Railway, 1864-1883.

Owner, various coal, gold and silver mines.

President, Quaker City National Bank, 1892-1909.

Pennsylvania Politics:

Elected, city council, Philadelphia, 1855-1857.

Elected, Republican, Pennsylvania House of Representatives, 1860- 1861; not a candidate for reelection, 1862.  

Elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1st district Philadelphia County 1863-1864, 2nd district 1865-1868; member, Public Printing and Railroad Committees.  

Pennsylvania House of Representatives Biography:

https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/BiosHistory/MemBio.cfm?ID=8023&body=H

Cited:

Smull’s Legislative Hand Book, (1867) Smull, J.A., pages 274 and 280-282.

Smull’s Legislative Hand Book, (1868) Smull, J.A., pages 257 and 261-263.