Riddle, Alexander P.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Alexander P. Riddle, a widely known newspaper man and public character of Ottawa County, was born at Harlansburg, Pennsylvania, August 16, 1846. He learned his trade as a printer in the office of the Franklin (Pennsylvania) Spectator, and in 1869 came to Kansas as a "jour." He first located at Olathe; then moved to Girard, where he set type and became half owner of the Press. In 1885 he sold his interest and settled at Minneapolis, which has since been his home. There he purchased the Minneapolis Messenger, which he still publishos and edits, as well as the Kansas Workman and Sprig of Myrtle. Mr. Riddle has been prominent in state matters, his public services commencing in 1877, when he was chosen journal clerk of the State Scnate and served thus for two years. In 1881-3 he represented Bourbon and Crawford counties in the upper house of the Legislature, and in 1884 was elocted lioutenant governor on the tieket headed by John A. Martin. He was ro-elected in 1886 and in 1896 was appointed suporintendent of insurance. Mr. Riddle has also been prominent in the affairs of the Knights of Pythias and Odd Fellows, having served as grand master of the latter.

Robert M. Wright,a prominent resident of Dodge City, has prospered as a farmer, stockman, merchant and public servant. He is a native of the South, born in Bladensburg, Prince George County, Maryland, September 2, 1840. His father, who was born at Alexandria, Virginia, in 1800, often recounted his experlence as a boy on the battlefield of Bladensburg administering to wounded American soldiers. Mr. Wright's great. grandfather was a Prdsbyterian minister in Revolutionary times and raised a regiment of plowboys at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, of which he had command at the battle of the Meadows. The British had a price on his head and destroyed his property and the Tories finally killed him. His wife was shot by Hessian soldiers as she sat at a window with her baby. Elias B. Caldwell, the maternal grandfather, was clerk of the United States Supreme Court at Washington for many years, and when the capitol was destroyed by the British in the War of 1812 his library, which he had loaned to Congress, was also burned.

Mr. Wright came West when sixteen years of age, and until 1859 lived on a farm near St. Louis. In 1850 he took an overland trip to Denver, and during the following eight years, as a trader and a contractor for hauling grain and cutting hay and wood, he crossed the plains four times by wagon and twice by coach. In 1867 he became a post trader at Fort Dodge, and has since resided at that locality. During that period he has served as postmaster, has represented Dodge County in the Legislature for four terms. and has been commissioner of forestry twiee, in 1899-1903.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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