518
RIDLEYS OF OXFORD, NORTH CAROLINA.
Ridley's house and took all they wished for; gave Mrs. Ridley only "three
minutes to tell them where her husband was, and what he had done with
his money" (they had heard that he had a bushel of silver in the house), and
threatened to burn the house. Mrs. Ridley, indignant at the threat, dared
them to burn; she had only two hours warning, and had given a faithful
old servant such things as he could carry about his person, and sent him
away. After much persuasion she had prevailed upon her husband to leave
with his money, except a few hundred dollars which he overlooked; this
money they found by breaking open his desk and wardrobe; took seven
valuable horses, and went away swearing vengeance on Doctor Ridley if
they found him, which, fortunately, they did not do. After this the un-
finished houses of overseers were fitted up; the farm restocked with the
money that was saved, and they hoped to live in peace. But again they
were doomed to disappointment; again the army marched that way, des-
troyed their stock of every kind; took from the plow eighteen "likely
men and boys," and the mules with which they were plowing in wheat;
(they took away twenty-nine horses and mules, and thirty-seven negroes)
burned the houses and fencing; laid waste to everything; carried away
the carriages, leaving nothing but the bare land. The loss of his property
and the freeing of his slaves hastened Doctor Ridley's death; he could
not be reconciled to his reduced circumstances, after having lived so long
in comparative luxury; he gradually declined, and died March 13, 1873.
Mrs. Ridley* continues to live on her farm, and has allowed thirteen fam-
ilies of their former slaves to build their huts on her land; not one of
them self-sustaining. She is a woman of remarkable fortitude and cour-
age; of talent, culture, and refinement, and endured their misfortunes
with wonderful patience. She has provided much valuable material for
this book, and has manifested a deep interest in the work since her first
knowledge of my undertaking. At the age of seventy-one years she com-
pleted a braid of hair made from the combings of her own head (every
hair that came out in three years was carefully preserved), which con-
tained exactly two hundred and nineteen thousand hairs, and measured
three feet in length. Doctor Ridley had issue three sons, of whom here-
after.
8
Hon. Bromfield-Lewis Ridley (2), second son of James (1), was born
at Oxford, Granville County, N. C., Aug. 4, 1804; married Oct. 12, 1829,
to Rebecca Crothwait, and had issue nine children, of whom hereafter.
He was educated and graduated at Chapel Hill, in his native State, in a
class numbering over sixty students all of whom, with one or two exceptions,
have since been governors, judges, or army-officers. At the close of his
collegiate course, in which he took first honors, he made choice of the
*There are some most remarkable traits in the character of Mrs. Susan A. Ridley.
She ordered a carved black-walnut burial casket in Macon, Ga., several years ago,
which had a cover shutting like a trunk and fastened with catches. This was large
enough to admit a mattress, feather-bed, two pillows, and was padded within. Her
burial clothes were also made with her own hands and carefully placed in the casket.
For two years this was deposited in a carriage-house, but in consequence of a leak
in the roof, was removed to her dining-room, where, it being as wide and high as
a common table, it was used by the servants as a side-board, being covered with an
oil-cloth. She says: "My reason for this is that my family all die suddenly, and
anticipating such a death myself, but knowing I should not die an hour sooner, I
deemed it wise to have all necessary arrangements made while alive." One of her
brothers had his coffin made eleven years before his death, from boards sawed from
a large walnut tree under which he played when a boy.
