RIDLEYS OF RUTHERFORD COUNTY, TENNESSEE.
495
in the early settlement of that State, and in crossing the Tennessee River
was killed by Indians, with his wife and three children. No representa-
tives of his family now survive.
Patsey Ridley2 (1), eldest daughter of George¹ (1), was born in east-
ern Tennessee, March 13, 1770; was married to James Wright, and had
a family of four sons and four daughters; settled on a plantation in mid-
dle Tennessee.
Betsey Ridley' (1), second daughter of George¹ (1), was born in east-
ern Tennessee, Feb. 13, 1772; was married twice: firstly, to William
Smith, of eastern Tennessee, and by him had four children; secondly, to
MacMinn, a brother of Governor MacMinn, and by him had two
sons. Her descendants are numerous and respected, some distinguished.
Sally Ridley (1), third daughter of George' (1), was born in eastern
Tennessee, Nov. 28, 1773; was married in 1791 to Maj. John Buchanan
(his second wife), and had thirteen children, many of whom were dis-
tinguished. She was a woman of remarkable courage and fortitude;
cool and self-commanding, and being united to a husband who was a
celebrated pioneer and Indian-fighter, her associations were calculated to
develope those traits of character so necessary in women of the frontier
settlements. Her husband had implicit confidence in his wife's judge-
ment, and confided to her all his plans and undertakings, many of which
were carefully overlooked by her, and of which she in person promptly
executed during the memorable battle at his fort, on the 30th of Septem-
ber, 1792, when the Indians,- about nine hundred warriors from the com-
bined Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Creeks, made an attack at midnight,
but were badly defeated by only twenty-one men in the fort. In this
fierce conflict of battle, the intrepidity of Mrs. Buchanan's courage, and
fearless deeds performed by her, crowned her through life as a model
Indian-fighter of the West. Her son,* in a letter to the author,
says of his mother: "Her many virtues vie with proud fame of Ten-
nessee's greatness; her posterity from five generations is as numerous as
the leaves on some forest tree, and, although she died in 1832, she lives
in remembrance and affection among hosts of Tennessee's citizenship."
She is said to have been the third white woman born in her State.
-
Lettie Ridley² (1), fourth daughter of George¹ (1), was born in east-
ern Tennessee, Nov. 24, 1776; was married to James Roberts, of Jack-
son County, and had three sons and five daughters, all of whom had large
families. One of her granddaughters, Hannah Graham, is the wife of
Hon. Peter Turney, one of the supreme judges of the State of Tennessee.
Lettie was youngest of the first family.
Capt. Vincent Ridley2 (1), eldest son of George¹ (1) by his second
wife, was born in eastern Tennessee, June 26, 1778; married Lydia Ever-
ett, and had issue nine children, of whom hereafter. He was only ten
* HON. HENRY-RIDLEY BUCHANAN, to whom I am indebted for much information
relative to this branch of the Ridley family, was born in "Buchanan's Fort," Nov.
8, 1814, and is the youngest son of Sally Ridley. His fancy inclined him to mercan-
tile pursuits, and in 1841 he engaged in an enterprise for trade in an expedition
known as the "Santa Fé Expedition," and, with the entire company, was captured
by the governor of New Mexico, and confined in a chain-gang as a slave for two
years before his condition was known by his friends at home. Through the inter-
vention of President Andrew Jackson and Judge Powhattan Ellis, who was Minister
from the United States to Mexico, he was released and liberated from prison at
Peubla de los Angelos in May, 1843. In 1875 he was, without opposition, elected
from the Counties of Davidson and Williamson to the Senate of Tennessee.
