Edwin Reed RIDGELY, Congress, KS (1844-1927)

RIDGELY Edwin Reed , a Representative from Kansas; born near Lancaster, Wabash County, Ill., May 9, 1844; attended district school in the winter months; during the Civil War enlisted as a private in Company C, One Hundred and Fifteenth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in 1862; promoted to sergeant and served until the end of the war; moved to Girard, Kans., in 1869 and engaged in general merchandising and in agricultural pursuits; left the Republican Party in 1876 because of its financial policy; lived in Ogden, Utah, from 1889 to 1893 and then returned to Kansas; elected as a Populist to the Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1897-March 3, 1901); was not a candidate for renomination in 1900; resumed agricultural pursuits in Mulberry, Crawford County, Kans.; died in Girard, Kans., April 23, 1927; interment in Girard Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present