CAPT. E. D. RICKETTS
The greatgrandfather of Capt. Ricketts was Dillard Ricketts, who
came from Scotland in colonial days, and settled at Flint Hill, Culpeper
county, Virginia, where he married, and had issue three sons. The
eldest, George, settled in Hamilton county, Ohio, where he reared a large
family, and left numerous descendants. The second son remained on
the homestead in Culpeper county, and his descendants have held
worthily many enviable positions in public life. The third son, Zachariah,
emigrated to Marion county, Kentucky, as a Methodist Episcopal
minister, where he married and had three sons, the youngest, D. C.
Ricketts, the father of the subject of this sketch, who was born at Bradfordsville,
Marion county, Kentucky, May 22, 1834. His mother was
Sallie, daughter of Abel Weatherford, of Bradfordsville. Abel Weatherford
was of Scotch descent, and his father and mother lived to extreme
old age, the mother dying in June, 1849, aged 103 years, and the father
dying the next day, aged 104 years, buried in the grave with his wife.
He had been a soldier of the Revolutionary war, and wore his uniform
with a just pride, up to the day of his death.
Captain Ricketts has been three times married. His first wife was
Missouri Forman, born in Nelson county, Kentucky, in 1838, whom he
married at Louisville, Kentucky, May 25, 1852, and who died leaving
issue one daughter, Mary Frances. Secondly he married, in Jefferson
county, Kentucky, November 1, 1851, Lizzie Stivers, born in that
county, February 6, 1844, who died March 9, 1866, having been the
mother of four children: William M., now superintendent of public
schools at Abingdon; James B., now deceased, a babe died unnamed;
and John E., killed in a railroad accident at Indianapolis, Indiana, in
February, 1885. The third marriage of Capt. Ricketts was solemnized
near Abingdon, Virginia, when Eliza D. Galliher became his wife.
Captain Ricketts represented Jefferson county, Kentucky in the Kentucky
State legislature which passed the ordinance of secession at
Russellville, but was also in military service through the war. He volunteered
in April, 1861, and received commission of captain from President
Davis, recruited nearly 300 men in Louisville, and took the field
as captain of Company B, 6th Kentucky (Confederate) Infantry. His
field service ended with Shiloh battle, where he was shot through both
legs, after which he served as brigade quartermaster until in 1863, then
commanded the 6th Regular Battalion, C. S. A., till the close of the
war. Since that time he has been a contractor on railroads, and a
lumber merchant and shipper. For the last few years he has been settled
on his farm in Washington county, near Abingdon.
Capt. R. B. Ricketts, a distinguished soldier, and late Democratic
candidate for lieutenant-governor of Pennsylvania, is his cousin.
