1999 Heart and History

Riddle Family

Andrew Benjamin Riddles, born Apr 6, 1829, came to Holmes County from Baxley, Georgia. He married Harriett Viola Missouri Collins, who was born in the Collins settlement around Bethlehem Baptist Church near Malvern, then in Dale County, but later in Geneva County, Alabama. They lived in Campbellton, Florida before moving to New Hope Community in north Holmes County. They homesteaded near a fine spring of water – as all early settlers usually did.

Rev A B Riddle performed the marriage ceremony for my parents, John Dancy and Georgia Carroll, in 1888. He taught and preached all over the county.

Information on the Riddles family was obtained from the 1900 US Census of Holmes County.

Rev and Mrs Andrew Benjamin Riddles were the parents of ten children. They were:

1. Lelia, who married Joseph Franklin Patton, had two children, Joe and Mary, and died when they were very young;

2. Joe, born December 1879, married Edna Neffah of New Orleans, went to Oklahoma and reared a family there;

3. Charles Dawson, born December 1881, married Chloe Toole from Two Egg. They settled in Pensacola and reared a family there;

4. Albert Curry, born Apr 5, 1883; first married Ola Langford in Oklahoma and they had two daughters and a son, Jack. He (Albert Curry) later returned to New Hope, married Cora Lee Collins, his cousin, and they lived in New Hope their remaining years;

5. Ada Cleveland, born September 1885, never married;

6. Simon Benjamin, born Mar 10, 1887; married Etta Eudora Mims. They also settled in the New Hope community and had three children. Ben was a veteran of World War I;

7. Raymond Osborne, born May 1, 1890; was married first to Georgia Annie Pearl Pope, and they had five children. Annie died at the birth of their fifth child, Raymond Jennings, and later Raymond married her sister, Sarah Pope Garrett, who had two children, Floyd Garrett and Lois Garrett Cawthon. Raymond and his family also lived at New Hope;

8. Ina Mae, born Apr 19, 1892; married Cecil Roy Vickers, and they reared a family in Wewahitchka;

9. Edwin Bert, born Sept 17, 1893, married Ethel Padgett and they had nine children. Bert taught, sang and wrote songs, preached, and served in the state legislature as a senator and as a representative;

10. Agnes Ruth, born Mar 9, 1896, never married. Ruth started out as a teacher, but later became a registered nurse, working in hospitals in Florida, Alabama, and Washington, DC, and in her later years, came back home to Holmes County and served as a private duty nurse to many people in the county.

The father and mother and five family members are buried in the New Hope Cemetery. None of the 10 children and Andrew Benjamin and Viola Riddles were living in 1982, but many of their grandchildren live in Holmes County and in other towns and communities in Florida and Alabama.

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Excerpts used with permission of publisher, Sue Cronkite, from Heart and History of Holmes County, by Anna Paget Wells. This 347-page book is full of info, stories, and pictures. It can be ordered from the Holmes County Advertiser, 112 E Virginia Avenue, Bonifay, FL 32425; phone 850-547-2270.

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