Manuscript Location

The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia Research Center

Place of Origin

United States ➔ Missouri

Date of Composition

1863-1875

Description

Born in Illinois in 1846, Florence Ridgway married Ellwood Kirby (1830-1881) in 1868 and settled down with him in Jefferson City, Missouri, where Ellwood worked for the Missouri State Times. By 1878, the family moved to St. Louis, where Ellwood became the editor of the Globe Democrat, covering legislative affairs for the newspaper. Ellwood and Florence had four children: Anna (who died at the age of four in 1874), Ella, Robert, and Ellwood. Their last child, a daughter, was born in September 1881, a few months after her father, Ellwood Kirby, died of injuries suffered in an accident. After her husband’s death, Florence made ends meet by renting rooms to boarders. By 1910, Florence was living with Ellwood and her husband Joseph Lightholder in Los Angeles, where Joseph worked as a salesman and the couple raised two sons. Florence continued to live with her daughter's family until she died in 1926.

Florence wrote three recipe books, dated by the library between 1863 and 1875. They are housed in folder 28 of the library's Kirby-Ridgway-Lightholder family papers.