Riddlebarger, Jesse (1800-1883) gunsmith. Jesse was born on 7 March 1800 in Maryland. About 1820 Jesse left Fincastle, Botetourt County, Virginia, to go to Kentucky, possibly with brothers David or James. Jesse then moved to, by 1821, Fayette, Howard County, Missouri, east of Kansas City. He was the first gunsmith of in Fayette although he did not stick with the family trade very long. He married, first, on 27 April 1827, Mary Sproul, by whom he fathered 9 children; second, on 23 June 1853, Susan Lavinia Norton by whom he had 4 children. Jesse died in May 1883 in Fayette. He made a small fortune outfitting and equipping caravans for the Santa Fe Trail. [History of Howard and Cooper Counties, Missouri, 180]. At least two of Jesse’s brothers were also gunsmiths. David Riddlebarger worked in Montgomery County, Ohio.
Riddlebarger & Co. ran a large commission and shipping house on the levee . . . and did all the business on the line. Riddlebarger had a pathetic history. He accumulated considerable means, and when he married a young wife was supposed to be happily fixed for a man who had passed the mwedian point in life. A series of unfortunate speculations, however, stripped him of every dollar, and completely disheartened he died at last friendless and alone in the county poorhouse in Fulton [Kansas City Evening Star, 28 May 1884]
Jesse [Riddlesbarger] died last Monday in [the] Howard County poorhouse, 84 years of age. Buried in Fayette City Cemetery, Township 50, Range 16, Section 11. Came to Fayette in 1830. For years carried on the business of a gunsmith, afterward went into [the] mercantile business with John D. Perry and met with great success, then went to Kansas City where he became involved and broken up, came back to Fayette a few years ago. Lived with old friends a few months where he was cared for until his death. At one time he was one of the most prosperous merchants for Fayette [Howard County Advertiser, 24 May 1883]
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Dr. Whisker respectfully requests any information that might lead toward finding and photographing a Riddlebarger gun.
