James W. Baldridge
James W. Baldridge, merchant tailor, of Manchester, Ohio, and the subject of this sketch, is a descendant of pioneer ancestry in Adams County. The family name on the old records is Boldridge, and its members were here at the time of the organization of the county.
Our subject was born August 12, 1857, in the village of Youngsville, Wayne Township. He is a son of William S., and a great-grandson of Rev. William Baldridge, the first pastor of the U. P. congregation at Cherry Fork. His mother is Margaret Jane Kane, a member of an old and respected family of the county.
He spent his boyhood days on a farm and attended the District schools until his eighteenth year, when he studied at West Union and in the old academy at Cherry Fork. In 1880, he went to Jackson, Ohio, and there followed coal mining for two years.
In 1882, he began working at his present trade, and in 1883 worked with the well known tailor, A. D. Kirk. He next worked at his trade in Kansas City, and then at Augusta, Ky. Returning to Cherry Fork in 1892, he remained a short time and then located at his present place in Manchester, where he has a flourishing business, his patrons being the best dressers of the town and surrounding country. December 12, 1891, he married Miss Mary Alexander, by whom he has three children, Ada, Roy and William. He is a Methodist and a Prohibitionist.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900