McRidley, Wendell H. [Cadiz Normal and Theological College]
(born: 1842 - died: 1932)Rev. Wendell H. McRidley was editor and publisher of the Cadiz Informer, a Baptist weekly newspaper in Cadiz, KY. In 1887, he founded and was president of the Cadiz Normal and Theological College; the school had 269 students in 1895 and was still in operation as an elementary school in 1915 with at least 18 students. McRidley was also an alternate Kentucky Delegate to the Republication Convention in 1900 and 1916. He was treasurer of the Colored Masons' Mt. Olive Lodge #34 in Louisville, organized in 1880. McRidley was born in Tennessee, he was the husband of Anna M. Crump McRidley, born 1864 in KY.
For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1927; McRidley, at The Political Graveyard website; Chapter 4 of The History of Prince Hall Grand Lodge in Ohio, by C. H. Wesley; and the Photo on p. 301 in Sermons, Addresses and Reminiscences and Important Correspondence..., by E. C. Morris [available on the UNC University Library's Documenting the American South website].
For more about the Cadiz Normal and Theological College, and the School, see p.117 of the Sixty-third Annual Report of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, May 30th and 31st, 1895; and p. 278 of Negro Education, by T. J. Jones [both available online at Google Book Search]. See also entries for African American Schools in the NKAA Database.
