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FINIS E. RIDDLE
Vol. 3, p. 1078-1079
Book has photo

The State of Oklahoma has been signally fortunate in enlisting on
the bench of its Supreme Court the services of lawyers and jurists of
high personal and professional standing, and as associate justice of
this tribunal, as well as a representative member of the bar of this
vigorous young commonwealth, Judge RIDDLE merits definite recognition
in the history, as does he also by reason of his prominence as a
loyal and progressive citizen of the state.

Judge Riddle was born in Moore County, Tennessee, in July, 1870, and
is a son of Martin V. and Theresa (TUCKER) Riddle, both likewise
natives of Tennessee, where the father still maintains his home,
having celebrated in 1914 his seventy-seven birthday anniversary, his
wife, who was the daughter of a prominent and honored physician of
Tennessee, having passed to the life eternal in January, 1911. Martin
V. Riddle is a man of strong character and symmetrical
intellectuality, many years of his active life having been devoted to
effective service as a teacher in the schools of his native state,
where he commands the unqualified esteem of all who know him.

He whose name introduces this review acquired his early education
under the able direction of his father, supplemented this by
attending for two years Maple College, in Tennessee, after which he
entered the Holbrook Normal College, at Lebanon, Ohio, where he
completed a higher academic course and in a preliminary way fortified
himself for the technical study which was soon to engross his
attention. In the office of Samuel A. BILLINGS, a representative of
the bar of Lynchburg, Tennessee, he carefully prosecuted the reading
of law under most auspicious conditions, and in January, 1894, he was
admitted to the bar of his native state. Convinced that in the
progressive West were offered splendid opportunities for advancement
and success in the profession of his choice, Judge Riddle came
forthwith to Oklahoma as now constituted, and made settlement at
Chickasha, Indian Territory, this thriving city being now the capital
of judicial center of Grady County. There he engaged in the active
general practice of his profession, in which his ability and earnest
application soon gained to him precedence and high reputation as a
versatile trial lawyer and well equipped counselor. He became one of
the leading members of the bar of that section of the territory and
was retained in nearly all of the important and intricate cases
presented in the various territorial courts, his practice having
become one of extensive and important order long before the
organization of the State of Oklahoma. At Chickasha he continued his
successful professional endeavors until April, 1914, when he was
appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, to fill
our the unexpired term of Chief Justice HAYES, this term ending in
January, 1915. While thus serving, and that with marked ability, on
the bench of the Supreme Court, Judge Riddle has continued his
residence at Chickasha, and it may consistently be said that he is
one of the progressive and public-spirited citizens who have been
specially influential in the civic and material development and
upbuilding of that city. Since 1904 Judge Riddle has been eligible
for practice in the Supreme Court on the United States, before which
tribunal he has presented a number of important causes. He is an
appreciative member of the American Bar Association, of which latter
he was president in 1912.

In politics Judge Riddle is a staunch and effective exponent of the
principles of the democratic party, and both he and his wife hold
membership in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. At Chickasha he is
affiliated with Washita Valley Lodge, No. 143, Knights of Pythias, of
which he is past chancellor, and with the lodges of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

In the year 1896 was solemnized the marriage of Judge Riddle to Miss
Letitia CLOUD, daughter of Isaac and Lockie Cloud, of Gainsville,
Texas. Mr. Cloud was one of the prominent representative of the great
cattle industry under the old regime of the open range and his
operations, of large ramifications, extended also into Indian
Territory. He still maintains his residence in the Lone Star State,
his wife being deceased. Judge and Mrs. Riddle have one daughter,
Frances Alee Riddle, who was born in 1900 and who has shown herself
to be a true daughter of the great West, especially in her skill as
an equestrienne. Her fine horsemanship gained for her the blue ribbon
at the Oklahoma State Fair in 1914.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Vickie Neill Taylor December 7, 1998.