James Wadsworth Ritchie (May 24, 1861 – March 22, 1924) was an American sportsman and rancher who was prominent in New York Society during the Gilded Age.
His paternal grandparents were Mary Craig (née Wharton) Wadsworth and General James S.
Following his father's early death in 1864 from an illness contracted in battle during the U.S. Civil War that also killed his grandfather (during the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia), his mother met and, in 1869, remarried to John George Adair,[3] a Scottish-Irish businessman and landowner from County Donegal.
[1] After his step-father's death in 1885, his now twice-widowed mother divided the JA Ranch holdings with Charles Goodnight.
[5][6] Reportedly, Ritchie adapted quickly to the Panhandle and lived in a dugout at the original Tule campsite.
[9] After his 1895 wedding to Emily,[10] her father gave his Newport, Rhode Island, house, including all its furnishings, chandeliers, and draperies, to his children, who promptly divided the contents and sold the home.
[1] Through his son Montie, he was the paternal grandfather of Cornelia Wadsworth "Nina" Ritchie, who was the first wife of Republican Texas State Senator Teel Bivins of Amarillo, who, prior to his death in 2006, served as U.S.