Micajah Lippincott Eldridge

LIPPINCOTT, ELDRIDGE, CHALLEN, BERRY, EARLE, BEJORD, BRADDON

Posted By: Carol Bawden (email)
Date: 7/18/2007 at 10:46:18

MICAJAH LIPPINCOTT ELDRIDGE was the youngest son of Duncan Campbell and Rebecca Lippincott Eldridge, born in Davenport on 22 August 1845. Educated in Davenport schools, he began his working career at age 18 in the Davenport Post Office where his brother Charles H. Eldridge was Postmaster, and his father, Duncan, who had been Davenport's 2nd postmaster, new served as clerk.

In April 1864, Charles resigned. He and Micajah began a real estate and insurance business, advertised in the Davenport City Directory as:

Eldridge & Bros. (C.H.E. and M. L.E) land, real estate, insurance, and collection agents; money, real estate and exchange brokers; notaries public; Abstracts of Titles made at short notice; office 38 Brady".

In 1874, still in the insurance and real estate business, Micajah began a weekly newspaper devoted to the interests of working men, called the "Times". He sold the newspaper after successfully publishing it for 2 years.

In 1880, Charles retired, and their half-brother, Jacob Mullen, joined the Eldridge Bros. business with Micajah.

On 17 October 1865, Pastor James Challen of the Christian Church married Micajah and Magdelena L. Berry in Davenport. "Maggie" was born 11 September 1844 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The 1850 Harrisburg census lists Maggie as a young child living with her widowed mother, Sarah. Her father's name is not known. In 1860 she was living with her grandmother, Sarah Lingle, in Rock Island, Illinois. Micajah and Magdelena Eldridge were divorced in 1893. Maggie resumed the use of Berry. She died on her birthday 11 September 1908 in Davenport and is buried on the Eldirdge lot in Davenport's Oakdale Memorial Gardens.