Before Ridgeway had its own newspaper, they published their news items in the Bethany Republican (just as we do now) in a column called the “Ridgeway Racket”. The first column I could find appeared in the December 30, 1880, issue of the Republican. The columnist bragged a bit about Ridgeway’s rapid growth. In August 1880, when the town was laid out, there was only one house belonging to John E. Opdyke. Less than four months later, the town boasted 15 business “houses” which included general merchandisers, a druggist, and hardware stores. In addition, Ridgeway boasted “a bakery, a barber shop, 2 meat markets, 3 hotels, 3 livery barns, 2 blacksmith shops, 1 wagon shop, 3 lumber yards, grain and coal houses and a large and neatly arranged depot.” There were 35 homes in the town and an estimated three hundred people were already living here. Ridgeway found itself “prospering in a land of peace and quietude…. Where three months ago stood the lone house of J. E. Opdyke, one now finds as handsome a little village as may be seen in the State of Missouri.”
