Ada Belle (Eldred) Rigden was born August 30, 1884, in Montana to Thomas D. and Rose E. (Badger) Eldred.  Her father was a carpenter by profession.  She attended Michigan State Normal College in the summer of 1903 to obtain a degree in education, and she is listed in the 1903 and 1904 City Directories of Battle Creek, Calhoun County, Michigan, as a teacher.  She came to the Arizona Territory in either late 1904 or 1905 to teach school in Kirkland, Yavapai County.

It was in Kirkland that she met Charles Lewis Rigden (1866-1951), a rancher, whom she married in 1907.  The couple had two children: Elizabeth "Betty" Rose Rigden, born on December 12, 1908 in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory and John Thomas "Tom" Rigden, born on August 13, 1911, in Prescott.

Ada was reputedly a talented artist as well as an accomplished ranch wife.  She helped to organize the Kirkland Women’s Club in 1923, and she was active in the Monday Club and the Arizona Federation of Women’s Clubs.

She was a serious artist, using both oil and watercolor paints.  It was an interest carried on by her granddaughter, Cynthia Rigden.

Ada died in December 1963 on her ranch in Kirkland and was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Prescott.

Donor: The Yount Family
Photo Located:  Ludwig Studio Collection, PC-51, Box 11, Print - Ada Rigden (Was PO-2627p)
Updated: 11/10/2017, Tom Collins