Edmon Riorden Jr.

Edmon Riorden Jr. was born in 1839 in Michigan, the son of Edmon Sr. (b. 1793) and Catharine (b. 1809).

Edmon Sr. and Catharine were married in Ireland sometime before 1823 (?) and emigrated from Ireland to England between 1823 and 1830 and then on to the United States settling in New York by 1832. Edmon Sr. then moved his family to Michigan settling in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County by 1850 where Edmon, or Edmund Jr. attended school with his older siblings and his father worked as a grocer. (His cousin Edmund King also lived in Grand Rapids’ First Ward with his family; Edmon would join Company A in 1861.)

In 1859-60 Edmon Jr. was working as a shoemaker for Riorden & Kaiser on the west side of Monroe near the corner of Pearl Street, living at the corner of Greenwich and Ferry Streets in Grand Rapids, and in 1860 he was a shoemaker living with his mother and sister in Grand Rapids’ First Ward. Before the war Edmon Jr. may have helped to operate the shop, “Riorden & Kaiser,” and he may have also operated a tannery on the east side of Spring at the corner of Oakes.

Edmon was 22 years old and probably still living in Grand Rapids when he enlisted in Company F on May 13, 1861. He was killed in action on August 29, 1862, at Second Bull Run. Some years after the war Dan Crotty of Company F said of his death, “Poor Ed. Rioden [sic], my right-hand man in the ranks and a brave soldier, is shot through the head, throws up his gun, falls upon his face, and dies without a groan.”

Edmon’s body was possibly returned to Grand Rapids and his remains interred with his family in St. Andrews cemetery.

In 1863 his mother applied for and received a pension (no. 9502).