When James Blain Ridgeway was born on 22 July 1881, in Union Magisterial District, Monongalia, West Virginia, United States, his father, Elihu Horton Ridgway, was 57 and his mother, Mary E Jarrett, was 40. He married Stella Elizabeth Caler about 1902, in Pennsylvania, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 1 daughter. He lived in Springhill, Springhill Township, Fayette, Pennsylvania, United States in 1920 and Point Marion, Fayette, Pennsylvania, United States for about 10 years. He died on 15 April 1951, in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States, at the age of 69.