Introduction

Biography

A Bap­tist preach­er and tem­per­ance speak­er, Ryd­er pas­tored in Dept­ford, worked with the Brit­ish Bi­ble So­ci­ety (1867–69), and was min­is­ter at the Ston­ey-Street Cha­pel in Not­ting­ham (1870–75).

He es­tabl­ished 40 tem­per­ance Bands of Hope, and was well known for his sing­ing and song lead­ing.

In the sum­mer of 1875, he went to Am­eri­ca, hop­ing for change of health; he was be­ing treate­d for an ar­ter­ial an­eur­ysm near his heart.

Apparently, he spent most of Au­gust and Sep­tem­ber tra­vel­ing, in­clud­ing a trip to an In­di­an mis­sion school in On­tar­io and a stop at Ni­aga­ra Falls.

He met the Stowes at Twin Mount­ain House in New Hamp­shire that Au­gust—the Beech­er fa­mi­ly rou­tin­ely va­ca­tioned there. The Stowes in­vit­ed Ry­der to stay at their home while he vi­sit­ed John G. Gough, a lead­er of the Am­eri­can Tem­per­ance Un­ion.

Harriet Stowe dis­covered Ry­der’s bo­dy af­ter his death, and wrote to his young wid­ow back in Eng­land.