Martha Hewett Riley went only to the third grade, but was an intelligent, industrious woman. She met her husband, Miles James Riley, one day when her cousin Elec took her out to Catfish Point in Tampa.

They married and had seven children, the youngest, a son, died when he was eighteen months old.

The story goes that Miles became an alcoholic and could be violent. He went through periods of deserting the family, then returning, only to leave again. Martha was forced to have her eldest child, Alpha, quit school when she was thirteen and go to work to help support the family. She divorced him on 2/16/1910 in Tampa.

Once he took their only son to Texas, where the boy cut his leg badly with an ax, so Miles brought him back to his mother. When Miles did return to live in Tampa, he wasn't in contact with the family and only saw his children when they happened to run into him on the street.

When she was older, Martha toiled tirelessly in her vegetable patch, raising melons and greens and fruit. While she worked her mind revolved endlessly about her past. She could be heard muttering to herself one name, "Mr. Riley." The difficulties he had caused her plagued her the rest of her life.

She and her daughter Frances Birdo shared a house in Tampa until her death.

The Riley Children, about 1908
(l-r)
Lila, Alpha, Floyd, Millie, Birdo, Miles, Elsie

Alpha Elizabeth
b. 12/16/1891 - d. 11/1/1976

Frances Birdo
b. 5/14/1894 - d. 9/18/1993

Miles Allen
b. 7/17/1897 - d. 3/12/1954

Millie Eugenia
b. 11/23/1899 - d. 4/19/1968

Elsie Winnifred
b. 3/17/1899 - d. 8/28/1987

Lila Mildred
b. 4/23/1904 - d. 4/4/1958

Floyd Henry
b. 12/14/1907 - d. 6/28/1909