Isabella E. Riddle was born on December 23, 1845, in Washington County, Georgia, to William B. Riddle. Her father was a farmer who owned $75,200 of real estate and $85,000 of personal property by 1860. She grew up and attended school in Washington County. She married Arthur Thomas Cheatham on November 14, 1861, and they apparently had no children. They lived in Davisboro, Georgia, and her husband worked as a physician. By 1870, they owned $600 of real estate and $6,000 of personal property. They moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in the late 1800s, and her husband died there on March 25, 1906. She died of “senility” in Forsyth, Georgia, on March 21, 1920.