The Riddle–Friend House occupies land that was first owned by John Riddle, a prominent American military leader in the region around the time of the Treaty of Greenville. In 1836, four years after the house was built, Riddle gave much of his wide holdings to his son Isaac, one of Wyoming's founders; he owned it until the 1850s, when another founder, George Friend, obtained the property. Before long, Friend began modernizing the house in contemporary architectural styles. As the owner of a paper mill in nearby Lockland, Friend was one of many industrialists who moved into Wyoming during this period.