Continued from The Richards Epic: Part One
The cover of History of Eastland County, Texas (1904) by Mrs. George Langston, reprinted by Cornell University Library.
Edmund Richards was born about 1823 in Jones County, North Carolina. On March 14, 1846 Edmund married Caroline McQueen, daughter of Peter McQueen and Elizabeth Freeland, in Crittenden County, Arkansas.
In 1850 Edmund and Caroline are found living in Tyrongee, Crittenden County, Arkansas. The household consists of:
Edmund Richards(listed as Edward, age 25 years)
Caroline Richards (listed as Catharina, age 22 years)
George Richards (George Washington Richards, Esq., age 3 years)
Lucy Richards (age 2 years)
Mary Edwards (I don’t know who she is, age 14 years)
Mary McQueen (Caroline’s sister, age 18 years)
Sometime between 1850 and 1856 the couple had at least four more children. Caroline died between 1856 and 1860, though I can’t be certain if she died in Arkansas or Texas.
In 1860 Edmund is found in Eastland County, Texas with his niece and children:
Edmund Richards (stock farmer, age 37 years)
Melissa Richards (daughter of John Richards III and Lucinda Parker, keeping house, age 16 years)
George Richards (age 12 years)
Laura Richards (age 10 years)
Alice Richards (age 8 years)
Marshall Richards (age 6 years)
Jerome Richards (age 4 years)
About his time in Texas: According to History of Eastland County, Texas (1904) by Mrs. George Langston the first settler came to the area about 1856. Soon after more families settled the area. Oddly enough the book doesn’t name the Richards family, but does list a Richardson family from Arkansas, the patriarch being a doctor. I spoke with a county genealogist in in Eastland who researched the names for me and sent me a letter:
“I looked in the Eastland County History Book and did not find an Edmund Richards. I did find Doctor C.S. Richardson in the list of physicians.”
I have searched the 1860 and 1870 US Federal Census, the 1860 and 1870 Texas State Census, the Selected US Federal Census Non-Population Schedules-1850-1880, tax records, and land records. There is absolutely, positively no CS Richardson listed anywhere that I could find, let alone a doctor by that name, even remotely close to Eastland County, Texas (though help with this man would be fantastic!). In fact, the closest I could find is a William L Richardson, listed as a “stock teamer” in Erath County, Texas in 1860, but he was from Florida (and I was able to find him there in 1850 with his mother and siblings). The names listed on the 1860 Eastland County, Texas State Census are:
John W Flannegan
Singleton Gilbert
Samuel M Gilbert
Davis Millburn
William Highsaw
Edmund Richards
William M Mansker
William J Folles
Charles C Blair
James Ellison
James M Ellison
Dempsey Wyatt
Noah Fitzwaters
John Birden
William Barden
Joseph Barden
William E Wilson
Silas C Shirley
AW Bell
Alfred Oliver
John H Owens
This follows the US Federal Census exactly. Another thing I find interesting from the book is (page 70):
“J.M. ELLISON
At the time of the Indian’s first raid through this County in December, 1859, they stole Dr. Richardson’s horses. Mr. Ellison, with six others, followed them three days through a fearful snowstorm without any success.”
If you look at the Selected US Federal Census Non-Population Schedules-1850-1880 you will see that Edmund has no horses at all. Though he isn’t the only one without horses, it makes me think that Mrs. George Langston was talking about Edmund (by the way, looking at the US Federal Census for 1860, the State Census for 1860 and the Selected US Federal Census Non-Population Schedules-1850-1880 there are no doctors listed at all, pretty much just stock farmers and seamstresses…and if you’ve ever been on the Seattle Underground Tour then you’d know why I find that immensely funny).
By November 20, 1863 Edmund had moved back to Arkansas. It was that date that he enlisted in the Union Army at Benton, Arkansas. His son George also enlisted on the same day. Edmund’s niece Melissa stayed behind in Texas presumably because she fell in love and married Joseph Hinshaw.
In 1870 Edmund and family are found in District 1, Tunica County, Mississippi living next door to the DeMumbrie family. They are listed as:
Edmund Richards (planter, age 47 years)
George W Richards (superintendent of farm, age 22 years)
Laura Richards (keeping house, age 19 years)
Alice Richards (age 17 years)
Marshall Richards (age 15 years)
Jerome Richards (age 14 years)
In 1880 Edmund is found living in Council Township, Lee County, Arkansas with his daughter Alice. They are listed as:
E Richards (farmer, age 56 years)
Allice Richards (housekeeper, age 21 years)
This census also tells us that Edmund’s father John was born in Virginia and his mother Rhoda was born in North Carolina.
According to Earle Epic, Edmund Richards was buried the first time on October 22, 1890 in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee at Elmwood Cemetery. Then on January 18, 1906 his was moved to Forrest Hill Cemetery in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, I assume to the Richards Family plot (I’m waiting to hear back from the cemetery to tell me).
The children of Edmund Richards and Caroline McQueen are:
George Washington Richards, Esq was born on February 4, 1847 in Crittenden County, Arkansas. I can find no marriage record for him, nor does his obituary mention a spouse. George Washington Richards, Esq died in Tunica County, Mississippi on September 2, 1875 of consumption. I’m not sure what newspaper the obituary appeared in:
“DIED
At the residence of his father, at Alexis, Tunica County, Miss., of consumption on 2nd day of September, 1875, Geo. W. Richards, Esq., age 28 years, 6 months and 28 days.
The subject of this notice has been long afflicted with this dread disease, and though his demise was only a question of time, and hourly anticipated by his friends, and anxiously awaited by the sufferer himself, yet, when the time came, and the brittle thread was snapped, his many friends, and all who knew him were his friends, felt keenly the pangs of grief, and it was hard to realize that one so young, so amiable, so true and pure in all his actions, could not be permitted to remain here an ornament to the world, and a pride to his fond and devoted parents, and his friends and relations. But the ways of Providence are mysterious, and we can but say "Thy will be done."
The subject of this notice was born in Crittenden county, Arkansas, on the 4th day of February, 1847. He died as he had lived, a pure, honest, upright man, and had as fears of the King of Terrors. He was well aware that the time had come, and just before he breathed his last, he bade his friends, who surrounded his bedside, adieu, shaking them by the hands, and begging them to live so as to meet him in a better world. Though young he had been called to fill important trusts and at the time of his death was the only acting Ju
stice of the Peace in district No. 2. Words are inadequate to express the sorrow and grief which his neighbors feel. Suffice it to say all feel that they have lost a friend. None knew him but to love him, but they are consoled with the thought that their loss is his eternal gain.”Lucy Richards was born about 1848 in Crittenden County, Arkansas. She appears only on the 1850 census living with her parents, but she doesn’t appear anywhere after that. I believe she passed prior to 1860, though like her mother, I don’t know when or where (or how). I have no further information.
Laura Richards was born about 1851 in Crittenden County, Arkansas. She is found on the 1860 and 1870 census records. I think she married prior to 1880, possibly in Mississippi, but I am unable to find a record. I have no further information.
Alice E Richards was born August 11, 1853 in Crittenden County, Arkansas. In She married Bluford L Baskett on January 30, 1882 in Memphis Shelby County, Tennessee. Bluford Baskett was a police officer in Memphis before his death in 1907 of nephritis. Alice and Bluford had one child, Jessie, who married Eldran Harvey Rogers. They had at least one child named Alice Rogers. Alice E Richards died on August 3, 1929 of pyelitis. Her nephew Bluford Richards was the informant for her death certificate.
Marshall Richards was born about 1855 in Crittenden County, Arkansas. Though he appears on the 1860 and 1870 census records, he does not appear on any other records. I have no further information.
Jerome Richards (see Part Three of The Richards Epic)
…to be continued!
