William J. Richardson
The son of two of Macon county's venerated pioneers, and himself subjected
to many of the privations and dangers of a newly settled country, William
J. Richardson, one of the prosperous and progressive farmers of Round Grove
township, is well prepared to realize and rejoice in the improvement and
progress of the county from the state in which he first knew it to its present
advanced development. And if his modesty did not forbid he might also feel
satisfaction over his own part in bringing about the great and gratifying
change. As it is, he rejoices in having had the opportunity to contribute,
even in a small way, as he may think, to what has been achieved.
Mr. Richardson was born in the township in which he now resided on September
21, 1852, and is a son of James and Jane (Grimes) Richardson, natives of
Virginia, who came to Missouri and settle in Macon county in 1834. They were
reared and educated in their native state, where the father was born in 1805,
and were married there in 1832. Buoyed up with high hopes, and of a disposition
to dare anything in the discharge of duty, the young couple, after passing
two years of their married life in the neighborhood of their parental homesteads,
determined to cast their lot in the distant West, where the boundless
opportunities of life were as yet almost untouched. Nor did they hesitate
because the experiment they were about to try was full of peril, and embodied
a surrender of nearly everything they had been accustomed to in the way of
comfort and social enjoyment. They believed in themselves, and in the end
they found their faith fully justified. ON arriving in this county the husband
entered 160 acres of government land in what is now Round Grove township,
and on this he passed the remainder of his days, gradually breaking it up
and improving it until it became a very fruitful, well-improved and valuable
farm, yielding good harvests and other profitable returns for the labor bestowed
upon it and providing all the comforts of a good country home. On this farm
the father died in 1877, after rearing a family to enrich the county and
spending forty-three years of faithful industry upon it. He and his wife
were the parents of seven children, but three of whom are living at this
time. They are Jack J., a resident of Macon county; M.D., who lives in Kansas
City, Missouri; and the interesting subject of these paragraphs. The father
was a Democrat in politics and took an active part in local and general political
work. He died at the age of seventy-two with general recognition of his worth
and estimable qualities as a citizen from all who knew him attending him
to his last earthly resting place.
William J. Richardson obtained a limited education in the primitive country
schools of his boyhood and youth, going to school in the winter and working
on his father's farm during the rest of the year. After leaving school he
continued to work on the farm and assist the family until 1876. During the
next two years he farmed rented land on his own account in this county, and
at the end of that period went to Kansas, where he remained one year. Returning
to Macon county, he passed another summer on the homestead, and during the
twelve succeeding years was located at Clarence and engaged in teaming and
other occupations. In 1897 he came back once more to this county and bought
eighty acres of land, on which he has ever since carried on a flourishing
industry in farming and raising stock.
On June 9, 1876, Mr. Richardson was married to Miss Sarah C. Graves,
a daughter of William R. and Permelia Graves, highly respected citizens of
Macon county, and numbered among its most worthy and progressive people.
Ten children were born to this marriage an five of them are living: Permelia,
the wife of Ira Barton of this county; Mamie, the wife of Geo. W. Bogart
of Kansas City Missouri; and Newton, Nazo, and Cuba, all of who are still
members of the parental household. Following the political principles in
which he was trained at home, and with his convictions strengthened and
established by his own reading, reflection and observation, Mr. Richardson
is a staunch and zealous Democrat, working in all campaigns for the success
of his party, and at all times helping to guide it forward in straight lines
of integrity and fidelity to duty. In religious affiliation he and his wife
are earnest and active working members of the Christian church, seeking by
all means at their command to promote its welfare and enlarge its usefulness.
In social life they stand high, and in a general way they are everywhere
esteemed for their enterprise, usefulness and elevated citizenship, which
has been helpful both in its own activity and in the forces for good it has
awakened and set in motion in others.
|
