SETH RICHARDS

RICHARDS

Posted By: Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert (email)
Date: 1/11/2002 at 20:56:07

Leon Reporter
July l8, l895

SETH RICHARDS, who until recently owned a
good part of the north side of
the square in Leon, and who is well known to
our older residents, having
been engaged here with E.J. CLOSE in the
mercantile business, and with
GEO. T. YOUNG at Mt. Ayr, died last Wednesday
in California.
A dispatch from Ottumwa says: SETH RICHARDS,
Iowa's wealthiest land
owner and an Iowa pioneer, died today at
Oakland, Cal., aged 83. His
wealth is estimated at $6,000,000.

He was born near Amherst, Mass. in l8l2, came
to Fort Madison, Iowa, in
l840, and five years later settled in
Bentonsport, Van Buren County,
transacting a mercantile business. After the
Mexican War he dealt
largely in Mexican Land Grants, realizing
handsomely. MR. RICHARDS made
a specialty of real estate, purchasing
desirable tracts in nearly every
county of Iowa, but only when he could get it
for half its worth.
His property interest in Ottumwa amounted to
nearly $l,000,000,
including several business blocks and 320
acres of unimproved land in
the heart of the city, all of which he
purchased in l849. His death
will throw this property on the market.

MR. RICHARDS moved to California twenty years
ago, on account of his
health, and has since lived there. He was
twice married, his first wife
dying in l846 and his second in l893. He
will be buried probably in
Amherst.

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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
January l0, 2002