Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 731
HON. GEORGE RICHARDSON

Hon. George RICHARDSON (Portrait), one of the pioneers of the county, came in July 1857, and settled on the farm he now occupies. When he came all was wild prairie, and game was plentiful for many years. At first he erected a log house 16x24 feet, in which he lived until the autumn of 1868, and then built his present commodious residence, having to haul all the material from Council Bluffs. The house is 30x40 feet, with an addition 16x30 feet. Some of the lumber in this building cost our subject $100 per thousand. In 1873 he built a barn 18x20 feet, and has since built another barn 46x80 feet, with eighteen-foot posts. His present home farm consists of five hundred acres, and he also has another five hundred acre tract, partly in Cincinnati and partly in St. John's Townships, and still this is not the extent of his landed estate, for he has a farm of one hundred acres on section 1, of Cincinnati Township, and one of the same size on section 3, a quarter section in one tract in Taylor Township, besides forty acres of timber land. All of these farms are under cultivation and well stocked. Great must be the contrast in our subject's mind, when he reflects back to the time when he came the county, when all was a prairie wilderness, and his neighborhood only had four families. When they were in search of their cattle, unless near by, they could not observe them on account of the rank growth of prairie grass, which rose and fell like the waves of the ocean. For three years they had no schools, but at that time the neighbors combined and built a log school house which served the district for eight years. Mrs. BOWMAN was the first teacher who taught in this building, which was also used for religious services.

Ox-teams were all the go in those days, and if a man possessed a horse-team he was looked upon as "puttin on style" and could hardly be tolerated. But today Harrison County produces as fine horses as can be found in the United States, and a yoke of oxen is indeed a strange sight, and they are looked upon with as much curiosity now-a-days, as the Italian with his cinnamon bear.

Politically, Mr. RICHARDSON is a Republican, and has held most of the local offices in his township, including Trustee and member of the School Board. At the general election in 1881, he was elected on the Republican ticket a member of the Legislature, which position he filled with credit to himself and constituents. To represent a district like this, was one of much more responsibility, than it would have been at the time our subject came to the county.

Mr. RICHARDSON was born in Dumfrieshire, Scotland, June 14, 1833, and remained at home until 1852, when he went to Middlesex County, Canada, where he spent five years laboring on a farm, at the end of which time he came to Harrison County, Iowa.

Miss Ann COULTHARD, became his wife in February, 1855. They were married in Canada, and reared a family of thirteen children--Margaret J., born July 19, 1856; Mary A., October 4, 1858; Janet D., November 1, 1861; Agnes, June 10, 1864; Harriet L., September 9, 1866; Robert F, December 11, 1868; William L., February 1, 1871; Carrie D., April 4, 1873; George Wallace, February 2, 1875; Zellie M., February 22, 1877; Nellie V., February 29, 1879; David a., March 24, 1882; Nina M., February 12, 1885. These children are all living.

Mrs. Ann (COULTHARD) RICHARDSON, was born in Middlesex County, Canada, January 29, 1841, and remained at home until the date of her marriage.

Francis RICHARDSON, the father of our subject, was born in Scotland, and there spent his life. He died at the age of seventy six years in 1868. His wife, Margaret (COULTHARD) RICHARDSON was also a native of Scotland, dying in that country in 1859, when she was about fifty years of age. They were the parents of ten children, of whom our subject as the seventh. The RICHARDSON family have always been identified with the Presbyterian Church.

When our subject cam to the county it was little else than a wilderness. He came by rail to St. Louis, and from there up the Missouri by steamboat. He has seen all kinds of prices for farm produce in the last third of a century. He has seen the panic prices of 1857, and the war prices of 1865. He has hauled corn to Council Bluffs and sold it at fifteen cents per bushel. When the Union Pacific Railroad was being built from Omaha West, he furnished large quantities of ties, which were rafted down the river to Omaha. By the possession of such a large quantity of land, the question very naturally would arise, as to whether our subject came here with plenty of means or not. The answer may be found in the statement that he brought $500 in money with him, and through his business ability, has caused it to increase to his present handsome competency.

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