Biographies
For
Muscatine County Iowa
1889



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 165

HON. J. SCOTT. RICHMAN, of the law firm of Richman and Burke of Muscatine, Iowa was born at Somerset, Perry Co., Ohio, on the 11th of March, 1820, and is a son of Rev. Evert and Mary ( Scott ) Richman. He is of Holland and English descent. On his father's side the history of the family in America dates back to 1750, when his great-grandfather emigrated from Holland to the great colony of his countryman at New York. His son, John Ryckman, the grandfather of our subject, was born in Hackensack, N. J., March 11, 1767. He was a cabinet-maker by trade and was engaged in that line in New York City. The family name was then written after the Holland fashion, "Ryckman," a style of orthography preserved by one branch of the family. John Ryckman subsequently returned to New Jersey, and engaged in the tanning and leather business at Paterson, where he accumulated considerable property. In the early settlement of Ohio he emigrated to that State, locating near Zanesville, where his death occurred January, 1842, at the ripe old age of seventy-five years.

Evert Richman, his son, and the father of our subject, was born in New Jersey in 1791, and received superior educational advantages for those early days. He was qualified for the ministry, and was ordained as an Elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church, serving in that capacity for several years. He wedded Miss Mary Scott, a daughter of Jacob and Esther Scott, who was born in Bensalem, Bucks Co., Pa., and was of English and Holland descent. Her mother bore the genuine Holland name of Van Zant. Mrs. Richman was a woman endowed with many excellencies of character and superior intelligence; she possessed great force of character, a religious zeal of the practical sort, and was faithful and earnest in the care of her children. Mr. Richman continued in the ministry but a few years, when the numerous demands of an increasing family made it necessary that he should seek more remunerative employment. He entered upon the study of law and served several years as Clerk of the Ohio House of Representives, and was afterward Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Perry County, but was never admitted to the bar. He was a man of studious habits and possessed intellectual faculties of a high order. His interest in public affairs was manifested by numerous contributions from his pen to the press on current political and social topics. The Masonic fraternity claimed him as a prominent member, and he took rank as a Knight Templar. His death occurred in 1828, in the thirty-seventh year of his age, and his funeral was conducted by his Masonic bretheren, who erected a fine monument to his memory.

Soon after her husband's death, Mrs. Richman with her family of little ones, numbering six sons and one daughter, returned to her old home in Bucks County, Pa., where she provided a home for her children and reared them to habits of industry and morality, giving them such advantages of education as the country schools of those days afforded. She subsequently came to Muscatine, Iowa, where he death occurred in 1873, in her seventy-seventh year. She lived to see her children useful and honored members of society, and their success in life was the solace of her declining years. She died in the enjoyment of their deepest love and veneration.

J. Scott Richman passed his youth on a farm in Bucks County, Pa., where his mother made her home, and attended the subscription schools during the winter months until fourteen years of age, when he engaged as clerk in a country store, continuing in that employment until he was eighteen. He then started westward, stopping a short time at Knoxville, Ill., where he began the study of law, but in the summer of 1839 came to Muscatine, Iowa, where his elder brother John W., resided, and was engaged in the wholesale grocery business. His brother was one of the oldest settlers of the city, and one of its most prominent business men in those early days. He was never married, and his death occurred in 1850. Our subject pursued his law studies at Muscatine, was admitted to the bar in September, 1839, and engaged in the practice of his profession at Rochester, Cedar Co., Iowa, until the removal of the county seat to Tipton, when he transferred his office to that town, but practiced there but a short time. Returning to Muscatine in the fall of 1840, Mr. Richman began business in the city by froming a law partnership with Hon.S. C. Hastings, afterward a member of Congress. That connection continued with marked success until 1847, when Mr. Hastings was appointed to the bench of the Supreme Court of Iowa. From that date until 1855 Mr. Richman was alone in his practice, and succeeded in establishing a very satisfactory business, but in that year he formed a law partnership with his younger brother, DeWitt C., late judge of the Second Circuit of the Seventh District, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Under the firm name of Richman & Bro., they built up an extensive practice and became one of the leading law firms in the State.

Our subject was a Whig in early life, and though not a politician in the ordinary acceptation of the term, he won prominence in public affairs as he advanced in years. In 1846 he was chosen of member of the convention that framed the first constitution adopted by the citizens of Iowa, and a year later was chosen Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives. In 1856 he allied himself with the Republican party, with which he has since been prominently identified. That same year he served as a member of the Legislature in special session, acting on several important committees. The law partnership with his brother D. C., was terminated in 1863 by the election of Mr. Richman to the bench of the Seventh Judicial District, which comprised the counties of Muscatine, Scott, Clinton, and Jackson. He was re-elected at each succeeding election and served nine years, or until May, 1872, when he resigned, and resumed the practice of his profession at Davenport in company with E. E. Cook, under the firm name of Cook & Richman. The new firm soon secured an extensive practice, and was in successful operation until 1880, when it dissolved and Judge Richman returned to Muscatine. After his arrival in this city he formed a law partnership with J. J. Russell and W. D. Burke, under the name of Richman, Burke & Russell, that connection continuing until April, 1886, when Mr. Russell withdrew to accept the Postmastership at Muscatine, since which time the firm has been Richman & Burke.

At Knoxville, Ill., on the 16th of November, 1842, Judge Richman was united in matrimony with Miss Calista Ann Hannaman, a daughter of R. L. Hannaman, and a native of Noblesville. Ind. Four children were born of their union, three sons and one daughter. Mary, the eldest died at the age of two years; Evert F. is a practicing attorney of Muscatine; Clayton S. is a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, and one son died in infancy. Mrs. Richman, an estimable lady, although for many years an invalid, lived to rear her children to manhood, but died in February, 1878.

Judge Richman is one of the pioneer Masons of Iowa, and is a member of Iowa Lodge No.2, A.F.&.A.M., of Muscatine. As a jurist, he has won a prominent place among his brothers of the Iowa bar. While on the bench he was distinguished for the fairness and impartiality of his rulings, and his quick perceptive knowledge of the correct application and meaning of quoted authorities. One of his peculiarities seems to be the possession of latent mental force, on which he can always depend in cases of emergency to tide him over difficulties. Another invaluable faculty he possesses in a remarkable degree is that of coolness and self-control when annoyed or provoked. Circumstances that often arise in the practice of the legal profession that would naturally excite and anger many a man to an exhibition of temper which would place him at a disadvantage, have no apparent effect upon the tranquility of the Judge, while beneath the surface his feelings may be roused to their fullest intensity. Judge Richman has been in active practice in his profession in Iowa for nearly fifty years, which includes nine years on the bench, and is the oldest in years of service of the members of the Muscatine County Bar. During all these years he has had the respect and esteem of his friends and acquaintances, and in the great future his descendants may refer with natural pride to him as the founder of their family in the Great West.

Every patron of this work, and all who peruse its pages, will be pleased to see the excellent portrait of the Judge on another page.


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