Sacramento County
Biographies
JOHN
RICHARDS
JOHN RICHARDS was born in Cornwall, England, August 20, 1826, his parents being Charles and Honor (Warner) Richards. The father was a miner of metals - tin, lead, copper and silver, and also occupied a small farm. John received due initiation in both lines of work, and when he came to the United States in 1845 he naturally sought the lead mines of Wisconsin, seventeen miles from Galena, Illinois. When the gold fever broke out in 1848, he started with three fellow-miners and six ox teams for the new El Dorado. At St. Joe they were joined by three other young adventurers, having each one ox team. They left St. Joe April 7, 1849, and arrived at Dutch Flats on September 9, of the same year, and went to mining without delay. Mr. Richards struck a good claim; and took out $5,000 in six weeks. In his find was one nugget worth $252. In 1851 he went East, mainly for the purpose of getting married, and having happily fulfilled that errand he invested his money in cattle, which he drove across the plains with the help of seven men, in 1853. He purchased the squatter right of one McHenry for $1,500, but afterward relinquished it under the advice of John P. Rhoads rather than contest the Mexican grant to the Sheldon ranch, in which it was included. The administrator of the Sheldon estate, Mr. Gunn, obtained judgment against others, and he preferred to save the cost of litigation. In 1855 he bought nearly 500 acres of the same estate which he still holds, and afterward about 1,000 acres of Government land. He still owns some quartz mines in Amador County and has been from the first more or less interested in mining operations. About 250 acres of his ranch are bottom lands on the Cosumnes. He raises various kinds of fruit, but mainly for home use only, besides the usual grain crops and some cattle. Mr. Richards was married November 17, 1851, to Miss Elizabeth Mitchell, born January 31, 1830, the daughter of Joseph Mitchell, a farmer of Lafayette County, Wisconsin. They are the parents of ten children, of whom two died in infancy and eight are living: Ellen Alrena, born November 2, 1852, now the wife of Mr. Lafayette Miller, teacher of the school near Cosumnes postoffice; Emily Jane, born November 26, 1854, now the wife of Alexander Milne, for thirteen years foreman in the office of the San Francisco Bulletin; Annie Sophia, born February 8, 1837, now Mrs. Henry Band, of San Francisco; Lizzie Viola, born March 4, 1861, now Mrs. William A. Johnston, Jr.; Charles Joseph, born May 30, 1863; John Lincoln, August 22, 1865; Mary Hattie, January 31, 1868, now Mrs. E. A. Platt; William Freeman, December 22, 1870. Mr. And Mrs. Richards made one trip East, with the Pioneer Society in 1869.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of
Sacramento County, California. Pages 608-609. Lewis
Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.