- HAMILTON RICHARDSON, was born in the town of Le Roy, N.Y.,
Oct. 17, 1820; his
- parents were farmers in comfortable circumstances, and his
educational advantages as good as could be furnished by the country
schools of the day; when only 15 years of age, he entered the
service of a mercantile firm and became a member of the family
of one of its partners, a personal friend of his father's and
a most accomplished business man, with whom he emigrated to the
State of Michigan, which had just been admitted into the Union;
most of the State of Michigan was at that time literally a wilderness;
its small population was located upon its southern border, but
the firm with which young RICHARDSON was engaged, plunged into
the depths of the forest and commenced the building of what is
now the city of Flint, one of the most beautiful and prosperous
of that rich and prosperous State. They laid out a large part
of the city, built the first dam across the Flint River, erected
the first saw-mill upon its banks, and were the first to establish
a mercantile house in the county of which that city is the capital;
their business, which included banking, was for a time prosperous,
but they were overtaken by the financial storm of 1837, and the
following year went into bankruptcy. From the day of the establishment
until the final closing-up of their business, young RICHARDSON
enjoyed the confidence of his employers, and, to a large extent,
participated with them in the management of all their affairs,
and thus, at an age when most men commence their practical education,
he had, as it were, graduated by passing through all the grades
of establishing, conducting and finally closing a varied and
extensive business; the panic of 1837, belongs to the financial
history of the country, and there are few men now engaged in
business who have personal knowledge of it; Mr. RICHARDSON is
one of the few, and to the lesson taught by experience during
that crisis, he is probably indebted for the fair share of success
which has attended his business efforts through life. In the
year 1840, Mr. RICHARDSON returned to the State of New York and
renewed his studies at the academy in his native place, but he
was too much imbued with the Western spirit to long endure the
quiet of an Eastern town, and, in the spring of 1842, he again
turned his face westward and located in Milwaukee, where he found
employment as book-keeper in one of the largest commercial houses
in the place; in the year 1844, he established himself in the
hardware trade in the village of Racine, but not meeting with
the success which he anticipated there, in the spring of 1846,
he removed to Janesville, and soon took rank among the most active
and successful business men in the place; with a view to enlarging
his business, in 1850, Mr. RICHARDSON, in connection with Mr.
TRUESDELL, erected the Excelsior (now Baner & Hodson's) Mills,
but this proved an unfortunate speculation, for the property
was first nearly destroyed by fire and then by flood; the country,
too, was suffering from a general stagnation of business, caused
by succession of bad crops, and Mr. RICHARDSON resolved to try
a new field for enterprise, and in the fall of 1851, removed
to California and located at Marysville, at the head of navigation
on the Feather River, at that time a place of great commercial
importance; he there established a house for the supply of the
mountain traders, and for four years did a large and successful
business; in the prosecution of this trade he made extensive
trips through the mountains, and thus became familiar with the
mining operations; on one of those journeys, he fell into the
hands of a portion of Joaquin's band of highwaymen, by whom he
was robbed and narrowly escaped the fate which befell so many
of these celebrated freebooter's victims; while residing in California,
Mr. RICHARDSON helped to organize and was Secretary and Treasurer
as well as one of the largest stockholders, of a line of river
steamers which was built and managed expressly to resist the
extortions of one of the greatest monopolies ever attempted upon
any of the inland waters of this country; the success of the
new line was perfect and the great monopoly with its millions
of capital, was forced to surrender; returning to Janesville
in 1856, Mr. RICHARDSON again became a citizen of Rock County,
and since that time has been identified with various business
interests in the city. In 1858, he was married to Miss Caroline
A. PEASE, daughter of the late Judge Lorrain T. PEASE, of Hartford,
Conn., and with his bride traveled extensively in Europe during
that and the following year; in 1873, he again visited Europe
and made an extensive tour. In politics, Mr. RICHARDSON was never
a violent partisan; he was identified with the Democratic party
until the war of the rebellion; in 1864, he was elected to the
Legislature by the united Republican and War Democratic vote,
and has since been an active member of the Republican party;
in 1868, he was elected a County Commissioner and a member of
the Committee on Public Buildings which erected Rock County's
beautiful Court House, and was twice afterward elected a member
of the Board of County Supervisors; in 1876, he was elected a
member of the Senate, and again in 1878. During the war, Mr.
RICHARDSON contributed largely of time and means; he was one
of a committee of three which raised the 13th W.V.I., and served
actively on nearly every committee organized for war purposes,
in the city of Janesville.
-
- Taken from "The History of Rock County, Wis."
(c)1879, pp. 719-720.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|