Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Richards, Frank 1856 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 25, 2006, 9:55 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

FRANK RICHARDS.

    In the tillers of the soil and the garnerers of the crops have always rested
the main strength and hope of a nation, and the substantial character of any
community is best judged by the personnel of its farming population. Lake county
is particularly well favored in this class of men, and among the more recent
arrivals to swell the enterprising agricultural element is the solid and
substantial citizen Mr. Frank Richards, who is now one of the most active and
intelligent farmers and stockmen of West Creek township.

    Mr. Richards was born in Kankakee county, Illinois, March 12, 1856, being
the eldest of six children, four sons and two daughters, born to William C. and
Mary (Campbell) Richards. He has just one brother living, Samuel, a resident of
Valparaiso. His father was born in Onondaga county, New York, in 1822, and died
in 1875. He was a surveyor by profession, and was educated at Elbridge Academy.
He also followed the vocation of teaching in New York, Indiana and Illinois, and
was always known for his superior intelligence and breadth of mind. He was a
Republican in politics. His wife was a native of Ohio, and she passed away in 1899.

    Mr. Frank Richards was reared on a farm, and his education has been mainly
self-acquired, and he has been the architect of his own fortune. He remained
with his parents, giving them his time and wages, and at the age of twenty-one
he had just a team of horses and a plow as capital for his life career, so that
what he has since made is the result of his own diligence and prudence. He has
had full regard throughout life for the principles of integrity and rectitude,
and he is amply rewarded in the confidence and trust in which he is held by
friends and business associates. He began his farming career as a renter, and
continued so for twenty-one years in the states of Illinois and Indiana, and
during this time he lived comfortably, provided well for his family, and
increased his store of world's profits. In 1901 he purchased one hundred and
eighty-eight acres in West Creek and Cedar Creek townships, and went in debt for
a large amount of the purchase price. During the first year he paid fourteen
hundred dollars on the place in addition to the interest, and in a short time
will own his fine property free of incumbrance, and its possession will be a
fine reward for his life of careful management and industry.

    August 18, 1880, he was married to Miss Alice Ballou, and one daughter, Mary
Ballou, has been born to them, she now being a student in the Lowell high school
and having taken also instrumental music. Mrs. Richards was born in Janesville,
Wisconsin, November 2, 1861, being a daughter of Davillo and Mary (Cutler)
Ballou. She was reared for the greater part of her early years in Galesburg,
Illinois, and received her education in the city schools.

    Mr. and Mrs. Richards located as renters in Lake county in 1888, and have
made their home in the county ever since. The Richards family traces its
ancestry back to the Plymouth Rock Pilgrims. Mr. Richards' father was an
important personage, and was appointed by old Governor Richard Yates as a ditch
or swamp land commissioner in Illinois. He was the oldest in a family of
eighteen children, and was the best educated of them all.

    Mr. Richards is a stanch Republican, and has had no cause to falter in his
allegiance to the party since casting his first presidential vote for Garfield.
Fraternally he is a member of the camp of the Modern Woodmen of America at Lowell.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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