Converse County WY Archives Biographies.....Richards, De Forest 1846 - 1903
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/wy/wyfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 July 20, 2008, 9:39 pm

Author: Bowen & Co. (1903)

GOV. DeFOREST RICHARDS.

   When on April 28, 1903, the tolling bells indicated the departure from its
mortal tenement of the ethereal essence of the late Gov. DeForest Richards, a
great commonwealth was enshrouded in gloom. A great man had passed from earth.
The chief executive of a vigorous, important and progressive state had no longer
anything to do with the stirring activities in which he for so long a period had
borne a most conspicuous part, and the mighty commonwealth felt crushed and
paralyzed under the loss of one of its most ardent champions and strongest
friends. All over the broad land thousands upon thousands of people felt a
personal anguish, not only in the loss of the governor of the state, but from
the thought that one of the strongest and truest personal friends of the people
of the whole state had ceased to exist, that his loving words of welcome would
no more greet them, that his sunny smile would never again beam on them, that
his earnest endeavors would never again battle for the people's cause. Xew
England has contributed many notable nun to the country west of the Mississippi
River. The sturdy spirit which rescued New England from the wilderness and the
savage and made it the cradle of civilization on the western hemisphere, has to
a large extent built up the states of the new West. The most energetic and
adventurous of the sons of New England, having in their veins the blood of
centuries of Puritan ancestry, have left the hillsides of their native East and
have come to the rolling plains of the West, bearing with them the controlling
spirit of free institutions which was brought over by the Pilgrims in the
Mayflower. They have planted here in the outposts of civilization the seeds of
full freedom, have beaten back savagery and laid the foundations of great and
prosperous states. A fine type of the stalwart sons of New England who have
written so large a page, not only in the history of America, but of the world,
was lion. DeForest Richards, late governor of Wyoming. No man in the state was
nearer to the hearts of the people and no man better deserved their affection
and respect. Governor Richards was a large man, physically and mentally, and he
possessed all the sterling traits of character of a long line of the best New
England ancestry. A native of Charlestown, N. H., where he was born on August 6,
1846, his ancestors have borne an honored and prominent part in the business and
public life of New England for many generations. The original American emigrants
of the Richards family arrived at Cape God, Mass., in 1630, only ten years after
the historic landing of the Pilgrim fathers at Plymouth and his maternal
ancestors, of the well-known Jarvis family, came to the Massachusetts Bay colony
about 1640. No history of New England can be written without frequent reference
to the achievements of members of these two families during early Colonial times
or during the stormy period culminating in the Revolution. The great-grandfather
of Governor Richards, Dr. Charles Jarvis, was an intimate friend and close
political associate of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, John Adams and Gen. Joseph
Warren, and of others whose achievements are a noble part of the story of
mankind's struggle for liberty. In the contest with the tyranny of King George,
the ancestors of Governor Richards were prominent among those who bore the heat
and burden of that momentous day and won immortal fame in the patriotic service
they rendered to mankind. The maternal grandfather of Governor Richards, William
Jarvis, a son of Dr. Charles Jarvis, was one of the leading men of Massachusetts
for many years, being appointed by President Jefferson in 1802 as consul to the
city of Lisbon, Portugal, and acting charge d'affaires to that kingdom. A man of
progressive ideas, always planning to benefit his own country and the industries
of her people, it was entirely through his efforts that the first Merino sheep
were brought to America from Spain. This qreat service to the sheep and
woolgrowing industries of the nation has been fittingly recognized and
acknowledged in the reports of the agricultural department of the government. In
the report of 1892 occurs this statement: "Consul Jarvis was successful in his
efforts to ameliorate the trouble to which our shipping was subjected. so that
at the commencement of the Peninsular War he secured the immense neutral trade
of the armies engaged in that conflict. It was fortunate also that he possessed
a mind comprehensive enough to see the great advantage to his country of the
acquisition of the Merino sheep, and the energy of character necessary to secure
them. There can be no question that his example in securing some of the best
sheep in Spain, not only for himself, but for others, was a great incentive to
the trade in them that immediately followed, by which so many thousand sheep
were transferred to this country to increase her wealth and encourage her
manufactures of fine woolen goods." The father of Governor Richards was J.
DeForest Richards, a Congregational minister and one of the leading educators of
the United States. In later life he was the president of the Ohio Female
Seminary, at College Hill, Ohio, and afterward president of the Alabama State
University at Tuscaloosa. The Governor's mother, whose maiden name was Harriet
Bartlett Jarvis, is still living at the advanced age of eighty-three years and
is a woman of strong character, whose faculties are as clear as in her younger
days. During his early life, his parents removed from Charlestown to
Weathersfield, Vt. This place is situated on the Connecticut River, just below
the old town of Windsor, where in 1777, the independence of Vermont, then known
as the New Hampshire Grant, was originally declared. Young Richards early
entered the Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden, N. H., where he pursued a
thorough course of study and was graduated with distinction, later becoming for
one year a student of the well-known Phillips Andover Academy of Massachusetts.
In youth he gave promise of the strong and manly character he became in later
years. Thorough in his studies and devoted to his books, he was yet first in all
manly sports, excelling both in the classroom and on the campus. Even when a lad
he was noted as an athlete and his devotion to outdoor sports laid the
foundation of the vigorous health he enjoyed up to recent years. At the close of
the Civil War, in 1865, he accompanied his father to Alabama, where on the
father's plantation in Wilcox county he engaged in raising cotton. After getting
the enterprise fairly started, the father left the plantation in full charge of
his son and returned to his northern home. For three years young Richards ably
conducted the plantation, with varying success. The father in the meantime had
returned to Alabama, and was at the head of the State University for several
years, dying, however, at Mobile in 1872. His estate was found to be so badly
involved that there was practically nothing left for the heirs. In 1867, just
after he had attained his majority, DeForest Richards was elected a member of
the first state legislature of Alabama under reconstruction. In 1868 he was the
sheriff of Wilcox county, and served as such four years. He was then elected
county treasurer and served two terms in that capacity. He then retired from 
politics and engaged in the operation of a tannery, in which he became heavily
involved in debt through no fault of his own. With his sterling honesty he
determined to meet his obligations in full, resolutely set about a
reorganization  of his business and after working day and night at the
shoemaker's bench for two years, he was enabled to pay his debts in full and
have $1,500 as a capital with which he engaged in merchandising at Camden, Ala.,
where by his industry, perseverance and good judgment he built up a large and
profitable trade. In 1885 he decided to remove his residence to Nebraska and
previous to his leaving Camden, the mayor and city council of that place
tendered him a banquet, at which they presented him with a marble statuette,
suitably engraved, with expressions of their regret at his departure and good
wishes for his future welfare. Upon coming to Nebraska, he established himself
in both merchandising and banking at Chadron, and in 1886, he organized the
First National Bank of Douglas, Wyo. he was elected president of the latter
institution, a position which he held until his death. Subsequently he was
elected treasurer of the county of Dawes, Neb., and upon the expiration of his
term of that office, he removed to Douglas, Wyo., where he has since made his 
home. Governor Richards became largely interested  in extensive livestock and
mercantile operations at Douglas, and was the owner of mercantile establishments
at Casper also and other points in northern Wyoming, he was the president of the
Platte Valley Sheep Company and of the Lander Transportation Co., which conducts
very extensive freighting and transportation, employing several hundred teams
and a large number of men, and during 1901 handled over six million pounds of
wool. From these various financial enterprises fortune came to him in no
unstinted measure. Governor Richards was ever a stanch adherent of the
Republican party, one of the ablest and most trusted of its leaders in the
western states. He was a most eloquent champion of the cause of Republicanism in
both state and Nation, foremost in the advocacy of all honorable measures
calculated to promote the welfare of that political organization. During his
residence in Wyoming, Governor Richards held many positions of honor and trust.
He was the mayor of Douglas for one term, from 1891 to 1894 he was the
commanding officer of the State National Guard, he was a member of the
convention that framed the constitution of the state, and a member of the State
Senate in 1892 and 1893. In 1898, he was first nominated and elected governor of
Wyoming, this term of his exalted office expiring on the first Monday of
January. 1903. At the time of his lamented death he was serving in his second
term of office as governor, having been reelected in November, 1902. In 1871,
Governor Richards was united in marriage at Englewood, N. J., with Miss Elise J.
Ingersoll, a native of Alabama, who is of Puritan and Huguenot descent, her
father having been born in Pittsfield, Mass., a member of the famous New England
family of the name, and her mother being a representative of a distinguished
Huguenot family of the Carolinas. She received her education at Camden Female
Institute, one of the most select educational institutions of the southern
states. Two children were born of this union. The son, J. DeForest Richards,
resides at Douglas, Wyo., the vice-president of the First National Bank. The
daughter is married and resides in California. Governor Richards was an honored
member of the Masonic fraternity. He was worshipful master of the Masonic Lodge
at Camden, Ala., an honor not often conferred upon a northern man in that state.
In Wyoming he has served as grand master of the Grand Lodge and belonged to the
Commandery, the Consistory of Scottish Rite Masons and to that Masonic club, the
Mystic Shrine. His funeral services, conducted by the Masonic fraternity, were
the most impressive ever held in Wyoming. Better than any words of ours, the
utterances of those Wyoming people who have known the late Governor long and
well, will portray his nature, character and the position he occupied in public
and private life and in the hearts of the people. The Cheyenne Tribune voices
public sentiment in the following words: "Governor Richards is gone. This great
man, who has done so much for Wyoming. has passed beyond, yet how truly it can
be said : 'His works will follow him.' The loss to the state of a man of such
sterling worth is indeed a public calamity. That loving hand which was ever
extended to aid the deserving is forever helpless, yet how sweet will be the
remembrance of those who have been blessed by that hand with deeds prompted by
the noblest of hearts. In the death of Governor Richards Wyoming has lost one of
its most ardent champions. Not only within its borders have his good words,
deeds and influence been felt, but in his travels, which have been of wide
scope, the state of which he was chief executive was ever brought to the front;
and how unselfishly he performed his good work, spending his time and money in
traversing the country to tell the people of its great resources and advantages.
He loved success, and what an example of success his life has been. Beginning in
a humble way, he fought life's battles manfully, and how beautifully he has
shown to the world what crowning there is in honest, steadfast, noble effort,
backed by unswerving character. As a friend Governor Richards was loyal, ever.
No truer friend ever lived. One of the gems in his lovable character was his
loyalty to his friends against all possible influences. This is one of the
grandest tests of manhood. All hearts are sad, very sad, today." The following
was written by an individual fully competent to justly estimate the life,
services and character of the distinguished gentleman who so courteously and
ably filled every station in life to which he was called, domestic, civic,
social, state or national: "The state mourns. Death has removed its chief
executive, but the grief, which is felt as keenly in the remotest hamlet as in
the capital city, springs not so much from the tidings that the Governor is dead
as from the realization that DeForest Richards is no more. The people's grief is
that of friends for a friend, to those who knew him the greatness of this man as
director of the commonwealth palls before the nobility of his life as a private
citizen; in the hour of his soul's departure we grieve for DeForest Richards,
who honored, was not honored, by the title of chief executive. Death has taken
him away, but the memory of his beautiful character can not die. As governor he
was a statesman, a rare combination, but his character as a man was rarer still;
he was one of the few of each generation who love, and are loved, by all
mankind. Death came to him softly while his devoted wife and daughter were at
his side. His son, himself sick in a city a thousand miles away, was unable to
be present."


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF THE STATE OF WYOMING

ILLUSTRATED

A people who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors, will
never achieve anything worthy to he remembered with pride by remote
generations.—.MACAULAY.

CHICAGO, ILL.
A. W. BOWEN &CO.
PUBLISHERS AND ENGRAVERS
1903


Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/wy/converse/photos/bios/richards5gbs.jpg

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wy/converse/bios/richards5gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wyfiles/

File size: 15.2 Kb