GEORGE
CLEMENT RICHARDS
(From Sullivan County
History ‑1884)
Biographical Sketches page
#777 ‑ 778
George
C.
Richards, proprietor
of the Curryville Coal Company established in 1866, and located on the
Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad near Shelburn. The company has forty‑two
acres of surface and 120 acres of mineral land, the shaft being situated in the
center, value, $25,000. The depth of
the shaft to first vein is 185 feet, which vein has been worked extensively; it
is about four feet thick. From this vein to the lower vein it is about forty
six feet which is six feet in thickness, good quality coal. Employ about sixty
men working the lower vein, producing 100 tons per day. Ventilation is by a large steam fan. Since
the new company has been operating,
they have sunk a new shaft for ventilation.
The company has all the modern appliances for mining, hoisting and
shipping their product, which is of excellent quality, and supplies the markets
of Vincennes, Mt. Vernon, Terre Haute, Paris,
Illinois and Chicago.
Mr. Richards was born in England,
in the town of Asby, January 31, 1842. He followed mining about twenty‑eight
years in his native country, and at the age of twenty took the position of a
Superintendent of mines, aftward becoming the Chief Superintendent. In 1872, Parliament passed a law making it
obligatory for all mine Superintendents to pass an examining board of engineers
and mining experts, which examination Mr. Richards passed honorably end
creditably. In 1879, he landed in New York, but soon after located at Shelburn,
where be has remained and is now, as stated conducting his business.
The mine is owned by Richards
and Woolley. Our subject married in England to Miss Sarah Street,
daughter of StreetBenjamin Benjamin and Elizabeth (Rowbotham)
Street,
and from their union have been born nine children; Edith
F., George
H., Frank
W., Bernard
J., Francis (this is error, should be Florence
A), Clement
J., and RichardsViolet Violet, living; and Francis
M. and Barry
B., deceased.
From
information given ‑
Regina (Hill) Brownson
ON
THE RICHARDS FAMILY: Nov. 1979
Written by Joan
(Woolley) Guess:
Clement
Richards, a brother
to my great‑grandmother moved to Terre
Haute at 105 South Center Street. This was apparently after the
Currysville Mine was worked out and the new mine at St. Mary's was opened. After Clement's
death, RichardsViolet Violet kept the home. Regina
(Hill) Brownson lived in this home after her grandparents passed away. Charles Grey also lived in Violet's
home until he re‑married. He died
in 1952. (read more on the Grey family following).
Clement had six children: RichardsHoward Howard, Edith,
Frank,
Florence,
Clem and RichardsViolet Violet. When the Richards'
moved to Terre Haute, Florence
was teaching at Shelburn. She later taught at Bloomington and then at Wiley in
Terre Haute where she retired just before Wiley was closed down.
Young Clem was a senator and was on
the committee for the "George Rogers Clark Memorial". .
Per: Regina (Hill)
Brownson)An interview in 1981 at Terre Haute;
SARAH
ANN (STREET‑WARD)
RICHARDS, Clement's wife came from
Sheffield, England. She had a son named Harry Ward from a previous marriage in
England. When Harry
was 18 years old, he fell in the mine and died. He was buried at Little Flock
Cemetery in Shelburn and his body was
later moved to a place next to parents, Clement
and Sarah,
at Highland Lawn Cemetery, Terre Haute, Indiana.
Sarah and Clement
met with a tragic death. In 1914 they planned a trip back to England to visit
their relatives. Regina
remembers very clearly, their visit to the Kirk
home, just a week before they sailed. Regina
was 14 years old at the time and living with her grand‑parents, Richard & Sarah
(Richards) Kirke.
They were most anxious and excited about the trip. Sarah
had made several small bags in which she was going to hide her valuables. She had planned to fill them and pin them to
her undergarments.
They planned to take with them on the trip,
Madge and little
Mary
Grey. Madge
was the wife of
Charles
Grey, a nephew to Sarah
by her first marriage. Charles
had come to America to work above the mines. Their little daughter, Mary
was only five years old and had beautiful long curls.. All were very home‑sick
to make this voyage to England.
Then:
FROM ENCYCLOPAEDIA
BRITTANICA, Vol 20, Page 547,
Some Major Steamship
Disasters" "copyrighted 1965.
Date Name Flag
1914 Empress of Ireland British
Circumstances of loss: The most serious collision of the
first half of the 20th Century was that between this Canadian‑Pacific
ship and a Norwegian collier in the St. Lawrence in the fog. The Empress sank
with the loss of over 1,000 lives.
On May 28, 1914 the Empress of Ireland sailed with Clement,
Sarah, Madge Grey and little Mary
aboard. The ship was going from the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic
Ocean.. There it was struck by a coal barge and sunk.. Sarah's
body floated to shore immediately. All with her bags of valuables. All she had
on was her undergarments. Three weeks
later, Clement's
body was found by divers.
He was pinned beneath some
dining room chairs. Madge
Grey and little Mary's
bodies were never found.
In 1933 when Regina
made her first trip to England, there was fear in her heart that she and her
daughter Patti,
might drown also.
In 1949, Regina visited CotgraveLizzie
Lizzie
Cotgrave in Kidney Park, England (Lizzie
is possibly a relative, unknown here), and Lizzie
gave this information during their visit together. In reference to the "Empress Shipwreck", "the
Lusitania went down in 1912, the Empress sunk in 1914, and Starchard,
the captain of the collier, "Storstad", was found guilty of sinking two more ships after the
"Empress of Ireland." He had represented a German company and was
told to stand by with coal barge. He
continued on and closed the gap and the Empress struck him. This Captain Starchard
was later shot in the Tower of London.
Another product of the disasters of World War I.
A beautiful pipe organ was given to the Baptist Church in
Terre Haute, in commemoration of Clement and Sarah
Richards. It was the most elaborate in the country at that
time.
The Terre Haute Tribune one
cent May 29, 1914 ‑ Terre
Haute, IN.
SEA TRAGEDY ‑ NEAR
1,000 DIED
EXTRA
Local people on board ship ‑ Mr. and Mrs. George
C. Richards and Mrs.
C. J. Gray and daughter sailed on the Empress of Ireland.
Terre Hautean Is President of Lower Vein Goal Co.
Friday, May 29, 1914
EXTRA
Giant Vessel ripped In Two In Darkness & Goes To
Bottom: Only few of 1,437 persons aboard Empress of Ireland live to tell of
horrors of disaster in St. Lawrence:
VESSEL SINKS IN TWENTY
MINUTES
Many notables among those to
perish and many of the survivors suffer severe injuries: Terre Hautean is
President of Lower Vein Coal Company ‑ Operates Mines Across River Near
Big Four, and was on way with wife for visit to old home:
BULLETIN
Just before noon Friday a dispatach was received
from Rimouski, Quebec, stating that seven Indiana passengers on board the Empress of Ireland, including the four
local persons, had been rescued, but later word was that this report had not
been confirmed and that while the Terre Hauteans might be among the survivors
there was nothing to positively establish that fact.
TERRE HAUTEAN WHO WITH HIS
FAMILY, WAS ON ILL-FATED OCEAN LINER ‑
Friday May 29, 1914
A telegram, received at the office of the Richards Coal
Co., in the Opera House Block, at 9:30 Friday morning from the steamship agent
at Chicago, announced that all persons on the boat were safe:
Terre Haute had four passengers on the ill-fated ship,
Empress of Ireland, in the persons of Mr. and Mrs. George
C. Richards, 1401 South Center Street: Mrs. Charles
J. Gray and the latter’s daughter, Mary
Winford Gray, 4 years old.
Mrs. Gray
is a niece of Mr. Richards
and is connected with the coal company, which Mr. Richards
is president. The party left here on May 18th and ended on the Empress of Ireland
from Quebec Thursday for a trip to
England, Mr. Richard’s
old home.
George
C. Richards who is president of the Lower Vein Coal Co., which operated mines
across the river near the Big Four railway, is a native of England, where he
was born in 1843. He came to this
country in 1879 after working in the mines in of his native land, and taking a
course of geology and minerology in the Bristol school of Mines. He first
located in Farmersburg and since then has been connected with various
successful coal mining enterprises, including the New Pittsburgh mines in
Sullivan County with Which he was connected for more than twenty‑years, a
portion of the time as superintendent.
Mrs. Richards,
who has accompanied her husband on a visit to her old home in England, was a Miss Street, daughter of
Dr. Benjamin
Street, veterinary surgeon of Sheffield, England. They are the parents of Bernard
J., George
H., and Clem
J.
Richards, all associated with their father in the Lower Vein
Mines, Mrs. Emil
J. Yansky, Mrs. Violet
Filson and Miss Florence
Richards who is a member of the city school force.
Richards
is the father‑in‑law of Emil Yansky, who was shot several days
ago by Mrs. Lane
Robertson. Richards was delayed several
days by this accident, but for which he would have taken another boat beside
the Empress of Ireland.
FRONT PAGE ‑ 29 May
1914 ‑‑Severe Injuries, several Fatal:
RIMOUSKI, MAY 29‑Probably more than a thousand lives and surely not less than 700,
were lost when the great Canadian-Pacific Liner, Empress of Ireland sank before
dawn today In the St. Lawrence River, ripped open amidship to stern by the
Danish Collier Storstad. (MORE CAN BE
FOUND - MICRO-FILM OF NEWSPAPER, AT VIGO COUNTY, IND. LIBRARY, TERRE HAUTE,
INDIANA)
MINING - VIGO COUNTY,
INDIANA
From The History of Vigo
County, Indiana
Richards & Sons.
The well-known and highly respected coal operating firm of Richards
& Sons, of Terre Haute, is the out-growth of the energy and ability of George
C. Richards and his sons, George
H., C.
J., Frank
W., and RichardsB. J. B. J. Richards. George
C. Richards, father and founder of the company, was born in
Nottinghamshire, England in 1842. He
was educated in the Bristol School of Mining, from which he was graduated in
1873. He immediately took charge of the
Bristol Collieries Company, with which firm he was associated until 1879. At that time he was persuaded by his
brother, RichardsH. H. H. H. Richards, to come to the United
States, and, believing that here he would find greater opportunities for
advancement, he did so. Coming to Terre
Haute, he soon became widely known for his knowledge of coal mining, and in
1880, was chosen by Josephus
Collett, administrator of the Chauncey Rose estate, to
examine a mine at a place known as Currysville, about half a mile north of
Shelburn, Indiana. When the examination
was completed, Mr. Collett
suggested that Mr. Richards
buy the mine and pay for it in monthly installments. Mr. Richards,
knowing that this would be a sound purchase, took over the mine, and operated
it until 1886. In that year he
organized the New Pittsburgh Coal & Coke Company in partnership with
Chicago capitalists. The mine of this
company was situated near Coalmont, Indiana, and was operated by Mr. Richards
for one year, when he purchased the Lyonton mine in Sullivan county,
Indiana. He worked this mine until 1890
when he bought the Shelburn Coal Company’s property at Shelburn, Indiana. In 1894, misfortune came to him at the
outset of this venture in the form of a money panic and he lost everything he
had. From 1895 to 1899 he was employed
as a traveling salesman for a Chicago coal firm. In 1899, Richards & Sons was organized by Mr. Richards
and his son, George
H., with the former as president and general manager and the
latter as vice-president of this firm until the time of his death in 1914. In 1903, Richards & Sons became
associated in the organization of the Deep Vein Coal Company, which they sold in
1905. George
C. Richards took an active part in the Indiana Coal Operators
Association, and in its dealings with the United Mine Workers. He was associated in this organization with J.
Smith Talley,
Joseph
Martin, Job
Freeman, A.
M. Ogle, Phillip
Penna and others, all men of the “old school” of operators. George
C. Richards was one of the most active workers for the best
interests of the mining industry, and was instrumental in making the cost of
coal production stable.
On May 30, 1914, at the age of seventy-two years, Mr. Richards
and his wife Sarah
(Street) Richards were on the “Empress of Ireland” on their
way to visit their old home in England when another ship collided with that
vessel in the St. Lawrence River, and Mr. and Mrs. Richards
were lost.
Frank
W. Richards entered the firm in 1902 and in the following
year C.
J. And B. J. Richards were taken in,
and they are now the owners of the Richards & Sons Company. B.
J. Richards is general manager of the Willow Creek Coal
Company and the Birchwood Coal Company, George
H. Richards
is general manager of the Lower Vein Coal Company, and C.
J. Richards is general manager of the Yankee Branch Coal
Company. In 1921, the General Fuel
Company was organized with C. J. Richards as general
manager. Frank
W. Richards was born November 3, 1874, at Woodhouse, England, and came to this
country with his parents in 1880, living with them at Shelburn, this state,
where his father operated a mine. In
1888, he moved to Terre Haute with his father, and in about 1902 was taken into
the firm of Richards & Sons, whose offices were first in the Grand Opera House Block and are now
in the Citizens Trust Building.
After the death of George
C. Richards , his son George
H. Became president,
C.
J. Richards vice-president and Frank
W. Richards secretary and treasurer.
B.
J. Richards is also a member of the firm. George
H. Richards was born May 11, 1873 at Bristol, England, and
came to this country with his father and mother when he was six years old. He entered the public schools, but when he
was nine years old, began working in the old Currysville mine. In 1884, his brother, Harry (Ward) was killed in this mine,
that being before the law was enacted protecting miners by requiring gates at
the top of the mine.
George
H. Richards is married, and his fraternal associations
include membership in the Masonic Order, in which he is both a York and
Scottish Rite Mason. He is a member of
the Ancient Aragbic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, the Knights of Pythias,
the Travelers Protective Association and the Terre Haute Chamber of
Commerce. All the brothers are
well-known in lodge circles, being Elks, Masons and with the exception of C.
J. Richards, Knights of Pythias.
FROM: TERRE HAUTE TRIBUNE
Monday, June 5, 1922 (Page
2)
JACOB
JONES
Jacob
Jones, 75 years old, a veteran of the Civil War, died Sunday
afternoon at the home of a relative near Riley, Indiana. The body was taken to
Gillis Chapel and will be taken to Paris, Illinois for burial after the funeral
Tuesday. He is survived by a brother, Samuel
P. Jones of Chrisman, Illinois; three nephews, George
and Charles
Scott of Terre Haute and Richard
Neukem (Newcom) and three nieces, Eugenia
Scott, Mrs. Wishard of Paris, and Mrs. Frank
Pain of Scotland, Illinois.
The funeral will be held from Gillis Chapel at 2:30
o'clock Tuesday and will be conducted under the uspices of GAR.
Note: Son of Richard
Y and Nancy (Cunningham) Jones,
Grandson of Jacob
and Mary
Jane (Yeatton) Jones of Maine to Edgar County, Illinois.
Joan
(Woolley) Guess sent the above in October 95'. She also sent
copies of pages from 'The Roster of the General Society of the War of 1812
(1989)', compiled and edited by Dennis F. Blizzard. from the Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois:
Ancestor # 2014 RICHARD
YEATON JONES Members # 2665 Benaiah
Jayne
History of Vigo Co., IN -
Bradsby, H.C.
Page 309 County Attorney, 1868, John
T. Scott
Page 341 Partnership in law with Horace
S. Jones, 15 yrs - Jones was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Dec. 14, 1841, died Jan 24, 1890.
Married Rebecca
Ellen Jones, born Nov 18, 1827, died Dec 28, 1916. Daughter of
Richard Y. & Nancy (Cunningham) Jones of Yorke Co., ME.
and later into Edgar Co., IL.
Page 347 1857 - John
W. Jones, Jude of the Common Pleas Court.
Page 395 1868 - Judge of Common Pleas court,
defeated by David
H. Maxwell by 11 votes.
Page 399 Democrats National Convention at Baltimore
- 1872 Judicial Convention nominated John
T. Scott of Vigo for common pleas judge.
Page 402 1873 - Democrats nominated J.
T. Scott for mayor.
Thomas (R) 1,324 votes - Scott 1,262 votes.
Pages 447-450
John
T. Scott - Election 1885 - 1888-89 Park Commissioner -
secretary.
Page 567 Vigo Co., IN 1870
Census
Scott, John C. 39 m/w Judge
Probate Court KY
“
Rebecca 40 f/w Keeping House IL
“
Sallie 14 f/w attending
school IN
“
Eugene 11 m/w attending school IN
“
Charles 9 m/w attending school IN
“
George 8 m/w attending school IN
“
Anne 1 f/w IN
Noble, Mary 26 f/w at home IN
When
Terre Haute was Young - Markle 1931-48
Micro-film 977-245-M -
Tribune Star July 7, 1938
by: A.R.Markle - Volume II,
Page 64
JOHN
T. SCOTT, was born in Kentucky in 1831 and came to Montezuma
in 1855, where he opened an office in 1856.
Elected district attorney, he moved to Terre Haute in 1862 and in 1868
was elected to the court of common pleas and re-elected in 1872. The court was abolished in 1873 and he was
appointed to the Supreme Court in 1879 by Governor Williams,
to succeed Judge Perkins.
The site of his home in Terre Haute is now the Fairbanks Home for Women.
(Same publication) Volume I
Page 63
December 17, 1931 Terre Haute
Star - Men of Long Ago
Judge John
T. Scott came from Barren Co., KY in 1862
Historically Speaking - by:
Clark spc 977-2-C Page 391-392
317 Wabash Avenue, Terre
Haute, Indiana
JOHN
T. SCOTT, father of George
Addison Scott, occupied law offices on the second floor. During the election in November 1864, Judge Scott
went down the stairway to protect against soldiers from Massachusetts and
Connecticut who were quartered at the old fairgrounds across the road from the
north end of what is now Collett Park, voting in the election: The soldiers
forced Scott
to return to his office at bayonet point and proceeded to vote.
Sunday, January 10, 1960 -
Tribune - by: Dorothy J. Clark
GEORGE
A. SCOTT, City’s Oldest Lawyer, Marks 98th Birthday
Terre Haute’s oldest practicing attorney, George
A. Scott, today, celebrates his 98th
birthday. Born Jan 10, 1862, in
Montezuma, Ind., he was brought to Terre Haute in November of the same year and
so has lived here all his life.
His father, Judge John
T. Scott, was elected district attorney in 1860 and again in
1862. In 1868 and again in 1872, he was
elected judge of the court of common pleas. In 1879 he was appointed by the
Governor of the state. He is known as
the only person from Vigo Co. to sit on the Indiana Supreme Court bench. He married Rebecca
Ellen Jones of Scotland, IL.
His siblings consisted of three sisters and one brother, all deceased
now. His oldest sister, Sarah
taught in the Terre Haute schools in the math
department. Sarah
was honored by Terre Haute by having a school named for her, “Sarah Scott
Junior High School”.
Brother, Charles Scott graduated from
Rose Polytechnic Institute and become an architect. He was City Building Inspector here for many years. Anna
Gertrude Scott
also taught school but decided on marriage.
She married Kirby
C. Meyers, a druggist in Brookfield, Ind.
George
Addison Scott studied law in his father’s office. He married
his high school sweetheart, Jennie Bell and they had
three children: John
T. who is presently vacationing in Nice, France; Richard
W. who is with General Motors in Chicago and Malcolm
C. who teaches music and band at Gerstmeyer High School. Also there are four grandchildren and one
great-grandchild.
Earliest
Recollections
Upon asking Mr. Scott
about some of his earliest recollections in Terre Haute. He is physically active and going to his
office at 663 ˝ Wabash Avenue every day, he has kept mentally alert and
interested in everything going on in the world around him. His outlook on life is quite young.
His first thought is of seeing his father reaching up and
taking a spelling book off the top of the kitchen safe and thinking how
wonderful it was the he could reach that high.
His only recall of the Civil War was seeing his uncle leave
their home at 1517 No. 7th St. to return to service. The was in the latter part of March
1865. Uncle was wearing a bright new
uniform with a new shiny canteen hung over his shoulder and this canteen was on
the eye level of young George who remembers the
bright new cork stopper.
He attended the last county fair held in 1866 at the
Fairgrounds located on North 7th St. just south of Fort
Harrison. The next year, 1867, he
attended the first fair held at the new location, East Wabash where the Stadium
is now. This was also the State Fair,
the only time it was ever held away from Indianapolis.
First
Oil Well.
His father took all the children to see the first oil-well
with its drum and pump located in the middle of what is now the old Grand Opera
House. They also watched the artesian
water coming from this oil well and flowing in the gutter down to Ninth and
one-half street and into the Wabash and Erie Canal. They all enjoyed trying out the famous “echo” at the site of this
well.
George
A.
began school about the first of February 1870, at the old Indiana State Normal
School in what was called the “A.B.C. Class.”
He graduated from Terre Haute High School in 1881.
In 1873, his teacher dismissed school so the children could
go to Dowling Hall and see the exhibition of the first talking machine in Terre
Haute. This Edison model had a cylinder
three inches long and two inches in diameter wrapped with tinfoil. When you talked into the machine, a needle
in the center of the vibrating plate, would puncture the tinfoil. When the tinfoil was removed and turned over
on the cylinder, the voice was played back and clearly audible. The man demonstrating the new device furnished
the power by turning the crank.
First
Bike in Terre Haute.
In 1881 he purchased the
first bicycle ever brought to Terre Haute.
This bike was originally owned by Charles
Bauer, local druggist and was styled with the big wheel in
front and a small wheel in the back.
The kind used until 1888 when the “Star” wheel became popular. Aton
Hulman, Sr. rode the first type, and a wheelman from
Lafayette rode the new Star in a three mile race at the Fairgrounds. Mr. Hulman
lost and this was the beginning of the end for the high bikes.
He also remembered visiting the first telephone exchange and
it was operated in the attic over the Buntin’s
Drug Store at the northeast corner of 6th and Wabash. In the year of 1881, there were fifty
subscribers and one switchboard.
In the year of 1885, George
was employed by the electric light company that was established here. Again, it had fifty subscribers to whom they
furnished arc lighting. Their two
machines were located at the southwest corner of North Center and the Vandalia
Railroad. In 1886 they had the contract
for lighting the city street continuing for twenty years until the lights were
changed to the incandescent type. Mr.
Scott’s job as light-trimmer was to replace the carbons at least four times a
day.
The
First Streetcar Motor
In February of 1883 he saw the first electric railroad motor
shown in this city. It was exhibited in a storeroom window at 608 Wabash. A
sleight of hand artist attracted the crowds and predicted that before another
year this city would have electric street cars, but they didn't come until
1889.
Mr. Scott saw the first
automobile ever driven on Terre Haute streets in 1898. The owner and driver was
a cigar salesman. It had four buggy wheels with solid rubber tires, no top,
powered by steam and guided by a handle in front of the driver.
Mr. Scott saw the first motion
picture to come to Terre Haute. It was shown in a storeroom at 663 Wabash on a
screen two feet long and. twenty inches high. Twenty‑five chairs had been
placed in the thirty foot space
allotted to this venture re in the storeroom. Ten pictures of three minutes
each were shown. all for the admission fee of five cents. The show was repeated
every half hour to a new set of spec
After World War I in 1920, Mr. Scott
saw the first airplane shown here. Two out‑of‑town flyers
advertised they would put on a flying exhibition at the Fairgrounds and several
thousand people came to see the show. However, there was a strong wind from the
southwest all day so they refused to go up. The next day was calm, and the show
thrilled the crowd.
I couldn't resist asking Mr.
Scott
the usual trite question as to what he attributed his long life. With his keen
sense of humor and the characteristic twinkle in his eye he replied: "I
guess I'm still here because my heart is still beating!" All his many
friends are confident that his heart will continue to beat
for many more birthdays, and wish him much happiness.