Barbara Breedlove Rollins' Family Files

THE RICHARDS FAMILY

A.)   Information Concerning More Remote RICHARDS Relatives.

According to family tradition, passed from her uncle Burrow RICHARDS to Ruth RICHARDS WILSON and from her to me, "Three brothers came from England - First settled in Tennessee. Uncle Burrow said his grandfather remained in Tennessee and raised his family there. The other brothers - one went north and one south - maybe Louisiana.... T. A. RICHARDS had brothers and maybe 2 sisters...." I wrote the first part of this when genealogy was new to me and had no idea in how many families that was a tradition. However, in some it was true. Maybe it was here.

If this tradition is true, the family member who remained in Tennessee would be the great grandfather of Samuel Paisley RICHARDS and the third great grandfather of Sam R. BREEDLOVE. His children would include Thomas Allen RICHARDS who is more fully described in the following section, William RICHARDS, born about 1819 in Tennessee, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister and school teacher who married Levina and is in McNairy County in 1850, at page 16, and "Doc" Richards, a farmer, and perhaps two daughters.[COMMENT-1] The Historical Foundation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church states that William RICHARDS is listed in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church General Assembly Ministerial Directory for 1854 as living in Purdy, Tennessee and a member of the Madison Presbytery. Purdy is in McNairy County.

The most intriguing and difficult to confirm part of the family tradition passed along by Ruth RICHARDS WILSON is this: "My grandfather [Thomas Allen] RICHARDS' grandmother practiced medicine in Tennessee and raised a family while her husband was in prison during a war. She was one of the first women to have a license to practice medicine. She went to school in St. Louis, Missouri."

This would probably have been at the medical school established by Dr. Joseph Nash McDOWELL, who opened the first medical college west of the Mississippi in June of 1840. Located southwest of the city overlooking Chouteau Lake, it was a part of Kemper College, named for its founder, Episcopalian Bishop KEMPER.

Whatever truth lies behind the story, the idea that she was licensed is inaccurate if we are talking only of the licenses issued by the state of Tennessee, but does help date the time period as possibly occurring shortly after 1830 if licensed by the state medical organization:

It was on May 3, 1830, that forty-seven of the physicians of Tennessee assembled in Nashville for the purpose of organizing the Medical Society of Tennessee.... More than sixty years had passed since the first permanent settlements had been made in the northeastern corner of East Tennessee; fifty years had passed since James ROBERTSON had led his small band of pioneers into Middle Tennessee; but only twelve years had passed since the claims of the Chickasaw Indians to West Tennessee had been extinguished and that large portion of the state thrown open to occupation by the white man.... Dr. Felix ROBERTSON, the first white male child born in Nashville, was forty-nine years of age and bridged the gap between the frontier settlement of 1781 and the thriving capital city of the state of 1830....

For some years there were no regular physicians on the frontier and when the first physicians did arrive so unspecialized as yet were occupations in the primitive frontier communities that the practicing of "physick," to use a term at that time current was only one of several occupations in which a man might be engaged. Dr. William P. CHESTER, for example, physician to John SERVIER, was in 1799 the keeper of an inn and apothecary's shop in Jonesboro. Samuel CARRICK who settled near Knoxville not only preached the Presbyterian gospel and taught every subject in the curriculum of a private school, but practiced medicine as well. For many years in Nashville the only doctor was a horse doctor....[COMMENT-2]

Into Tennessee, of course, there came at an early period some physicians who had received a medical education as good as could normally be obtained in the United States. They had studied in the office of some local physician and had attended two courses of lectures at some medical school, many of them at the University of Pennsylvania. They had learned from books and from the mouths of great physicians. But their practical study of anatomy had been small and their clinical experience limited. Of laboratory instruction in the sciences of course they had had nothing....

It is unquestionably true that a large proportion of those who professed to practice medicine in Tennessee were not graduates of any medical college. While some of those who had received only preceptorial training were to be numbered among the state's best physicians, many were disgracefully ignorant. There were some who professed to be practitioners of medicine who had not even had preceptorial training. The medical literature of the period before the Civil War contains a multitude of complaints regarding the discredit that was being cast upon the profession by ignorant pretenders who took it upon themselves to call themselves doctors. One explanation of this, of course, was the fact that the state did not require that those who wished to practice medicine must procure a license that evidenced the possession of at least a certain minimum of medical knowledge. As early as 1817 an attempt was made to secure the enactment of a law for the regulation of the practice of medicine in Tennessee, but the attempt failed, and it was not until 1889 that licenses were required of those who practiced in the state.... [COMMENT-3]

However, although physicians were not licensed by the state, the Medical Society set up on 1830 did have three boards of censors in the three geographical areas of the state, and these boards of censors did issue licenses.[COMMENT-4]

The difficulty with talking about the RICHARDS family in McNairy County is that we are sure there are two distinct family groups. Two sisters of Lucy Ann RAY, wife of Thomas Allen RICHARDS, married RICHARDS half-brothers who were said not to be related to Thomas Allen RICHARDS. That is the family of Green RICHARDS (born about 1794, died about 1859) who married twice, once to Elizabeth HAYS and second to Nancy RIMMER. Because the families were closely related and traveled together and because of the confusion of the names, it seems appropriate to set out information about Green RICHARDS here by way of elimination in looking for the more remote ancestry of Thomas Allen RICHARDS. Green was the son of Benjamin RICHARDS (born about 1763, died about 1827), and his wife Ann of Franklin County, North Carolina. Other children of Benjamin and Ann RICHARDS included Archibald RICHARDS, James RICHARDS, and Polly H. RICHARDS SMITH, wife of John B. SMITH. Other possible children were Walter and Ann RICHARDS.[COMMENT-5] Benjamin's parents were William RICHARDS and wife Mary, and other children of William and Mary were Major RICHARDS, born about 1750, and William RICHARDS.[COMMENT-6] Children of Green RICHARDS include the following children of the second wife: Ann RICHARDS born about 1838, Mary RICHARDS, born about 1841, William RICHARDS, born about 1842, James RICHARDS who married Mary Doak (Polly) RAY and was born about 1844, Margarette RICHARDS, born about 1845, and Lucy RICHARDS, born about 1850. Children by the first wife include Chesley Allen RICHARDS, born December 19, 1827, died November 8, 1909, who married Susan Rebecca (Becky) RAY, sister of Lucy Ann RAY. [COMMENT-7]

The 1850 census in McNairy County shows the following:

Page 16, William RICHARDS
Page 24, Green RICHARDS
Page 24, Margarette RICHARDS
Page 259, Hannah RICHARDS

There only two Thomas RICHARDS listed on the census index for 1850, although of course if Thomas Allen RICHARDS, who would have turned 23 that summer was living with his parents, he would not have been indexed. One of the indexed Thomas RICHARDS, living in Scott County, is 46 years of age and born in Virginia, not Tennessee, and is not the right person. The other, however, could very possibly be the right person. On page 210 of the Bedford County, Tennessee 1850 census, we find three young men living together: James EVANS, 32, male, "manufactor", Tennessee; Jesse (EVANS), 30, male, "manufactor", Tennessee, and Thomas RICHARDS, 22, male, laborer, Tennessee. A summary of other RICHARDS on that county's 1850 census follows, for use in tracking down potential relatives:

RICHARDS families living in McNairy County in 1860 include the following:

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B.)   Thomas Allen RICHARDS and wife Lucy Ann RAY.

Thomas Allen RICHARDS was born August 28, 1827, in Tennessee. He married Lucy Ann RAY, who was born May 27, 1829, in North Carolina, probably in Orange County, the daughter of James RAY and wife Nancy BARLOW, who are described in the RAY Chapter (Error! Reference source not found.). The marriage between Thomas Allen and Lucy Ann took place March 20, 1852, in McNairy County, Tennessee. Thomas Allen RICHARDS died March 30, 1871, at the age of 43 years, 7 months, and 2 days. He is buried at Walters Chapel, Loneoke County, just across the county line from Prairie County, Arkansas. Lucy Ann died October 18, 1893, in Hillsboro, Texas, and is buried at Cottonwood Cemetery, near Dublin in Erath County, Texas.

Thomas Allen RICHARDS was a Presbyterian preacher. "My Grand-mother & Grand-father RICHARDS (Lucy Ann & Thomas Allen) moved from Tennessee to Collin County, Texas near McKinney and lived there one year and moved near Carlile, Arkansas. On the way, Grand-father held a wagon wheel to stop the wagon to keep it from running over Uncle Bob, and he pulled something loose inside him which caused his death. Walters Chapel Ark. is the burial place of Grand-father and Daddy's brother Bee--a horse threw him and hurt his head and he died. They lived in Arkansas about 6 or 7 years and returned to Texas and settled in Erath county, Cottonwood Community, near Dublin."[COMMENT-8] Des Arc and Carlisle, Arkansas, are about fifteen miles apart, and Sam Paisley RICHARDS remembered the store owned by his future father-in-law, Thomas McCARLEY.

Living with the family in 1860 in McNairy County, was Martha WRAY, born North Carolina, age 24.[COMMENT-9] Next door was Charles A. RICHARDS, 31, blacksmith & teacher, born North Carolina; Susan R. RICHARDS, 29, born North Carolina; Nancy RICHARDS, 5, born Tennessee; Thomas J. RICHARDS, 3, born Tennessee, Margaret M. RICHARDS, 1, born Tennessee, and Lucy BARLOW, 80, born North Carolina. Lucy BARLOW was Lucy Ann RAY RICHARDS' grandmother, Lucy HARGUS, wife of Thomas BARLOW.

When Lucy Ann RAY RICHARDS died, four of the heirs bought the other heirs out. Sam's land was on the west and extended south. Henry's (the home place) was just east of Sam's. Burrow's land was east of Henry's. The house Burrow built is still standing where he built it. Bob's land was south. Burrow and Bob sold their farms and moved away. Bob moved east of Stephenville and lived there until he died, and Burrow moved to west Texas. He later lived at Abilene and Austin. Sam's house has been moved across the road in front of where Uncle Henry's house used to be which has been moved across Highway 6 east of the Cottonwood Church.[COMMENT-10]

Ruth RICHARDS WILSON remembers that Sam Paisley RICHARDS said when he was a boy, when other people's boys were riding calves on Sunday afternoon, his mother had her children at home reading the Bible. She raised a very good family.

After the death of her husband, Lucy Ann RAY RICHARDS moved to Erath County, Texas. Three sisters and one brother settled in the Cottonwood Community near Dublin around the middle part of the 1870's (1876.) They were John J. RAY and wife Alice; Susan Rebecca (Beckey) RAY RICHARDS, and husband Chesley RICHARDS; Mary Doak (Polly) RAY RICHARDS and husband Jim RICHARDS, and Lucy Ann RAY RICHARDS, widow of Thomas A. RICHARDS who died before they moved. They were Presbyterians, and the first church at Cottonwood was a Presbyterian church. More information on this family can be found on the Ray Page about their parents, James RAY and Nancy BARLOW.

On the 1880 Erath County Census, the extended family is together on page 54:

After the family was already situated in Erath County, they joined with others of the family in Mississippi and other places to dispose of the property inherited through their mother, Nancy BARLOW RAY: "Mrs. L. A. RICHARDS, C. A. RICHARDS and S. R. (his wife), W. C. RAY, J. T. RICHARDS, and M. D. (his wife) and John J. RAY - all of Erath County, Texas, 28th of February, 1887, appoint C. E. PARISH of Orange County, North Carolina, Attorney, to receive the amount due the heirs of Nancy RAY, deceased." [COMMENT-11]

The following are the obituaries for Lucy Ann RAY RICHARDS from the Hillsboro paper and from the Dublin paper:

Death of Mrs. RICHARDS. The west bound Texas Central passenger train Thursday was the bearer of a casket that contained all that was mortal of Mrs. Lucy Ann RICHARDS, who had left Dublin just three weeks prior to that day in apparently good health for the purpose of paying a visit to her sons at and near Hillsboro, Texas. She was sick about ten days and died Wednesday morning at the home of her son, Rev. J. J. RICHARDS, near Hillsboro. Her remains were brought up Thursday and interred at Cottonwood cemetery.

Mrs. RICHARDS was a sister of Mr. Jno. J. RAY and of Mrs. J. T. RICHARDS, and leaves six sons and one daughter, all grown. She was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and had been for many years.

The corpse was accompanied to Dublin by Mr. J. J. RICHARDS and wife, and Messrs. J. S. and L. B. RICHARDS, the gentlemen all being sons of the deceased lady.

The funeral ceremony, which occurred at Cottonwood at 4 o'clock Thursday evening, was conducted by Rev. J. H. CHAMBLISS, of Dublin, and was very largely attended. Mr. CHAMBLISS says the large attendance and apparent grief and respect for the dead were a most fitting and unquestionable testimonial of the very high esteem in which she was held by all who knew her.

The TELEPHONE tenders its heartfelt sympathy to the bereaved relatives.

RICHARDS - Mrs. L. A. RICHARDS, nee RAY, was born in North Carolina May 27, 1829. She professed faith in Christ at an early age, and joined the church soon after. Ever since she has lived a consistent Christian life. She was married to Mr. T. A. RICHARDS March 20, 1852, in McNairy county, Tenn. She was the mother of nine children, eight boys and one girl. Her husband and one son preceded her in death. Her father and family moved from North Carolina in 1846 to near Purdy, McNairy County, Tenn.; from there to Collin county, Texas, in 1870; and from there to Arkansas the same year; from there they came back to Texas, locating near Dublin in 1876. Here was her home until death. Thirteen days before her death in company with Dr. W. C. RAY and wife, her brother and sister-in-law, of Carlisle, Ark. she came to Hillsboro, Tex., to see her son Rev. J. J. RICHARDS. Five days after she came to Hillsboro she took sick, and in eight days died....

Children of Thomas Allen RICHARDS and wife Lucy Ann RAY included the following:

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C.)   Samuel Paisley RICHARDS and wife Maryetta (Mamie) McCARLEY.

Samuel Paisley RICHARDS, son of Thomas Allen RICHARDS and wife Lucy Ann RAY, was born April 9, 1862, in McNairy County, Tennessee. He married Maryetta (Mamie) McCARLEY on December 17, 1890, near Dublin, Erath County, Texas. Mamie was the daughter of Thomas McCARLEY and his first wife, Isabella (Belle) McKENDREE, born March 8, 1872, 2 1/2 miles from Des Arc, Prairie County, Arkansas and died February 17, 1954, at Abilene, Taylor County, Texas. Both she and Sam are buried at Cottonwood Cemetery 4 miles east of Dublin on Highway 6. Sam died March 7, 1943, at his home 2 1/2 miles east of Dublin.

Sam Paisley RICHARDS was born April 9, 1862 in McNairy County, Tennessee, three days after the Shiloh battle. They were in hearing distance of the battle. Daddy was named for his Uncle Sam Paisley RAY who died in that battle. [COMMENT-13]

Mamie was raised by her uncle Robert McCARLEY in Arkansas and her uncle James McCARLEY in Alabama after the death of her parents. She came to Erath County as a single woman to visit her sister, Maggie Belle McCARLEY JAMESON, and brother-in-law, Rev. Homer JAMESON in Harbin and met S. P. RICHARDS. She returned to Arkansas and came back latter to marry him.

S. P. RICHARDS never learned to drive a car, although one was given to him. He tried to learn to drive it, but when it pulled to the right and he said "Gee" it didn't correct itself, when it pulled to the left and he said "Haw" it didn't center itself, and when he said "Whoa", it wouldn't stop. He continued to drive his buggy, at least one of which was a surrey with a fringe on top in which Sam BREEDLOVE remembers driving all day from Dublin to Comanche County to Eugene RICHARDS', spending the night, and driving all day the next day to go back.

Mary Ruth RICHARDS WILSON wrote concerning her parents:

Sam and his brother Henry never had a fence between their places until a short time before Daddy died except around the fields. Daddy and Uncle Henry did a lot of chores together. They had a sorghum mill together and made molasses for themselves and their neighbors. Daddy fed the cane into the mill which was operated by his mules that went around and around the part that pressed the juice out of the cane. The juice was piped down hill to the furnace which had the cooking vat on it with several sections, to dip the juice from one section of the vat to the others according to how done each pan was. Uncle Henry and Mamma (when she had time) cooked the juice that made the molasses. This process was set up by Cottonwood Creek, where they had a well on Daddy's place.

Daddy always raised hogs and he and Uncle Henry had a big vat large enough to scald a large hog in it. They heated the water in the vat over a furnace when they killed hogs. Of course the weather had to be cold, so the meat would chill thoroughly and keep, since they had no refrigeration back then. Afterwards they cured the meat for it to keep. After the hog was scalded, they scraped the hairs off it. The neighbors would also bring their hogs there to kill and scald. This was set up back of Uncle Henry's house.

Uncle Henry's oldest daughter, Lula, didn't marry until she was in her 30's, and she lived with her daddy until she married Will READ. The READS had a dairy south of Dublin, and his daddy lived with them as long as he lived. They moved near Waco. Lula and Will had 2 boys, Billy and Allen (Buck). During this time, (5 years) Uncle Henry took his meals with us but lived at home unless he got sick. Lula and Bill READ came back and lived with Uncle Henry the rest of his life.

We had peaches, blackberries, pecans, and grapes on a fence row between Daddy's and Uncle Henry's fields. Uncle Henry had peaches, apples, crab apples, plums and figs. He also had honey bees. Daddy raised cotton for his money crop and corn to feed the mules and horses. He also raised some peanuts and feed grains. Mamma raised chickens, turkeys, guineas, and ducks. She sold eggs, butter and cream. They always had good cows. They also always had a good garden. Mamma canned a lot. Mamma was a very good cook; so we had lots of company, especially in the summer.

Daddy was very religious, and he could pray the most beautiful prayer I have ever heard. He said when he was a boy, when other people's boys were riding calves on Sunday afternoon, his mother had her children at home reading the Bible. She raised a very good family.

When people in the community needed help, Mamma was always ready to help them. When people were sick, a death, a new baby, or just needed her to sew, Mamma helped. Lula was good to help, also. Mamma was a good seamstress. She also did fancy work and of course made and quilted quilts. Allora was a good seamstress and did fancy work. Irma and I weren't good at sewing. I mend. I think Irma did some fancy work. I have a pretty doily she crocheted.

My oldest sister, Irma, married when I was 4 years old. My brother, Eugene, married when I was 7 years old. Allora, my other sister, married when I was 11 years old, but she had worked away from home before she married. She worked at the county clerk's office in Stephenville and also clerked in a store. I was raised almost like an only child, but I guess I was spoiled by all of them.[COMMENT-14]

At the McCARLEY family reunion in June of 1991, Ray ELLIOTT and Sam BREEDLOVE were talking about their grandfather, Sam RICHARDS, and the following dialogue took place:

Ray and the others around continued talking in conversation I didn't record word for word, and he was asked to recite the blessing Sam RICHARDS always used, which he said was, "Our dear Heavenly Father, we thank thee for these and all other blessings in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord."

The obituary from the Dublin paper for S. P. RICHARDS follows:

Funeral services were conducted at the Cottonwood church Monday afternoon for Samuel Paisley RICHARDS who died at his home east of Dublin of a heart attack Sunday morning at nine o'clock. Rev. J. H. BALDRIDGE, pastor of the Dublin Methodist Church officiated.

Mr. RICHARDS was born on April 9, 1862 in McNary County, Tennessee, and came with his parents to Texas when he was a boy. About 65 years ago he moved to the Cottonwood community and had resided on the same farm for the past sixty five years. In December, 1890 he was married to Miss Mamie McCARLEY to which union six children were born. Two of his children preceded him in death.

Mr. RICHARDS is survived by his wife, four children, Mrs. R. T. BREEDLOVE of Dumas, Texas; Mrs. V. R. ELLIOTT, Abilene, Texas, T. E. RICHARDS, Dublin; and Mrs. C. L. Wilson, Route 1, Comanche; ten grand children one of whom, Lt. Sam BREEDLOVE, is in Central Africa and another, Richard ELLIOTT, is in the Army Air Forces; and two great grand children. All of the children were present for the funeral as well as his four surviving brothers, Henry RICHARDS of Dublin; Sid, of Spur; Bob, of Stephenville and L. B. of Austin. John J. RAY of Ft. Worth, an uncle of the deceased was also present.

Mr. and Mrs. RICHARDS celebrated their golden wedding anniversary at their home two years ago. He is one of the few remaining pioneers of Erath County and has many friends in this community as well as the entire county, who will miss him from their midst.

Out-of-town people attending the Sam RICHARDS funeral were: Mr. and Mrs. J. B. McCARLEY, Stamford, (Mrs. RICHARD's brother). Mrs. John BERRY, Clyde, Texas; L. B. RICHARDS and wife, Austin, Tex.; John J. RAY and son, of Ft. Worth; Whit RICHARDS, Desdemonia, Tex.; Miss Mary RICHARDS, Stephenville. Mr. and Mr. Glen ALLEN, Mr. and Mrs. Dennis RICHARDS, Mr. and Mrs. G. E. RICHARDS, Stephenville; Mr. Sid RICHARDS, Spur, Texas; Mrs. John COSBY and son, Spur; Mrs. BREWER and Mrs. COKER of Comanche, Mr. and Mrs. Doyle BROWN and Mr. and Mrs. James PETSICK of Gustine.

At his death during World War II, S. P. RICHARDS' son-in-law, Rhapherd Thomas BREEDLOVE, wrote the following eulogy. Ray ELLIOTT, S. P. RICHARD'S grandson, a Methodist minister, read this same passage at the funeral service of R. T. BREEDLOVE, who wrote it.

He was eighty-one years old, had lived on the same little farm for sixty-five years, often neglecting his own affairs to help his neighbors, and going at the call of need for many, many years.

His home was his particular earthly heaven; his children, his particular devotion. For them he lived. Nothing was too good for them; and now, theirs is the richest heritage on earth, the memory of a sainted father who was a lifelong Christian influence in their lives.

With their mother, they revere his memory and know that he is with the Lord.

The preacher has known him for thirty-five years, yet never saw him ruffled or in any way disturbed. His was the most serene of spirits; his was the simplest, the most effective faith ever known.

He daily prayed for each of his loved ones by name, and the grandsons in the army, were always objects for his special prayer.

Who knows but that they will come through the hell of battle unscathed, because a good man held them up in his intercessions with his God?

He is my father-in-law. I never knew, and never expect to know a better man. His counsel, his simple faith, his stainless life have been and will continue to be an inspiration and ever present help in undertaking to live as he lived.

Death for him, was as simple and beautiful as was the life he lived. Quietly with never a word of foreboding or fear, he slipped through an open door, last Sunday morning and now is singing with that magnificent bass voice of his youth, in the heavenly choir.

The Pastor.

Six children were born to the marriage of Mamie McCARLEY and S. P. RICHARDS:

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