William Henry Richmond

William Henry Richmond as he appeared in the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography in 1899. William Henry Richmond (1821-1922) was an American coal mine operator. He is reckoned as one of the key actors in the expansion of the Lackawanna Coal Mine district of Scranton, Pennsylvania, during the second half of the 19th Century. Richmond is best remembered today as the namesake of Richmond Memorial Library in Marlborough, Connecticut.

Biography

Early years

Richmond was born October 23, 1821, at Marlborough, Hartford County, Connecticut. His father, William Wadsworth Richmond, claimed family roots dating back to 11th Century Brittany and an American forefather who was one of the members of Plymouth Colony that launched Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1637. Another of Richmond's ancestors, William Wadsworth, was an immigrant to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England in 1632 and a founder of the Colony of Connecticut a few years later. His father later expanded his operation with another Marlborough blacksmith, establishing a foundry under the business name Richmond and Kellogg.

One of five children, Richmond attended public school in Connecticut until the age of 13, at which time he left home to take a job.

Career

In 1842 Richmond left home again, this time to take a job in a store in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.

Richmond financed the launch of other business enterprises during his life, including the Crystal Lake Water Company and in 1867 the Carbondale Gas Company.

In 1874 Richmond moved to a 75-acre farm outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where as a hobby he began raising Jersey cows. He sold the bulk of his herd in 1886, keeping 10 animals for household use. A son-in-law who was an attorney was made a vice president of Elk Valley Coal and Iron, and he and Richmond's daughter and their five children shared Richmond's home during his later years.

Death and legacy

Richmond died March 14, 1922, at the age of 101.

Richmond is remembered today as the namesake of Richmond Memorial Library in Marlborough, Connecticut.

Footnotes

Works

"Address by Hon. William H. Richmond of Scranton, Pa.," in Mary Hall, Report of the Celebration of the Centennial of the Incorporation of the Town of Marlborough: August 23d and 25th, 1903. Hartford: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1904; pp. 80–86. "Recollections of Ninety-Five Years in Connecticut and the Anthracite Region of Pennsylvania," Journal of American History, vol. 11, no. 3 (1917) pp. 424–444.