Alonzo Slafter's biography, Tuscola, Tuscola County, Michigan

Copyright (c) 2000 by Bonnie Petee. This copy contributed for use in 
the MIGenWeb Archives.  

 

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Taken from, "The History of Tuscola County," H. R. Page Co., Chicago, 1883. 
Contributed by Bonnie Petee.

JOHN H. RICHARDSON, senator from the Thirtieth District, is a native of Vermont, born in Randolph, January 24, 1814.  His father, Harper Richardson, was born in Royalton, Vt., and is of Scotch origin.  Three Richardson brothers emigrated from
Scotland in an early day, probably in the sixteenth century, one locating in Connecticut, one in Phildelphia and the other in New York City.  His mother was Roxy Belknap, born in Randolph, Vt., a descendent of the Kibby Family, who also were among the first
settlers of Connecticut.

Mr. Richardson's father was a blacksmith by trade, and followed that calling in Randolph, Vt., until a few years previous to his death, which occurred in 1838.  His means were somewhat limited, and the only educational advantages our subject enjoyed were those afforded by the district schools of that day.  As soon as he was old enough to command wages he worked at farming by the month during the summer season, getting but a few weeks'  schooling each winter.  At the age of nineteen years he gathered his personal effects into a pack, and with this on his back he traveled on foot from Randolph to Old Ipswich, Mass.  Arriving in that vicinity he worked one summer on a farm, and in the fall commenced work in a cotton factory.  He was employed in the preparation department one and a half years, and was then tendered the position of overseer of the department, which duty he assumed and discharged satisfactorily for seven years, his salary of $1.50 per day being then considered big wages.  He next went to Chicopee, Mass., and worked one year in refitting an old mill, after which he removed to Palmer, where parties were  putting up a mill for the manufacture of the finest cambric goods.  He filled the position of overseer in this mill for seven years.

In the year 1847 he removed to Michigan, and located near Tuscola.  He entered a tract of pine lands, built a saw-mill, and engaged in the lumber business, which he followed until 1877, when he erected a flouring-mill and a sash and blind factory.  He has been eminently successful in business, and has acquired a fine competence, all the fruits of his own labor.  He has two large farms in the immediate vicinity of Tuscola, which he also
conducts.

Two years after settling in Michigan, Mr. Richardson was elected to the office of supervisor.  Tuscola County was then attached to Saginaw for judicial purposes.  It was organized as a county in 1850, when our subject, in company with the clerk, constituted
the whole county board. He has held the office of supervisor at different times aggregating about seventeen years.

In 1861 he raised a company of volunteers and tended its services to the governor.  He
was elected captain.  His services at Balls Bluff, Maryland, were Baker was slaughtered, were recognized by his promotion to major of the Seventy-Seventh Michigan Volunteers.  His company being mostly lumbermen, and able to "ride a log" they were detailed to man the boats being used to convey the army to the Maryland shore in the retreat. He was interviewed by General McClellan, who asked him if he thought he could get the whole army safely over by daylight.  Receiving an affirmative answer, the general said; "For God's sake do it.  Command the whole army; they are in your hands."  The feat was safely accomplished and the Army of
the Potomac, or at least a portion of it, saved from capture.  His regiment went through the Peninsular campaign, where Mr. Richardson proved to be of great service in superintending the building of bridges and the log roads approaching Yorktown, over
which heavy ordnance might be drawn.  At the battle of Fair Oaks and Seven Pines he led his regiment, the colonel being sick and the lieutenant-colonel having resigned.  He was situated in the break between the two divisions of the  Union Army, the one at Seven Pines and the other at Fair Oaks, and was pitted against three rebel regiments, far outnumbering his force; but by a charge of bayonets he drove them from their position, thus connecting the two divisions of the Federal forces and preventing what might have been a serious break in their lines.

At the close of the Peninsular campaign he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-seventh Michigan Volunteers, and was sent with his regiment to Vicksburg, where they participated in Grant's campaign.  He was taken ill with rheumatism and a
pulmonary difficulty in the fall of 1863, and was advised to resign which he did.  He did not recover sufficiently to again enter the army; in fact, has never been in sound physical
condition since.

In the fall of 1864, he, with others, was commissioned to go to Decatur, Alabama, to take the soldiers' vote.  He was also appointed commissioner to lay the state road from Saginaw to Mackinac.

Mr. Richardson has held some office of trust ever since he became a resident of Michigan, and has served the public faithfully in whatever capacity it has seen fit to have him represent.

In 1868 he was a elected a delegate for the State of Michigan to the Chicago convention that nominated U. S. Grant as president of the United States.  In the fall of 1882 he was tended the  nomination, as representative to congress, by the Democratic and Greenback parties of his district, but declined on account of his own pressing business which demanded his personal attention.

He was elected to the State senate in the fall of 1882, by the Greenback and Democratic parties, of the Thirtieth District, which includes the counties of Bay and Tuscola.  His majority was 1,629 votes over the Republican nominee.  He had been a Republican until the Liberal Republican movement in 1872.  Was tendered the nomination for representative in congress by the Greenback party of his district, but they were in the minority, and he failed to get the election.

In the senate Mr. Richardson was chairman of the committee on school for the blind, and member of committee on cities and villages, military affairs, public health and saline interests.  Among other bills introduced by him is the one requiring the State to pay the soldiers of the late war, the $100 bounty promised those who enlisted in 1864, and which they have never been able to get.

Mr. Richardson was married in 1841, to Miss Cynthia Henry, of Connecticut.  They have had seven children.  The eldest son, Lieutenant Harper S. Richardson, entered the army with his father, and was wounded at Jackson, Miss., from the effects of which he died in the hospital in Detroit.  His eldest daughter died of consumption, in May, 1880.

Mr. Richardson has a fine residence in the village of Tuscola, where he has won the confidence and esteem of his many friends, as attested by their gift to him of the honorable position he so ably occupied in representing them in the senate of Michigan.