David Richey, a much respected citizen and successful farmer residing on
section 10, Eden township, LaSalle county, dates his birth in Muskingum
county, Ohio, forty miles east of Columbus, July 31, 1822. He is a son of
Nathaniel and Susanna (Kirkpatrick) Richey, natives of Pennsylvania, and one
of eleven children, four sons and seven daughters, all of whom grew to
maturity except one daughter, who died at the age of five years. Eight of
this number are now living, namely: Mary, widow of William Bower, of Tonica;
David, whose name initiates this review; Margaret Jane, widow of George B.
Holmes, of Topeka, Kansas; James, of Eden township, LaSalle county; Susanna,
wife of J. F. Evans, of Los Angeles, California; John, of northern Iowa;
Elizabeth, widow of A. P. Landis, of Shell City, Missouri; and Nathaniel, of
Redlands. California. Nathaniel Richey, father of the above named, moved
about the year 1812 to Ohio, where he made his home until 1830, and that
year, again imbued with a spirit of emigration, he came out to Illinois and
located at Cedar Point, in Eden township, LaSalle county, where he took
claim to two hundred and seventy-nine acres of government land. About 1867
he sold his land and moved to Peru. A few years later he went to Tonica,
where he died in 1872, at the age of seventy-seven years and seven months.
He was a soldier in the war of 18 12, in the volunteer service, under Perry,
and was stationed near Erie. His wife survived him a number of years, her
age at death being about eighty. He was reared in the Presbyterian faith,
but he and his wife, for convenience of worship, joined the Methodist church
after coming to LaSalle county, there being no Presbyterian church near
them. Politically he was first a Whig, then an Abolitionist and finally a
Republican. He served four years as a justice of the peace.
The
Richeys are of Scotch descent. John Richey, the grandfather of the subject
of this sketch, was a native of Pennsylvania, and by occupation was a
farmer. He served in the Revolutionary war, and lay a prisoner at New York
when a man on each side of him was frozen to death. He, however, survived
the rigors of war and lived to old age. In his family were fourteen
children. The maternal grandfather of David Richey was James Kirkpatrick, a
native of Ireland, who on coming to this country settled in Pennsylvania and
subsequently removed to Ohio; and he died in Muskingum county, in the latter
state, when well advanced in years. He, too, was a farmer, and his family
was composed of three daughters and one son.
David Richey was eight
years old when he came with his parents to Illinois, and since that time his
life has been spent in Eden township, LaSalle county. Since 1850 he has
lived on his present farm. Reared on a farm in a frontier locality, his
educational advantages were limited. Altogether he attended school only
about nine months. He remained a member of his father's household until he
was twenty-six years of age, and on starting out in life to do for himself
he bought eighty acres of land from the government, paying for it at the
rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. This was wild prairie. He
borrowed unbroken cattle, which he trained, and with which he plowed his
land, sowing it the first year to wheat. He hauled his crop with oxen to
Chicago, a distance of one hundred miles, requiring eight or ten days of
good weather to make the round trip. This land he sold in 1850, and that
same year bought his present farm, one hundred and sixty-three acres, which
he improved, building a substantial house, barns, granaries, fences, etc.
Also he owns forty acres of timber land. Mr. Richey carries on diversified
farming and has always given more or less attention to the stock business,
raising horses, cattle, sheep and hogs.
He was married June 28,
1849, to IMiss Margaret Elizabeth Evans, a daughter of James F. and Feraby
(Elam) Evans; and they are the parents of three children — two sons and one
daughter — Frank, Alice and Guy Nathaniel. Frank is a practicing lawyer of
St. Louis, Missouri. He married Miss Fannie Lipman and they have two
children — Gida and Frederick D. Alice married John I. Salisbury, and died
October 21, 1885. Guy Nathaniel died October 23, 1886. He and his wife,
whose maiden name was Eva Dent, had one son — Guy Dent Richey.
Mr.
Richey is a Democrat, having come to this party from the Greenback party. In
early life he took an active interest in political matters. He was a member
of the thirty-first general assembly of the Illinois legislature.
Speaking of his early experience in Illinois, Mr. Richey says that during
the Black Hawk war they were living peaceably in their log cabin in the
woods when they heard that "the Indians were coming." He moved his family to
Magnolia for a short time and then to Granville, in Putnam county, and later
to a block-house near Peru. As he was a cripple he did not participate in
the war. At that time there were three LaSalle county families murdered by
the Indians — the Hall, Pettigrew and Davis families. Mr. Richey is one of
the oldest settlers in LaSalle county.
Extracted 13 Jun 2019 by Norma Hass from Biographical and Genealogical Record of LaSalle County, Illinois, published in 1900, volume 2, pages 664-666.
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