My Genealogy Hound

Alpheus Richards is a well-to-do farmer residing in Newport Township, and is the owner of 190 acres of well improved and fertile land. His native birthplace is Erie County, N. Y., and he is the son of John M. and Fannie (Moffet) Richards, who were born in Vermont and Connecticut, respectively. They moved to York State in 1818, and there the father was engaged in tilling the soil. His father, Daniel Richards, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and the great-grandfather was Humphrey Richards, a native of Wales. Alpheus was reared on a farm and had but a limited education. At the age of twenty years he left New York and went to Erie County, Penn., where he worked as a farm-hand for about five years, and was there married to Miss Abigail Perry in 1857. She held a first-class certificate in Erie County as a teacher, and had taught nine terms of school. He afterward purchased fifty acres of land in Erie County, and was engaged in tilling the soil on his own account there until 1868, when he emigrated to Whiteside County, Ill., and a year later to Polk County, Iowa, improving a farm and remaining in the latter place for five years. From that time until 1879 he resided in Crawford County, Kan., and at the latter date became a resident of Barton County, and bought the farm on which he is now residing. He and wife have six children: Emma, wife of Dr. A. F. Huntoon, of Girard, Kan.; A. L., a farmer of the county; Delia, Harlie A., Alma E. and Mattie E. Mr. Richards and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a Republican in his political views, and has held the office of justice of the peace in Iowa as well as in Missouri. He was a candidate, in 1882, for county judge. He and wife have been taking the Chautauqua course (C. L. S. C.) of studies, and will receive diplomas next year, 1890.