Notes
20. Edward William Henry RICHARDSON
Harry Richardson was an accomplished swimmer in his youth and won many prizes in Australia . There is family lore that he was such a powerful man, that once in a pub in South Africa , he challenged an African man to fight and knocked him out, only later discovering that the man was the champion boxer of South Africa.
His sister Florence wrote of him in 1957: "My eldest brother name Edward William Henry Richardson born March 19th 1869. He married at No 8 Trilby Rd Forest Hill S.E. He also was a brick layer. He moved to Manchester & brought up his family there of Teddie Rosie Harry John Daisy Tassy Richard. Teddie met with an accident & died at the age of eight. My brother Edward was always called by his last name Harry. He died Nov 1934."
She wrote in another letter "Mother wanted to go back to England so we left Tasmania & came back to England. My brothers left S. Africa & came back to England. My brothers were not married at church nor in the home nor they wernt married all at the same time, but in the same year 1900. Just married quietly by the minister." His daughter, Daisy, wrote in 1980 that they were married at the Registry Office in Lewisham, London S.E.
Harry and Rosina's 1899 marriage certificate recorded their address as 93 Brockley Lane, Brockley. They relocated to Manchester from London about 1905, and settled outside of town at Newton Heath. After the birth Richard in 1916, Harry left his wife and returned to London where he worked on the construction of the London Underground. It is unsure if Harry and Rosina divorced or remained separated only.
His son, Harry, related that this father was a superior bricklayer who was always made foreman of any new job he got. He customarily wore a good jacket and tie when working, enjoyed classical music, opera and even wrote poetry. He enjoyed writing letters to political publications, such as "John Bull Magazine", as he was a socialist, helping to organize a bricklayer's union.
In his later years, Harry encountered problems with alcohol which in turn led to difficulties and hardships for his family. Information on this family came from a descendant Tasman Richardson of Linden, Alberta, Canada.
Two poems written by E.W.H. Richardson were sent to me by his grandson, Tasman Richardson. Edward William Henry “Harry” RICHARDSON was married to Rosina. The email from Tasman was entitled “Poems of My Grandfather”. “To The Honorable” is the second poem he sent; the first was entitled "Rosina, Rosina",
To The Honorable
Oh wonderful August how fair to behold
All mantled with garments embroidered with green
Recrowned with a garland of rich marigold
Say where art thou going and where hast thou been
Just out in the meadow where dandelions bloom
With daisies and buttercups shining with dew
Then spread out a carpet to lay in my room
Now that’s where I been and the skylight so blue
----
I soon shall be married ere summer is fled
The bridegroom is ready for me all is well
Our home is selected and so is our bed
So you know where I’m going tomorrow to dwell
Church bells will be ringing; we’ll have a grand feast
The sun in the morning will shine from the east
A nice surprise party, we’ll sing, play and dance
I’m ready to step in life’s carriage of chance
----
Our mansion is built for a Queen and a King
Antique are the gables with tall chimney capes
An aviary for birds that can whistle and sing
And green house for clustering peaches and grapes
Contented in business we’ll toil like the bee
Convolvulus and passionflower climbing the wall
We’ll wait for the fruit of the Mulberry tree
Fair August the tenant and owner of all
~~Edward William Henry RICHARDSON
She is probably the Rosina NORMAN in the Vital Records Index, born June 1878, at Williton, Somerset County, England (Volume 5c, page 321). Her family believes that she was born in Bridport, Dorset and the two entries for June 1878 were "Ada NORMAN (Volume 5a, Page 404) and Lucy Jane NORMAN (Volume 5a, page 3_9). Rose Norman was listed on the 1891 census as living in Bridport as a scholar (student) at 12 years of age. In her later years her mailing address was c/o Mrs. Chedd, Grapevine Cottage, Morcombe. Rosina accidentally drowned in a canal near her home while she was looking for her pet cat on New Year's Eve.
Harry RICHARDSON wrote the following poem about his wife, Rosina. I received it in an email from their grandson, Tasman RICHARDSON, “Poems of My Grandfather”.
“ROSINA, ROSINA”, Words by E.W.H. Richardson.
Rosina, Rosina, my pride and devotion,
Awake from your slumber, and banish despair,
By all that is golden, and blue o’er the ocean,
God Bless you my darling, and Erin so fair.
Apart we have drifted, for many years severed,
Sad fate wrecked devotion on Erin’s fair isle.
Tho’ almost forgotten, the colleen I treasured,
A love beam is shining for you all the while.Refrain:
I love you forever, whatever may follow,
The dewdrops refreshing, the shamrock divine,
Oh! Had I the wings and the speed of the swallow,
I’d fly to your bosom, and to it press mine.
Once more with sweet roses, I yearn to come nearer,
Your presence, and sorrow and pain to defy,
Awake from your slumbers, affection grows dearer,
Poor Paddy is anxious to know your reply.
———–
Midst strangers I’ve ventured, and faced many dangers,
But never despaired for the want of new grace.
Then give me sweet Erin, the land of my fathers,
Killarney for beauty, and home rule for peace.
Rosina, Rosina, I linger to cherish,
The harp and my darling to fondle again,
With lips underied (?) and a smile of real Irish,
Affinity lives and divine love shall reign.
28. Rosina Rhodesia P. RICHARDSON
Rose or Rosie, as she was known, was the oldest child. According to Tasman Richardson of Alberta, Canada, in 1965 she was living at Newton Heath, a suburb of Manchester when he and his father visited her.
29. Henry Wilfred Tasman RICHARDSON
Harry's middle name came from his father's admiration for the Dutch explorer and discoverer of Australia, Abel Tasman. Harry's brother was also given "Tasman" as a first name.
When Harry was five his family moved from London to Manchester. Harry said that they changed residences so often there because they were doing "midnight flits", his description for leaving with out paying the rent.
As a result of family hardships, he quit school after third grade and lived by his wits, much of it on the streets. He passed part of his youth, from age 12 to 17, in reform school, known then as a "borstal", located in the Midlands countryside of Bedfordshire. The dictionary describes a borstal as one of a group of British reform schools for delinquents between the ages of 16 and 23 that follows a system stressing occupational training, special attention to the individual, and highly organized supervision after dismissal. In 1985, when visiting England, he returned there with his son. Upon seeing the new dorms he commented to his son, "Looks like a bloody country club now". Tasman Richardson wrote "It had been a cold and cruel place back then. Like something out of Dickens, with a Sadistic headmaster who beat the boys with a rubber hose, and they were always hungry as the Governor was giving them short rations and selling the excess food on the sly. Dad's experiences reminded me of Brendan Behan's 'Borstal Boy'". In the last years of life he wrote a manuscript of his experiences titled "The Wheels of the Gods", now in possession of his son.
After Harry left reform school he went to work on a farm in Chestershire and when he was 20 he signed up as a seaman and sailed to Australia. His brother, Johnny, went looking for him in Australia, but they did not meet again until Toronto.
Harry wrote in a letter to his brother in 1963, that he had met his wife Dorothy in Oyen, Alberta in 1928. By 1940, he was living in Toronto, Canada. He served in the Canadian Army from 1940 to 1945, and was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion, Calgary Branch. His son Tasman said that he probably enlisted to get a trip back to England to see his mother and siblings. Tasman said he even tried to join up again in 1950, to fight in the Korean War, but was rejected for being too old.
There is a very charming letter that Harry sent to his only child in 1940, written on birch bark. "No 3 Company, R.C.E.T.C., Petawawa, Ontario, Aug 23 -'40 ~ My Dear Son: Not today, or tomorrow, but in the years to come will the novelty of this letter be realised. Picked up along the banks of the Ottawa River - driftwood in a drifting age. Your Daddy soldiered here to 'stem' the tide of 'Hitlerism' for the cause of democracy. May God help us."
For many years Harry worked for the Parks Department in Banff. He enjoyed the company of the many characters who lived there. His son wrote that when his parents first arrived in Banff in 1930, they lived the first two or three years in a tourist cottage owned by a Tommy Frayne who had been a cook on the trail with Jimmy Simpson, the famous mountain trail guide. They became lifelong friends with Tommy and his wife, Annie, and loved the stories he told of those days on the trail and the many famous people who took those guided trips through the Rockies. Harry and Tommy worked together on the mosquito control gang. By 1939, the family was living on the corner of Muscrat and Moose Street while Harry worked as foreman of mosquito control for Banff. When he went into service during World War II, his wife and son moved from the log house at Muscrat and Moose Streets to a corner house at Otter and Wolf, directly across from Tommy and Annie Frayne's home and tourist cabins.
This is a story from his son dated August 2001, about his father's years working at Banff. "No, I wasn't kidding about the 'Keeper of the King's Purse'. Dad told me that and I think Uncle Johnny or Uncle Tassy did too. It must have been way, way back. Centuries. Who knows if it's true? But speaking of royalty, I received a letter yesterday from Buckingham Palace, London. That was the postmark, with 'Royal Mail' where the stamp would normally go ...and 'ER' stamped on the envelope. The Queen inviting me to tea? Noooooooo. Lol. Actually it was from Clarence House, the home of the Queen Mother. Rather a long story that I will try to shorten. In 1939 my Dad was foreman of the Mosquito Control Dept. at Banff. He and his men would spray the swamps west of town to kill the larva in the Spring. He had just dropped off some empty drums in a clearing at the foot of Stoney Squaw Mountain and had stopped to roll a cigarette with his boot up on one of the drums. (He wore rolled-down hip waders and old clothes because of the kind of work they were doing). He noticed an open touring car drive in with Bill Brewster at the wheel. (They still have Brewster Busses in Banff Park) and a couple in the back whom he assumed were American tourists. There was a big bull elk grazing at the edge of the clearing, and the man stood up to take a picture. The lady tugged at his sleeve and said something, and he said something to Bill , who moved the car around so Dad would be in the picture too. The picture taken, the man gave Dad a little salute and the lady gave him a lovely smile and off they drove. Dad said they looked familiar but it wasn't till he saw the entourage of cars waiting at the main road that it suddenly dawned on him that it was the King and Queen! They were of course visiting Banff just then on their tour of Canada. Dad felt really foolish that he hadn't acknowleded them or even doffed his hat. We often wondered if somewhere in the royal albums there was a photo of Dad and the elk. Well last year on her 100th birthday, some people we know who farm and ranch not far from here presented the Queen Mum with a Black Angus Heifer at the Castle of Mey in Scotland. They had lunch with her and she said it was the best birthday present she'd ever had! We were talking to Edna soon after they got back and I told her my little story and she said her memory was really sharp so she probably would remember that. So last month I sent her Majesty a birthday card on her 101st, and a letter with what I have just told you. Sort of an appology for Dad, 62 years late! I certainly didn't expect to hear back. Well I got a lovely letter from her Lady In Waiting. She said her Majesty thanked me for my thoughtfulness in sending her a birthday card, and that the story of my Dad meeting Their Majesties had brought back many happy memories of their visit to Canada and especially to Banff, and that she was so pleased that we were friends of the Brietzke's. Lady Caroline said that the Queen Mother had now left for Castle Mey where she would be inspecting her beloved Black Angus cattle. As you may have heard she was in hospital last month for a blood transfusion as she was anemic, but seems to have recovered ok." Regarding the previous missive from Tasman and his father's experience with the Royals, he followed up with "...just the other day I came across my Dad's notes on that event in his writings. I got it wrong about him feeling foolish about not acknowledging them. He wrote someone has asked him (Dad) why he hadn't removed his hat and he said it would'nt have been in keeping with the surroundings. The majesty of the mountain behind them over shadowed them, and it just wouldn't have been democratic to do so!"
About 1945, the family moved to Vancouver. His son wrote, February 1, 2003: "My dad built a stone house at Saltair on Vancouver Island, back in 1950. The exterior was all stone ... .It was beach property and we had a lovely view of Stewart Strait and the islands beyond. Dad sold it for six thousand dollars when we moved to Calif. the first time, in 1953, after I had graduated from high school. I heard it sold for a quarter of a million about twenty years ago, and is probably now worth twice that, beachfront property being what it is. My dad would have been amazed!"
He moved his family to California in 1953, and then returned to Canada. They went back again in 1956, and stayed until 1967. He and his wife bought a house in Carmel in 1960, known as Press in the Forest. In 1965, he and his son, Tasman, made an extended trip to England. Harry was a well known resident of Carmel, California.
Obituary from Monterey, California newspaper, 1970: "HARRY RICHARDSON Word has been received on the Peninsula of the death September 9 of Harry Richardson, well known Carmel resident , in the Col. Belcher Veteran's Hospital, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Mr. Richardson was a self-employed stone mason. He was born in London, England, in 1902 and was a member of the Royal Canadian Legion, Calgary Branch 1. He is survived by a son and daughter-in-law and two brothers, all of Canada. Services were held Sept. 14 at the Garden Chapel of Foster's Funeral Home in Calgary with the Rev. Robert Shannon, chaplain of the hospital, officiating. Burial was in the Field of Honour, Queen's Park Cemetery, Calgary."
Dorothy, her father and all her siblings were born at of Walthamstow, Essex County, England. On the 1901 British Census most of them were living there in 1901. Her father was the manager of Tower Stables and it was prominently situated on Hoe Street across from the Hoe Street Railway Station. Dorothy married in Canada and that first marriage produced three children and the second marriage to Harry RICHARDSON produced one child.
30. John Albert William RICHARDSON
Johnny joined the army as a junior cadet and was a boy bugler for the 12th Lancers. He met his wife Nellie on the ship when he emigrated to Canada in 1928. He resided at Toronto where he was a foreman for the parks department. They lived mostly on Davenport road and after retirement they moved to Richmond Hill which is a northern suburb of Toronto (correspondence from Tasman Richardson, Linden, Alberta).
Tasman Richardson tells a story that his father had related about Uncle Johnny. "Johnny had deserted from the army and he and my Dad were camping somewhere. My Dad was wearing his brother's uniform and suddenly the police or army MPs arrived at their camp fire and separated them and questioned them. They soon figured out who was who and carted Johnny off to the clink. It was probably around then that my Dad ended up in reform school. Their Dad had left Manchester for London as he couldn't find work. It was hard on Grandmother raising her family alone."
His uncle Arthur Richardson gave his address in 1964 as 356 Davenport Road, Toronto 5, Canada.
Tasman Richardson remembered that his Uncle Tassy told him that he, Richard and Daisy all ended up in Swinton Schools, which is believed to be a boarding school. Daisy and her husband were living at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire in 1965 when she was visited by her brother Harry and his son Tasman Richardson. She was a nurse in the institution where her father spent his last five or so years. Tasman Richardson wrote: "aunt Daisy told me when we stayed with them in High Wickhome, that she has helped look after him as she was a nurse there. She was really devoted to her dad and devistated when he died, and because some Jahova Whitnesses consoled her she joined that religion in 1933, and was still in it when she died in the 1980's, as was her husband and two children."
32. Tasman Cecil Douglas RICHARDSON
Tasman's name came from his father's admiration for the Dutch explorer and discoverer of Australia, Abel Tasman. Tassy's brother Harry was also given "Tasman" as a middle name. His nephew, Tasman Richardson, remembered his Uncle Tassy telling him that he, Richard and Daisy all ended up in Swinton Schools, which is believed to be a boarding school. Tas lived in Aurora, Canada, north of Toronto. All of his children settled in or near Toronto.
Teddie met with an accident and died at the age of eight. There was an Edward William RICHARDSON born at Lewisham in the Vital Records Index, volume 1d, page 1062.
Tasman Richardson said that his Uncle Tassy told him that he, Richard and Daisy all ended up in Swinton Schools, which is believed to be a boarding school.
OBITUARY: RICHARDSON (RICHARD ARTHUR) On February 11 1992, passed away suddenly at home, age 76 years and of Newton Heath, beloved Husband of Lillian, devoted Father of Richard, Jean, Malcolm, Alan, Desmond, Christine and Jennifer, a dearly loved Grandad and Greatgranddad and a dear Father-in-Law, he will be sadly missed by Relatives and Friends. Service at All Saint's Church, Newton Heath on Monday 17 February at 10:30 am followed by Interment at Blackley Cemetery at 11:30 am. Inquiries to Cookes Funeral Service Tel 681 2896/2894.
Ronald and Margaret RICHARDSON had nine children: Raymond, Rosina, Richard Arthur, Johnny, David Tasman, twins Malcolm and Margaret, Michael and Veronica. Tasman RICHARDSON remembered in an email dated October 2006: "When dad and I visited England in1965 for two months, we had one or two wonderful parties at Ronald and Margaret's place in Manchester. Their ten children were all living with them plus a big German Shepard as I remember. I remember we also went up to Blackpool with Ron and Margaret and Aunt Rose and her son John and had a great day. ... He was a plasterer by trade and worked very hard and was quite fit. I recall we were all coming home from a pub and everyone jumped on this bus. It was crowded so Ronald refused to get on and ran along side as long as he could and arrived back at Aunt Rose's not long after the rest of us."
Dick's first wife, Minnie, was his cousin. They had six children. Minnie died of pneumonia soon after childbirth and the death of the newborn sixth child. They were living in Manchester then. After her death, Dick left his family with his mother and went to Toronto. In Canada, he married Ellen and had another family of six. In 1917, Dick and Ellen and family journeyed to Baltimore, Maryland and stayed with Dick's brother, Arthur, for about one year. Aunt Ivy relates that they rented an apartment on Baltimore Street as they were expected to stay in the country. But they did not like living there and returned to Toronto, Canada and lived at Richmond Hill where Dick died six months later.
His sister Florence wrote about Dick in a letter dated 25 February 1957: "Then my brother Frank Richard Richardson he was always called Dick. This one went to Baltimore & his wife & family & stayed with my brother Arthur 1 year. That was in 1917. Came back to Toronto. Dick married a cousin in England in 1901. They had a family of five. Their would have been 6 but the baby died & poor Minnie died soon after of pneumonia. They were living in Manchester. Then he left his family with Mother to look after then he came to Toronto sometime after he married again had another family of six. He came to Richmond Hill to live where we are now. He had only been here six months & was taken ill & died in June 1921 & his wife only lived 2 years after, died of cancer & the eldest boy was only 11 years old. He worked 'is way up as 1st class Engineer & he 'as 35 men to look after. He just goes around like a gentleman . He married at 24 & 'as 2 nice children boy & girl. He was Named after Richard. That made another Richard Richardson so he is now 38 yrs. My brother Dick was born April 23rd 1871."
Aunt Ivy remembered that they had a baby daughter who died from falling into a tub of scalding water. Niece, Daisy Richardson Porter wrote in a letter dated 1980 "didn't he invent something called 'The Richardson Ventilator & Chimney Cowel'".
Minnie was the cousin of her husband, Dick RICHARDSON. She died of pneumonia soon after the birthing of her sixth child, who also died. After his wife's death, Dick left his family of five children with his mother and emigrated to Toronto, Canada.
40. Frank RICHARDSON
There was a Frank William A. Richardson whose birth was registered in June 1902 at Lewisham, London, England (volume 1d, page 1206). The 5 children of Dick and Minnie Richardson were left with their grandmother Emily Richardson in Forest Hills, London, England when their father emigrated to Toronto, Canada.
Aunt Flo wrote in February 1957 about the death of his parents "the eldest boy was only 11 years old. He worked 'is way up as 1st class Engineer & he 'as 35 men to look after. He just goes around like a gentleman. He married at 24 &' as 2 nice children boy & girl. He was Named after Richard. That made another Richard Richardson so he is now 38 yrs."
His uncle Arthur Richardson wrote of him in 1964 that he lived at 212 Glen Forest Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada and that he was an engineer in the Air Force. Richard Richardson had two children, a daughter and a son.
It is believed that this daughter never married. She was living in Canada, in 1968, when she was visiting her cousin John Richardson in Toronto.
Florence gave her birthplace as New Cross. According to the 1881 census this was located in Lewisham District, Surrey County, England. On the British Vital Records Index, the birth of Florence Emily Richardson was registered March 1873 at Greenwich District (volume 1d, page 841). On the 1901 British Census, Florence RIchardson, age 27, born Croydon, Surrey County, was living at Saint Georges H S Parish, London, employed as a Ladymaid Domestic.
Aunt Flo and her husband went to Canada sometime before World War I and she lived the remainder of her life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She remained a widow after the death of her husband, who died during World War I. She related much of the information about the Richardson family of England, Australia, Canada and United States.
In a letter dated 1957 to her grandniece she wrote "I come next Florence Emily Richardson Born January 3rd 1873 at New Cross near London. Married Jan 27 at Forest Hill England. Left England to come to Canada & here I am. I have 2 daughters, Eldest Violet & Winnifred." She left a journal to her descendants.
She also wrote about one of her granddaughters "My granddaughter 'as just got thru 1 years high school. I think she 'as passed her exams because the ones that pass, quit 2 weeks earlier than the ones that dont. Barbara will be 15 years, next March the first 1958. She is going in for commercial." It is not certain, but Barbara was probably the daughter of Winnie, as only one of Florence' s daughters had children.
When Flo went to Banff in 1939, she was visiting with her nephew Harry Richardson, who was working for the park then. In June of 1956 she sold her home and went to live with her daughter Violet where she spent her remaining years. In 1959 she stayed again with Harry and his family when she made a trip by airplane to Harry's home in Carmel Valley, California. She went there with Nellie, the wife of her nephew Johnny Richardson. She was 86 or 87 then. In 1964 her address was 98 Playlair Avenue, Toronto 19, Ontario, Canada according to her brother, Arthur. Her nephew Harry visited her in 1965 just before he and his son made a trip to England. Tasman remembered that Aunt Flo gave him $20.00 to spend on the ship. They visited her again when they returned from England. According to grandnephew Tasman Richardson and grandniece Violet Richardson who was corresponding with her, she was not happy in her final years.
Frank Heming joined the Army in Canada, February 1916, and was killed along with 30 of his comrades at Orix Trench, Arras, Pas de Calais, France during the final days of World War I. He was a Private, number 916797 in the 3rd Battalian, Canadian Infantry (Central Ontario Regiment).
Frank Heming is buried at Valley Cemetery which lies south of Vis-en-Artois, some 12 kilometres south-east of Arras on the D939 road. From Vis-en-Artois take the D9 towards Cherisy for 1.5 kilometres, then take a track towards the cemetery on your left. Valley Cemetery was begun on 31 August, 1918, when the 3rd Canadian Infantry Battalion buried, in the big grave in Row A, which is now numbered 8-11, 31 of their number who had fallen the previous day in the capture of Orix Trench. Frank Heming is buried in Grave A.10.
In 1925 his widow, Florence, travelled to England and visited with his mother and sister.
Jim Smith worked as a security guard.
In the 1940s Winnie's husband owned a farm in or near Toronto, Canada.
Arthur Richardson was born at the Malham Road, Forest Hill, London, England. In 1883, when he was three years old, he and his family emigrated to Australia on the sailing ship "The Dallam Tower". He wrote in his later years that voyage took eight months.
At New Castle, New South Wales, Australia at the age of fourteen, Arthur Richardson began learning the family trade of brick masonry. This quote is from Arthur's memoirs. "I see my mother she had tears in her eyes, she said 'your father and two brothers have gone to South Africa, The Transvaal, Johannesburg.' So I went to work and saved my boat fare and I went. I was 20 years old."
Arthur arrived at Capetown and worked for two weeks to earn train fare to Johannesburg. It has been related that the Richardson men were building schools in South Africa. After only one month of working together, his father fell from scaffolding that had been poorly fastened and died in 1897. Arthur and his brothers returned to Forest Hill , London to be with their mother who had returned there from Australia. He was 5' 7" to 5 ' 8 1/4" with brown hair, hazel eyes and medium complexion. His daughter Ivy said that he was about 5' 8" in height.
After his return to England he was living at 19 Horsted Road, Brockley. Aunt Flo, his sister, said that when he married he was living at Tilbury Road, Forest Hill. He soon married a young nurse Martha Smith and the newlyweds lived at her parents' home at Chelmsford, Essex for a year after their marriage and then emigrated to Canada. "Ted was born in Forest Hill and we moved to Essex where my wife's father and mother lived. We stayed in Essex a year and went to Toronto, Canada" (memoirs of Arthur Richardson).
The 1901 British Census lists Arthur Richardson, age 21, born Forest Hill S E, living at Lewisham, London and employed as a "Bricklayers Labourer". Martha Richardson, age 24, born "America B S U S", living at Lewisham, London.
The Richardson family landed in Quebec, Canada on the SS Bavarian on 5 or 14 August 1904 (research informs SS Bavarian landed at Quebec on 4 August 1904). By 1910 they were residing at 17 Dorean Avenue, Toronto. In 1910 Arthur traveled to Fort Worth, Texas and he wrote on 12 January 1964 "I went thire in 1910. ..... at that time it was a wild place then I worked on a large Building in Fort worth it is an inland Country thire is no ocean or sea beaches, around Fort Worth so I took a Trip to Dallas thire was ocean around thire But I did not stay thire long I had a family of five Children". At the start of World War I they left Canada. Arthur said that he tried to volunteer for the war effort in Canada but was not accepted as he was married. In 1913 when daughter Ivy was born, they were living at 7 Baird Avenue, Toronto in a two story house that Art had built. When they first arrived in Canada they had been living in a tar paper shack. On 28 May 1915 the family immigrated to the United States through Niagara Falls, New York with cash assets of $1077.00, which was a tidy sum in those days. (Aunt Ivy says they came through the Port of Huron at Sault Saint Marie.) The money was probably from the sale of the house on Baird Avenue, as Ivy said they sold it just before leaving Canada. They settled in Del Ray, Florida. They also lived in Palm Beach, Florida for two years where Arthur helped construct the courthouse there. They lived at Lakeworth, Florida where Arthur built a school. He wrote that after they were at Florida for 2 1/2 years, War began and a call came for volunteers, and once again he tried, but was told he had too many children to enlist. Then the family relocated to Georgia, where Arthur helped build a railway station. In 1916 they took the train to Baltimore and on the way, while staying in Savannah, their hotel caught fire and baby daughter, Ivy was lost in the confusion. It was a day of agony for the family, they found her in the care of a neighbor. Arthur said that they first rented a house on Pratt Street when they arrrived at Baltimore, Maryland. They lived at another house on Pratt Street; in 1920 they were living at 1609 Pratt Street. Arthur drove a Model T Ford when they were living there. (Soundex Index to Canadian Border Entries 1895-1924, Roll 323 Manifests of Passengers Arriving in St. Albans, VT Dist. 1895-1954, Roll 284, National Archives, Washington; remembrances of Arthur James Richardson, Edward J. Richardson, Lillian Via Richardson and Florence Richardson Heming).
Aunt Ivy remembered that her parents had friends, the Whitlows, they had known in England who had immigrated to Baltimore. The mother was "Saran" and the daughter was "Adelaid". They also were friends with another couple from England, the Hollands.
At the start of World War II the family moved to Saint Dennis, Howard County, Maryland and Martha opened a grocery store. With the profits that Martha had made from the store, she was able to purchase a building lot in Arbutus and Arthur, with help from sons, built a house for them. They say by the time she moved into the new home she was unable to ever cook a meal there as she had taken ill and died shortly thereafter. Arthur wrote "We put our money together and built a brick house at 1550 Lister Road in Arbutus so we would have a home of our own." Another letter gave the street address as "1554". Arthur and his wife, Martha, referred to each other as "Mate" or sometimes "Matey", a reference to Arthur's Australian heritage.
One of the favorite dishes of the Richardsons was the English dish "suet pudding". I remember that even my mother learned to make it. Sometime it was made with apples and served with treacle, which my grandfather referred to as "bald-headed savage" and when it was made with raisins and also served with treacle, it was "spotted Dick".
In his later years he penned memoirs of the adventures of his life, living in five different countries, on four different continents. In 1964 he wrote that he had relatives in Africa and that there was a family of seven Duttons and a large family of Mills in Australia to whom he was related. His daughter Ivy said that he was overjoyed when his first daughter, Myrtle, was born, as he had wanted a girl. He was also said to be pleased that he had the same family composition as that of the family in which he was reared - 2 girls and 3 boys.
His youngest child, Ivy, recalled him being a "very good father". A great granddaughter, Linda Filbert, remembered visiting him "It's funny, I can remember my Grandmother, Myrtle's father. I was very young. I can picture him in the chair in her living room. I remember waiting for him to speak because I adored his accent."
OBITUARY: The Sun, Baltimore, Thursday March 30, 1967; "A.J. RICHARDSON RITES TOMORROW,
Funeral services for Arthur J. Richardson, 88, a retired bricklayer and amateur painter, will be held at 11 A.M. tomorrow at the Higienbothom funeral establishment, 106 Columbia road, in Ellicott City. Mr. Richardson died at his home in Catonsville on Tuesday after a long illness. Born in England, Mr. Richardson had traveled around the world, visiting Australia, Africa, South America and Europe. His last long trip was in 1959, when he went to Key West, Fla. in an unsuccessful attempt to visit Ernest Hemingway whom he had met in Africa. Mr. Richardson retired as a self-employed bricklayer in 1951 at the age of 72. Since that time he had spent most of his time painting landscapes and writing his memoirs. Serveral of Mr. Richardson's painting have been displayed in the Peabody Institute and at the University of Toronto. He painted only as a hobby and never sold any of his works. Mr. Richardson is survivied by three sons, Edward Richardson, Benjamin Richardson and Victor Richardson, and two daughters, Mrs. Myrtle F. Nichols and Mrs. Ivy R. Sanders, all of Baltimore."OBITUARY: from newspaper, "Richardson: On March 28, 1967, Arthur J. of 1116 Kent Ave., Catonsville, Md. beloved father of Messrs. Edward, Benjamin, and Victor Richardson, Mrs. Myrtle Filbert Nichols and Mrs. Ivy Richardson Sanders. Funeral from the Higienbothom Funeral Home, 106 Columbia Rd., Ellicott City, Md., on Friday at 11 AM. Internment in Meadow Ridge Memorial Cemetery.
NOTE: Aunt Ivy said that her father told her that his family was related to the Bobb family (it was probably spelled as "Babb", as there was a family of this name living in Middlesex, England). He told her that her grandmother's name was "Bob".
Martha was 5' 3" tall with brown eyes, brown hair and a medium complexion. She had no middle name. Florence Richardson Heming, her sister-in-law, wrote that Martha was born in Berlin, Ontario. Aunt Flo wrote that the name Berlin was changed to Kitchener or Walkerton/Walkington during one of the World Wars. Walkerton is in Bruce County, township of Carrick and Walkerton is the birthplace Martha gave when she immigrated to the United States in 1915. According to the 1881 British Census, her family returned to England between 1877 and 1880, while she was still a baby.
From a letter of Florence (Richardson) Heming to Martha's granddaughter, Edna Richardson, 27 August 1957 "I don’t know who lives at Cheltenham. I only go by what your Grandma Martha ‘as told me. I was their on a visit when your Grandparents were living their a short while before coming to Canada. Your Dad & Uncle Ben were there also just little ones running around. That is quite right - your Grandma Martha was born in Canada from what she told me. The place was called Berlin because so many German immigrants went their & made their homes at that time. The name Berlin was changed to the name of Kitchener after World War II & a nice town it is & some smart buildings. Now I don’t know the date of the year your Grandma’s parents left Canada but it must be a good way back & I don’t know how many in the family their was at that time. Your Grandma told me the journey across from Canada to England was very rough & almost shipwrecked. Her parents lived on a farm at Cheltenham & their family grew up there until old enough to go further for their living."
Between the age of 16 to 18 years she studied nursing at Guy's Hospital in London. She worked as a professional nurse in London at the Saint George Hospital. She was working in the operating room there when she met Arthur. He described her as "a pretty little brown eyed nurse". Her daughter Ivy recalled her mother telling about a model of her arm being cast at Guy's Hospital for a demonstration of a perfect arm.
In 1900, at the time of marriage, she was residing at 48 Shardeloes Road, New Cross. On the 1901 British Census, Martha Richardson, age 24, was listed born "America BS US", living at Lewisham, London. Martha and Arthur stayed with her parents at their large farm at Cheltenham for six months before they emigrated to Canada along with their two sons, Ted and Ben, who were toddlers running around, as Aunt Flo remembered. One of the few items from home that she brought when she emigrated were two very tiny bibles that she highly treasured. I remember my mother, her daughter in law, telling about them. Aunt Ivy said that one was about 2 inches by 3 inches and the other was about 1 inch. They had been handed down from her mother's family and had been hidden in the stone walls of the family home during the Reformation. She was sent a large linen table cloth that had probably been received as a wedding gift. She passed it on to her daughter Ivy.
She also worked as a nurse when they lived in Toronto, as her son Ted remembered that all heads would turn when his mother walked down the street in her nurse's uniform. At Canada, twins were born, but Martha had a very difficult time with them and it is said that she told the doctor to save the girl as Arthur loved little girls. Fortunately both were saved. She also had a miscarriage which would have been a girl, from the shock of her son, Benjamin, coming home after an accident which sliced off all the fingers of his right hand. This information was obtained from daughter, Ivy and granddaughter Violet Richardson Felicio.
She worked as a nurse and midwife in Baltimore and delivered all of the babies on their block on Pratt Street. Her daughter Ivy remembered how upset she was once, after coming home from delivering a stillborn. She assisted the doctor as midwife when her first grandchild, Roy Filbert, was born and was the midwife when her grandson, Donald Richardson, was born. Her daughter, Ivy, remembered when they lived on Pratt Street, and her uncle Dick was there, that her mother made dandelion wine. The incident was remembered because her father and uncle imbibed too much.
Daughter Ivy remembered her mother preparing a big meal every Sunday for her family, their friends and her friends the Whitlows and their daughter. She was said to be a very good cook. On special occasions, such as Easter, she put on a much larger spread, such as a leg of lamb. Sometimes, when they lived on Pratt Street, her mother would pack a picnic lunch and the family would travel in their Model T Ford to Gettysburg Battlefield with son Ted and about 50 of his motorcycle buddies following along. She described it as quite a sight to see!
In her later years she operated a very successful grocery in Relay or Saint Dennis, Maryland with her son Ted's radio repair shop on the other side of the same room. The family lived in the back of the store. It was located on the main street of the village, about a mile north of Elkridge on Route 1, or Washington Boulevard. The building is a private home today, 2001. Granddaughter Violet remembered spending the night there and her grandmother having a child's tea party with candy from the store. Granddaughter Vivian wrote, April 2001, "I can remember living with our grandparents at the store while our house on Lister Rd. was being built, it was a fun time for a little girl in a big store, with a grandfather to take you with him delivering groceries in an old Model T."
These are remembrances of Violet Richardson Felicio in a letter to Edna Barney, 23 June 2001:
"I am the only one left who knew my folks well & my grandfolks. Grandmother Richardson died when I was only 13 yrs. old so none of my own family knew her. Grandpa was married to his second wife at the time of my marriage. He came to New York with his wife to attend my wedding and he gave me away. My dad was acting up about my wedding so Grandpa offered to walk me down the aisle & he did. I always felt special to them as I was the first granddaughter and Grandmom was mid-wife at my birth also. I was born with a veil over my face. She knew what it was & ripped it off. She said that it meant I was special & I'd be able to see the future. But I never could."I never knew Grandmother's religion was Salvation Army. I was in the Salvation Army Sunday school & active with them until age 13, when we moved from Patterson Park. I spent a lot of my summer vacation time at the store in St. Dennis. I remember the summer that Vivian's family were there while their house was being built. Grandmom & Grandpa took me on vacation with them to Virginia Beach and we stayed at a Spanish style motel there. I recall that Grandma got sick on that trip from a soft crab sandwich and Grandpa took me out to dinner with him. He ordered me a chicken dinner & said I ate like a fly. I guess that was the early stages of her stomach problems.
"She was a good nurse & better than a doctor. She nursed me when ever I got sick. She pulled me through a seige of measles, whooping cough & pneumonia which I got all of them at one time & was sick for so long I had to learn to walk again. Grandma sat up nights & put mustard plasters on my back to save me. She was there when I got mumps & chicken pox too. Mom always called her first whenever I got sick. Mom loved her. She was a good mother, & good mother-in-law and a GREAT grandmother to me. I wish you had known her like I got chance to. You did favor her in looks."
Her husband Arthur spoke of her in a letter to me, 10 August 1964, "she was a sport when she was living". She was fond of reading the bible and read it aloud every night to her husband, Arthur, when they went to bed. Martha died of stomach cancer and her gravestone records her birth year as "1877". She had always said that she was three years older than her husband, Art, so the year 1876 is probably the correct one.
My mother, always known by her family and friends as "Sister", was named "Louise VIA" on her birth certificate. Her father was working at The Miller School of Albemarle when she was born. She always said that her name was "Lillian Louise", and the name Lillian was probably for her father's sister. Because of great family hardships, she lived for a time in childhood with her Aunt Gabie and Gabie's daughter Madolene, in Woodlawn, Maryland. She also lived with her cousin Ottolene Becraft. She was a freckle-faced redhead and she often told of the time she was merely walking through Baltimore's Druid Hill Park, when someone suddenly swept her up and proclaimed her "the winner". She had unwittingly rambled onto a freckle-judging contest and the prize was a doll with three faces - one crying, one sleeping and one smiling. She had many favorite sayings that she ofttimes recited and one, about her name, was "my name is Lillian Louise, and I do as I please" and indeed she did.
She is buried next to her mother in the Saint Matthew's section of Crestlawn Gardens which is just beyond Ellicott City on Route 70 towards Sykesville, Maryland.
47. Benjamin Bernard RICHARDSON
Ben Richardson was born on his grandparents Smith's farm. He had blue eyes like his brother Ted. He always told his family that he was 6 months old when his parents took him to live in Canada. His sister, Ivy, remembered that he had a bad temper, but that he was always very kind to her. In 1920, when he was 16, he worked on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Baltimore. As an adult Uncle Ben lived in east Baltimore and worked 42 years as a door to door bill collector for the Regal Shop, a men's clothing store on West Baltimore Street. He was an artist and also a part time musician, playing the fiddle and mandolin even though he lost all of the fingers of one hand in an industrial accident when a young man. He was quite an eccentric. In later years he became a well known screen painter and teacher of the folk art in East Baltimore.
When he lost his fingers, he had falsified his age to get a job at a tin, or sheet metal factory and the accident occured when he had barely started working there. He received a settlement of about $1400.00 and his mother encouraged him to invest it in General Electric stock, but Ben bought a car instead. She had been concerned that he would not be able to go into the family trade of brick masonry and she wanted him to have a nest egg to fall back on. Ben was working as a bill collector when he and Gladys married. They probably married on Pratt Street at the home of Gladys Evan's family.
Ben and his family moved to Harman Avenue in 1950. Later one he had the entire basement inside, covered with formstone. One was was only covered from the floor to the middle of the wall and on that bare wall, Ben painted a mural.
His daughter Violet remembered that he painted some lovely oil paintings that were collected by a man named "Shugar" who was connected to the Regal Shop where Ben worked and that he lived in New Jersey. She said that he painted a sailing ship, the same as his father had painted, and that he gave that one to his brother Vic's former wife, Esther. Violet said he also painted very large screens for the Midway Bar in Baltimore.
Ben Richardson was featured in "America's Forgotten Folk Arts" by Fred and Mary Fried, 1978, pages 100-108, published by Pantheon Books.
Myrtle and Victor were twins. She had brown eyes and brown hair.
A granddaughter, Michelle L. Ingram, wrote of her "Myrtle lived an interesting lifestyle growing up. When she met her husband Roy Alexander Filbert, and married him on March 17, 1924, Roy's family was very disturbed by their acquaintance because Roy's parents: Charles Samuel Filbert: April 15, 1870-February 28, 1932 of Baltimore, MD; and Mabel Alexander June 14, 1877-November 2, 1928 in Baltimore, MD, were both Mennonite, living in Lancaster, PA most of their lives. They were disturbed that Roy did not marry a Mennonite woman, therefore, they shunned him for the remainder of their lives. Myrtle, according to my mother was a flapper, a real firecracker. Myrtle did settle down for a while, starting her own business selling sewing machines and running a ''repair and mending shop' for clothing, linens, and furniture coverings for the public. She made a great deal of her family's clothes in order to save money. At her funeral, her grandchildren spoke of her lovely gardens in the back of her home. I distinctly remember as a very young child (I am 22) going down the long steps to her back yard to play in the gardens. I loved the smell of her flowers."
Aunt Myrtle was an accomplished seamtress and I remember that she made lovely hand embroidered outfits for me and my brother when we were very young. She spent her adulthood in a lovely home on Jonnycake Road in Catonsville, Maryland which was built by her husband, brothers and father shortly after her marriage to Uncle Roy. I spent a week there with her in 1950 or 1951 and had a great time.
My father and Roy Filbert rode motorcycles together. Roy was a stone mason and it was through my father that he met and married Ted's sister, Myrtle. When Roy and Myrtle first married they were living at the home of Myrtle's parents.
Victor and Myrtle were twins and he had blue eyes. He played the violin and was a brick mason contractor. He and his first wife divorced about 1944. Vic lived in Baltimore, Maryland until he retired to Rustburg, Appomattox County, Virginia. His niece, Violet, said that he was an airtist and did a number of paintings when he was living there and that he, her father, and grandfather, always painted on the rough side of masonite board rather than canvas. Her father, Ben, had painted a screen door for him to put on his trailer home in Virginia.
Esther and her two younger sons moved to Florida in 1955.
Ivy was born at 7 Baird Avenue, Toronto. Canada in a house that her father had built. She has a photograph of her mother holding her, at about 6 or 7 months of age, and leaning out the second story window of that house. Ivy says that when she was a baby the wife of William Jennings Bryan was wanting to adopt her when they were living in the southern United States. She had seen Martha walking Ivy while wearing her nurses uniform and thought that perhaps Ivy was an orphan being cared for by a nursemaid.
She did not start school until she was 7 years old then then was put back a couple of times because of the moving about that the family did. Her family was living at 1609 Pratt Street in Baltimore when she was age 8. She graduated high school at the age in 1933 when she was about 20. Her mother bought her two new dresses at that time, a brown one and a green one and she had a portrait made in each dress.
Ivy was living with her parents when she first married but then was able to purchase the house they were living in on Sulpher Spring Road in Arbutus, Maryland. Sometime later she obtained a lot from her father-in-law and had a brick home built by her father and brother, Ted. Shortly after, her mother puchased a lot also, two lots away, from profits she had made from her grocery store in Saint Dennis, Maryland. Ivy's father and his sons built a house on the lot for her parents and they actually lived next door to each other, as the lot between the houses remained vacant.
24. Agnes RICHARDSON
Agnes was most probably born at Forest Hill, London, England as that is where the family was living at the time of her birth. On the 1901 British Census Agnes Richardson, age 18, born Lewisham, Kent, was living at Lewisham, London. She married and raised a family of five, all well and living in 1957. At that time she lived at 56 Siddons Road 23, Forest Hill S.E., London, England. This was just around the corner from #8 Trilby Road where she had lived with her mother. A Mrs. K. Swann, her daughter, later residing at this same address, provided the location of Edward's gravesite in Johannesburg.
52. Gwin BURCHELL
From a letter she wrote in the 1970s it seemed that she had a son named Eric Swann, a mechanical engineer, who had served in the Navy.
RICHARDSONs from Hounslow Heath
was created on
6 November 2001 by Edna Richardson Barney
©Copyright 2001-2006 by Edna Richardson Barney ~ All Rights Reserved
Graphic designs are from Ritva's Gallery.
This page was last modified on 20 October 2006.