An Illustrated History of Central Oregon, Western Historical Publishing Company,
Spokane, WA. 1905, page 402-403.

WILLIAM D. RICHARDS, a substantial and progressive farmer of Wasco county,
resides about nine miles southeast from The Dalles on Ferry Canyon road. He was
born in Easton, Pennsylvania, on August 8, 1844, the son of Daniel and Mary S.
(Raub) Richards, natives of the same country as our subject. The father's family
were of English extraction and the mother descends from Pennsylvania Dutch. She
now lives in Kansas and her husband died in Kansas, in 1878, near Silver Lake.
William D. was educated and reared in Pennsylvania and there remained until
thirty-four years of age, having learned the carpenter trade in the meantime. He
followed that craft and teaming and farming until he left Pennsylvania in 1879
for Kansas, where he operated his mother's farm for two years. Then he spent two
years at carpentering and in 1883, came thence to Oregon, settling in The
Dalles, where he worked at carpentering for five years. In the meantime, he had
taken a government claim upon which the family resided. He gradually improved
the same while he was continuing in town, until 1888 when he gave up carpenter
work and came out to the ranch. Since that time, he has given his attention
entirely to farming and has made a marked success of the same. He has purchased
two farms adjoining the home place and owns altogether seven hundred and
thirty-five acres, five hundred of which are good wheat land. The entire estate
bears the marks of thrift and enterprise and in all the improvements, good taste
is manifested. His residence is a tasty story and a half cottage in neat
surroundings and everything comports with the same in neatness and good taste.      

In 1867, while in Pennsylvania, Mr. Richards married Miss Abbie Hummel, a native
of New Jersey. She died on May 30, 1879, in Kansas. Her father was Elijah
Hummel, a native of Pennsylvania. On January 26, 1882, at Topeka, Kansas, Mr.
Richards married Miss Abbie J. Adams, who was born in Loudon, New Hampshire, the
daughter of Jonas Jefferson and Betsey K. (Foster) Adams. The father was a
native of Carlisle, Massachusetts, and came from the old colonial Adams family,
well known in American history. The mother was born in Tewksbury, Massachusetts,
and came from an old and prominent colonial family of English extraction. Mr.
Richards has two brothers, Jacob T. and Robert A., and one sister, Mary S.
Frost. Mrs. Richards has three brothers, George F., Samuel F., and Daniel J. and
three sisters, Julia A. Hayward, Mary A. Warren, and Emma E. Cutler. By his
first marriage, Mr. Richards has five children; Mary C., wife of Clarence M.
Sisson, a school teacher at Palouse, Washington; Susan E., wife of John M. Mann,
a farmer in Wasco county; Lillie A., wife of Richard E. Howarth, at University
Park, Portland; Harry R., who operates his father's farm; and Edith A., the wife
of J. Frank Howarth, a printer at The Dalles.      

Mr. and Mrs. Richards are both zealous and active members of the Methodist
church and he is a steward and trustee for the past ten years in that
denomination. Politically, Mr. Richards is a stanch Prohibitionist and ran for
state senator in 1904.

*******************

Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2005 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. 
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.