DANIEL RICHARDS is one of the real pioneers of the county; born April 15, 1807, in Broome Co., N. Y., he accompanied his parents on their removal to Jacksonville, Ill., in 1823; four years later, he came to Galena, Ill., and began mining. The year 1829 was the date of his settlement in Grant County, it then being an integral part of the Northwest Territory of Michigan. He, with a brother, William T. Richards, made their home one and a half miles southwest of Platteville, and engaged in teaming, hauling "mineral" to the furnaces and lead to Galena. In 1834, Mr. Richards married Mrs. Lucretia (Curtis) Davis and located in Cassville; here he followed farming about 14 years, at the end of which time he removed to Hazel Green; seven years of mining here were followed by his final settlement in his present and pleasant, though secluded and quiet home. Mr. and Mrs. Richards have four living children - Ruth S., wife of J. D. Babcock; Harriet P., Mrs. W. H. Dobson (both of Lincoln, Nebraska); Emma, Mrs. Daniel Spaugey, of Kansas, and Abigail C., now the widow of the brave Fred T. Bachelor, who perished in the Andersonville Prison pen. He was a volunteer in the 25th W. V. I. George C. Richards, one of the then deceased children of Daniel Richards, also died in the Union army, the others were Daniel and an infant. Mrs. Richards also lost a daughter, Ann E., by her deceased husband.

This biography generously submitted by Roxanne Munns.