Richardson Road, Richardson Square, Richardson Crossing, Richardson Place – here, there and everywhere on the southwestern edge of Arnold is a Richardson.
Those place names are the legacy of a large and early Jefferson County family who owned property in the area and lived, worked and died there, long before there were movie theaters, box stores, restaurants and apartments.
Booker Richardson, born in 1775, and his wife, Nancy (Cheatham), both natives of Virginia, came to Missouri by way of Tennessee in 1811 and settled in St. Louis County shortly afterward. They first arrived in Jefferson County and settled on “Black Water” Creek (now Black Creek) in 1833, according to The History of Jefferson County, Missouri, published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1888.
Booker’s father was a major in the Revolutionary War, and Booker fought in the Seminole Wars in Florida, according to the history.
He was a farmer, and he and his wife had 13 children. Two of his children spent their young adult years exploring the country.
Skelton Richardson, the couple’s sixth child, born in 1820, left home at the age of 17 and traveled to southwest Wisconsin where he worked in the lead mines. Later he returned home, purchased 160 head of cattle and crossed the plains to California where he dealt in livestock and mining, most likely selling his cattle to the miners in the camps where the California gold rush was in full swing. Skelton was quite successful in his endeavors there, according to the history.
He eventually settled about a half mile from Kimmswick, where he had 41 acres and another small farm nearby, according to the history.
Booker II, the Richardsons’ youngest child, was born in 1831. He, too, left home at the age of 17 (in about 1848) and traveled to California to mine gold. He stayed there 11 years. When he returned in 1860, the Civil War was getting underway and he enlisted in Company E, Second Missouri Calvary, Confederate Army. He served under Gen. Forrest until the Confederacy fell.
“He surrendered in Columbia, Miss., and carried ‘the flag of truce’ to Iuka, Miss., after the call for surrender,” according to the history.
When he returned to Jefferson County in 1866, he married Sarah Wells of Ste. Genevieve. Together they had 12 children, but in 1888, when the history was published, only five of the children were still living. Booker II also settled near Kimmswick on a farm of about 70 acres, according to the history.
The patriarch, Booker (the first), was long gone by that time. He died in November in 1841. His son, Skelton, just 21 at the time, was appointed the administrator of Booker’s estate, according to an article on the Richardson Cemetery by Dave Hallemann of the Jefferson County Historical Society.
Skelton, on his oath, named Booker’s heirs as Henry Richardson, Elizabeth Gamble, Patsy Franklin, Virginia Kendal, Louisa Richardson, Skelton Richardson, Theodore Richardson, John Richardson, Nancy Richardson and Booker Richardson.
The family negotiated their resources and two acres were set aside as the burial ground of the late Booker Richardson and his relatives and friends. According to Hallemann, the deed establishes the cemetery in March of 1867, but burials had occurred there for 20 years prior.
That cemetery is located on Richardson Road just west of Rosedale Drive. The graves of the Richardsons are believed to be located on the portion of the grounds with the stone wall around it, Hallemann wrote.
The oldest headstone that still exists is believed to be that of Theodore Richardson, who died in 1847, Hallemann wrote.
The remains of other local families are also buried on the hill. More than 200 people are buried in the Richardson Cemetery, which is now maintained by the Arnold Historical Society.
Longtime society member Bernie Wilde said she doesn’t believe any of the Richardsons’ descendents still live in the Arnold area, although some of them attended a recent event held at the cemetery.
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