This successful farmer and business man lives on an estate adjoining Melrose, where he is making a comfortable and valuable abode. He raises cattle, hogs, horses, and does a general farming business, while he is steadily adding the improvements needed to make his farm first class in every particular. In addition to the farm enterprise Mr. Richardson is assistant postmaster in Melrose and is a salesman in the store of T. H. Thompson.
George L. Richardson was born in Benton County, Oregon, on October 15, 1868, his parents being Thomas and Nancy (Cooper) Richardson. The father was a farmer, born in Missouri in 1834, and died in 1898, in Washington. He was a pioneer in the west, camped on the ground where Pullman, Washington, now stands, when there was not a house there. He fought in the Indian wars, before the town of Walla Walla was established. The mother of our subject was born in Missouri in 1850 and still lives in Nez Perces County. George remained at home until twenty-three, receiving his education in Whitman County, whither the family had moved. Many were the nights that they hid for fear of the Indians and they had the hardships and trials of the pioneers to endure. In 1898 Mr. Richardson came to the Nez Perces reservation and took a homestead. Later he sold this and bought his present place on account of school facilities for his children.
On March 15, 1891, Mr. Richardson married Miss Ada, daughter of Miller and Lydia (Bliou) Curl, the nuptials occurring in eastern Oregon. Mr. Curl came to Oregon in pioneer days and this daughter was born in the Willamette valley in 1874. She has the following brothers and sisters: William, Frank, Walter and Anna. Mr. Richardson has two brothers, Claude and Ernest, both in this County. To our subject and his gracious wife there have been born three children; Merle, May and Fay, aged nine, seven and five at the present writing.
Mr. Richardson is a member of the I. O. O. F. and a charter member of the M. W. A., aiding to organize the latter. Republicanism is his belief in politics and he is a substantial and upright man, commanding the respect and winning the esteem of all who know him.
Back to: Nez Perce Biographies
Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903