Thomas Richardson (1803-1886) Mormon Battalion

Thomas Richardson was born 23 Sep 1803 in Preston, Lancashire, England to Thomas Richardson and Jane Thornton.  He was Christened 3 Oct 1803 in the Anglican Church of St. John in Preston.  (Early LDS membership records and his headstone list him as being born 18 Feb 1804 in Wigan, Lancashire, but that date cannot be verified with Lancashire Parish Records.  It is possible that there were two boys named Thomas born to Thomas and Jane Richardson, but the proximity of their births would make this seem less likely.)

The cotton mills were the center of work and life in Lancashire at the time, and it appears that Thomas was one of those who worked in the mills.  In several documents he is listed as either a weaver or a cotton spinner.  This life is depicted in Elizabeth Gaskell's 1855 novel North and South, which was also turned into a miniseries of the same name by the BBC.  The first mill appeared in Preston in 1791 and by 1927, there were 60 mills in operation.  It is not known which mill Thomas worked in, but there were hundreds of mills operating in the county at the time.   Preston was on the cutting edge of technology at the time Thomas lived there.  It was the first town in England after London to be lit by gas.  It was also, however, the scene of a major strike in 1842 which led to riots, and another in 1853 which lasted for 23 weeks.  Preston was the inspiration for the town of  "Coketown" in Charles Dickens' novel, Hard Times.

Thomas Richardson married Mary Mallalieu on 12 Nov 1826 in nearby Walton Le Dale at the parish church of St. Leonard.  He was twenty-two and listed as a bachelor.  She was about twenty-four and listed as a spinster.  (The year previous, Thomas was witness to the marriage of Jonathan Mallalieu and Mary Grey in the same church.)  Thomas and Mary had at least ten children together, nine of which were born while they lived in the Preston area.  (Hannah, Mary, Jane, John, Robert, Susannah, Violet, and Sarah, and Benjamin.) Their youngest child, Thomas, was born in 1844 in Montrose, Lee, Iowa.  (A Charles and a George are sometimes listed as also being among their children.)

  Preston became site of the first foreign mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1837.  In 1840, Thomas and Mary were baptized into the Church along with several of their children.  Historian Susan Easton Black lists him as the 7th member of the Church to be baptized in Preston, but that is likely incorrect as he wasn't baptized until three years after missionary work had already begun and records for the mission at the time were sketchy if not non-existent for nearly a decade after the mission began. He presided briefly over the Gadfield Elm Conference.  In 1841, he and his family immigrated to the United States and settled in Nauvoo, Illinois.  Thomas lost his first wife, Mary, in Oct 1845, and she was buried in the Old Nauvoo burying grounds.  In Dec 1845, Thomas received his endowment in the Nauvoo Temple, just prior to the expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo.

 

Thomas married Anne Owens Clark in 1846, a widow with two children by her first husband.  Anne then became mother to all of his children, including his baby son, Thomas, about the time that they had to leave Nauvoo.  By June of that year, they were among the 15,000 Saints spread out across the Iowa plains.  In July, Captain James Allen of the U.S. Army rode into Council Bluffs with orders to enlist 500 men to help fight the war with Mexico.  Thomas Richardson enlisted, becoming a 42 year-old Private in Company E.  The Battalion marched first to Ft. Leavenworth and from there to Sante Fe.  The Mormon Battalion famously completed the longest infantry march in US Army history, but Thomas Richardson did not participate in the entire march.   In November of 1846, he became part of the sick detachment which returned to Sante Fe and then went from there to Pueblo, Colorado to spend the winter.  They traveled more than 300 miles back to Pueblo and in the spring, began their march again, this time northward toward Ft. Laramie.  Thomas Richardson was part of the advance company that met up with Brigham Young on 4 Jul 1847 at the junction of the Big Sandy and Green Rivers.  After arriving in Salt Lake City, Thomas was released from military duty.

Thomas stayed in Salt Lake City for ten days before leaving to go to Pottawatomie, Kansas to be reunited with his family.  Four years later, he brought them to Utah and settled first in Farmington (1852), then in Kaysville, then in Ogden (1854), and then finally went back to Kaysville for a time (1856).  He eventually settled in Slaterville, Weber, Utah where he was the Branch President and later the bishop (1864-77).  Anne died in 1864.  On 12 Jun 1876, he married his third wife, Catherine Brown, who was 55 at the time.  He had no children from either his second or third marriage.

He died on 3 Nov 1886 at the age of 82 and was buried in Richmond Pioneer Cemetery in Richmond, Cache, Utah. 

Our Line:
Thomas Richardson m. Mary Mallalieu
John Richardson m. Lola Ann Amelia Tyler
Valeria Richardson m. George Ortion Bair
AuTossie Ann Bair m. Sylvester George Taylor
Ettie Jane Taylor m. Charles Samuel Solomon
Norman King Solomon m. Mary Leora Mattson
Heather Solomon m. Ryan Cromar