Silas Richards, A Valiant Wagon Master and Pioneer

SILAS RICHARDS was born in Highland County, State of Ohio, December 18, 1807 to Augustus Richards and Francis Lee Daggett. He married Eliza­beth McClenahan on November 5, 1829 and they were parents of a six children. Silas was hardworking and industrious. He was soon a successful landowner. He and his wife were baptized into the Mormon Church in 1840. They traded their possessions for a large farm near Nauvoo, Illinois. They were expelled from Nauvoo in the spring of 1846 by persecutors of the Church and crossed the Mississippi River. Their daughter Elizabeth Ann died from fatigue and exposure in Council Bluff.

Silas purchases property at Council Bluff with the reduced amount he was able to get for his property in Nauvoo. Three years later he was appointed to lead a wagon train to the Great Salt Lake Valley. They started from Winter Quarters, July 10, 1849 with seventy-two wagons heavily loaded with our families, provisions, merchandise, household goods, farming and merchandise tools, etc. After a long and weary journey of hardship and fatigue through a dreary wilderness without any inhabitants except Indians, the pioneers arrived in Great Salt Lake Valley October 25th, a distance of over one thousands of miles, without any serious accidents. Silas kept a meticulous journal of the trek.

Silas, Elizabeth and their family settled in Union Fort where he became the first Bishop to organize a ward for the Mormon Church. He helped build the fort for protection against Indians. He was also called to assist in settling up the Dixie country, which he did by establishing ware houses in St. George, putting out trees and starting a vineyard, assisting the people by giving employment to many.

On November 10, 1856 Bishop Ed. Hunter directed Silas to take three little orphan sisters to raise; Susannah [Susanna Rebecca] age 11, Sarah Ann age 4½, and Martha [Ann] age 2; the daughters of Daniel and Susannah [Tillet] Osborn [from Norfolk, England, members of the Willie Handcart Company] who died on the plains. His second wife Keziah helped raise these three orphans.

Silas also married Martisha Smoot, widow of Samuel Smith and help raise her large family. About the same time he married Martisha he also Married Keziah Frances Brady and they had nine children.

Silas Richards passed away after a three-month illness on March 17, 1884, in Union, Salt Lake County, Utah. Elizabeth McClenahan Richards died on November 22, 1893 and is also buried in the Union Cemetery, Sandy, Utah.