The Richman Family of Muscatine County, Iowa

J. SCOTT RICHMAN.

As a jurist Hon. J. Scott Richman early won a prominent place among the judges of Iowa and was noted for the fairness and impartiality of his rulings. He possessed a keen, perceptive mind and rarely failed to reach an accurate conclusion. He was born at Somerset, Perry county, Ohio, March 11, 1820, and was the son of Rev. Evert and Mary Richman. His father died in 1828, when he was but eight years of age, and the mother with her family of little ones, returned to the old home in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where her children were given the best education that the country afforded. In 1839 she removed to Muscatine, where her eldest son, John W., was a successful business man. J. Scott, en route to Muscatine, stopped in Knoxville, Illinois, where he began the study of law, but soon after came to this city and was admitted to the bar before he had reached his majority. He died May 17, 1908;

In 1863 J. Scott Richman was elevated to the district bench, at which time the partnership between himself and his brother DeWitt C. Richman was terminated. For nine years he sat on the bench, and in 1872 resigned to resume the practice of his profession, which was more to his inclination. Judge Richman was admitted to the bar in 1839 and early rose to distinction, having

Google been chosen in 1846 a member of the convention that framed the first constittH tion of Iowa. A year later he was elected chief clerk of the house of representatives. He began his practice in the state in Cedar comity but returned to Muscatine in 1840 and some time after formed a partnership with Hon. S. Clinton Hastings. This partnership was dissolved when Mr. Hastings was appointed to the supreme bench and for some years Judge Richman remained alone in practice. It was in 1855 that he formed a partnership with his younger brother, DeWitt C. Richman. After retiring from the bench in 1872 he entered into a partnership with E. E. Cook at Davenport, under the name of Cook & Richman. This was dissolved in 1880, when Judge Richman returned to Muscatine and associated himself in practice with Messrs. Burke and RusselL At the time of his death he was undoubtedly entitled to the appellation of the dean of the Iowa bar.

Judge Carskaddan has this to say of him: "Judge J. Scott Richman was one of the first members of the Muscatine bar whom I met and with whom I became acquainted in Muscatine in June, 1853. The district court of this county was then in session, the presiding judge being Hon. William E. Leffingwell. Among the lawyers then present in court were Judge Joseph Williams, William G. Woodward, Stephen Whicher, D. C. Cloud, Henry O'Connor, Auley McAuley, A. O. Patterson and others, whose names I do not at this time recall. J. Scott Richman was then about thirty-three years of age and had apparently stepped to the front among the lawyers of Muscatine. It was said that at that term of court (June term of 1853) he tried thirty cases, in some of which he was for the plaintiff and in some for the defendant, and that he was victor in every one. I became quite intimately acquainted with him and was greatly impressed with his ability and charmed by his encouraging kindness to me, a young beginner at the bar, and from our first acquaintance until his death our personal relations were extremely friendly and pleasant. His eminent ability and standing as a lawyer and as a judge on our district bench were unquestioned. Among his distinguishing traits of character was a sturdy independence, which occasionally manifested itself in a marked djee.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

ABRAHAM RICHMAN, a prominent pioneer of 1845, and a leading farmer of Sweetland Township, residing on section 29, was born in Somerset, Ohio, March 18, 1822, and is a son of Evert and Mary (Scott) Richman, whose sketch appears on another page of this volume. He grew to manhood in his native State, receiving a common-school education, which has been largely supplemented by observation and subsequent study. In 1845 he emigrated to Iowa, locating in Cedar County, where he continued to reside until 1850. The discovery of gold in California attracting his attention, he resolved to make a trip to that State, and crossed the plains to Oregon, from there by team to Portland, completing the trip to California by water. For about four years he remained on the Pacific Slope, when he returned to his Iowa home, coming by way of the Pacific Ocean and New York City.

In 1859 Mr. Richman was joined in wedlock with Miss Susan Dolson, a daughter of Wallace and Susan Dolson, who were natives of Orange County, N. Y., and emigrated to Schuyler County, Ill., in 1837, residing there until 1851, when they became residents of Muscatine County, Iowa. Three children have been born of their union: Wallace Clinton, a medical student in a homeopathic medical college of Chicago: Prof. Ebert Scott, who was graduated from the Iowa State Agricultural College at Ames, is now a professor in the Arkansas Industrial University at Fayetteville, Ark.; and Mar 3' S., who is a student of the Iowa State Agricultural College at Ames.

Mr. Richman removed to his present home in Sweetland Township in 1870, since which time he has been engaged in farming. He is a man of marked individuality of character, possessing more than ordinary ability and energy, intensely actuated at all times by truth, right and justice, affection, benevolence and kindness, which, based upon a foundation of charity, enable him to accomplish much good in this life, and to gain in a high degree the esteem, friendship and love of a wide circle of acquaintances. Politically, Mr. Richman affiliates with the Republican party, but has never sought public office, believing that the office should seek the man, and not the man seek the office. Mrs. Richman was reared in the Presbyterian faith, and is a member of that church, in which her family also worships.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

EVERT F. RICHMAN.

Evert F. Richman, a member of the Muscatine bar, making his home upon a farm in Bloomington township, was born in the city of Muscatine, September 25, 1845. His parents were J. Scott and Calista Ann (Hannaman) Richman, natives of Ohio and Indiana, respectively. The former was a son of Evert Richman, who at the time of his death was making his home in Ohio. He was a Methodist preacher and also served as a judge of the court. He died in middle life, while his wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Scott, lived to be about seventy-six years of age. They had a large family, including Asbury, John Wesley, Hettie A., J. Scott, Abraham, DeWitt C. and William S. The maternal grandfather of Evert F. Richman was Robert L. Hannaman, a native of Ohio, who made the practice of law his life work. Removing to Illinois, he settled at Knoxville and there made his home to an advanced age. In early manhood he married Hannah Plummer and their children were: John Wesley, Calista Ann, Emma E., Ella F., William and George L.

J. Scott Richman, father of Evert F. Richman, was also a member of the bar. He came to Aluscatine in 1839 when Iowa was still under territorial rule, and continued in the active practice of his profession throughout the greater part of his life, being the oldest member of the Muscatine bar in years of continuous connection with the work of the courts. He died in May, 1908, at the very venerable age of eighty-eight years, having long survived his wife, who passed away when about sixty years of age. She was a member of the Methodist church, and although not identified with any church, the moral forces in the life of Mr. Richman were such as made him most honored and esteemed by all who knew him. For a number of years he served as judge of the district court, succeeding Judge Dillon, and his decisions, strictly fair and impartial, adorn the judicial records of the state.

Evert F. Richman was one of two sons who lived to years of maturity, but his brother, Clayton S., is now deceased. Spending his youthful days in Muscatine, Evert F. Richman attended the public schools of this city and afterward became a student in Lombard University at Galesburg, Illinois. He enlisted for service in the Civil war, becoming adjutant of the Forty-fourth Iowa Infantry,, and did active duty at the front. Following the war he married and then opened an office in Muscatine for the practice of law; in the same year he was admitted to the bar. He has since remained in this city with the exception of a period of twelve years, and is one of the best known and most able representatives of the legal profession in his native county. Earnest effort, close application and intuitive wisdom are strong points in his success. He seems to lose sight of no fact that will bear upon his case and yet never for a moment fails to give due relative prominence to the main point upon which the decision of every case finally turns. His deductions are thoroughly logical and his arguments convincing, and while his devotion to his client's interests is proverbial, he never forgets that he owes a still higher allegiance to the majesty of the law.

On the 26th of September, 1865, Mr. Richman was married to Miss Ida L. Hoppin, a daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (McConnelly Hoppin. They have become parents of a daughter and son: Calla, the wife of Clayburn B. Yandell of Seattle, Washington, by whom she has three children: Louise, Patricia and Hayes; and Charles J., who married Janet Dallas and is an accountant. The family is well known in Muscatine and throughout the county, where the name of Richman has been a familiar and honored one for more than seventy years.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

IRVING B. RICHMAN.

Irving B. Richman should be noted among men of letters. Some time since the Brown University honored him with the title of LL. D. He has been vice president of the Iowa Literary Association, has written historical articles for the Atlantic Monthly, Political Science Quarterly and the Harvard Law Review. He is the author of ''John Brown Among the Quakers," "Appenzell, A Swiss Study," "Rhode Island, Its Making and History," and has just sent to the printer for publication "A History of California."

Mr. Richman is fifty years of age and is a native born son of Muscatine. He was educated in the public schools of this city and the State University of Iowa and is one of the county's distinguished alumni of that institution. In 1908 the State Historical Society honored him as a guest and tendered him a banquet, which was attended by many of the notables of the state.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.