Joseph Warren Richmond

As printed in 1910

JOSEPH WARREN RICHMOND.

Joseph Warren Richmond is the owner of Prospect Hill Nursery farm situated on section 29, Geneseo township, about a mile from the city of Geneseo, Illinois. It is an attractive and valuable property, lacking in none of the equipments and accessories of the model farm of the twentieth century and indicates in its well kept appearance the careful supervision and progressive method of the owner.

Mr. Richmond was born in North Scituate, Rhode Island, February 20, 1840, and is the son of Isaiah and EUza Angell (Fenner) Richmond. He was about four years of age when his father came with his family to Illinois, living one year at Tremont, Tazewell county, and about nine years at Groveland, near Peoria, when in the fall of 1854, they came to Geneseo, which has since been the family home.

Here the father established a nursery, the second in the county, there being a small nursery at Wethersfield. Mr. Richmond may be said to have grown up in the nursery business since he assisted his father during his youth and early manhood, thus gaining valuable experience concerning general agricultural methods and the care and propagation of nursery stock. In 1866 he and his father bought sixty acres of land on section 29, Geneseo township, and the business was transferred to its present location. Soon after this Mr. Richmond was joined by his brother Edwin and together they purchased their father's interest in the business. The brothers added to their acres and extended the business, being associated together for fifteen years, Edwin acting as manager of the nursery and local trade for ten years, while Joseph W. traveled with a force of salesmen in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Michigan.

Following the death of his brother Edwin, in December, 1880, Mr. Richmond remained at home, giving personal attention to local affairs and trusting the outside trade entirely to agents. He was joined by his younger brother, Francis E. and together they purchased the interest left by the deceased brother and were associated in the business for two years, when Joseph W. became sole proprietor. They had previously purchased the homestead at the foot of Oakwood avenue, and in the division of the property, Francis E took that as his share, while Joseph W. kept the nursery.

It was during the one season spent in traveling through Michigan, that Mr. Richmond met in Saginaw, at her father's home, Clara McLellan, to whom he was married May 25, 1881. She is a daughter of Benjamin and Emeline (Palmer) McLellan and was born on the 26th of November, 1854, in Saginaw. She was educated in the Saginaw high school, was two years a student at the Michigan State Normal school at Ypsilanti and studied one year at Wellesley College, Massachusetts. While in the east, she visited the birthplace of her father in Thornton, Grafton county. New Hampshire. He was born October 18, 1813, the youngest son of John McLellan (1742-1817), a native of Perthshire, Scotland. On coming to America in 1774, John McLellan settled in Thornton and continued a respected citizen of the old Granite state till his death. He married Dorothy Varnum, of Dracut, Massachusetts, a descendant of George and Sarah (Langton) Varnum, who came from England about 1635, and settled at Ipswich, (Agawam), Massachusetts, and whose descendants served with distinction in the Revolutionary war. Dorothy Varnum's mother was Sarah Cobum, five of whose relatives participated in the siege of Boston. Mrs. Richmond's father, Benjamin McLellan, went to Michigan in 1834, Saginaw then being but an Indian trading post, and he lived to see it develop by means of the lumber and. salt industries into the third city in the state, surrounded by a rich agricultural country. He married February 12, 1845, Emeline Palmer, of Livonia, New York, a descendant of the John Palmer, who received a grant of land in

1667 at Greenwich, Connecticut, many of whose descendants served in the Revolutionary war and their sons likewise being patriots in the war of 1812.

After their marriage and a short visit at Niagara Falls and Watkins Glen, Mr. and Mrs. Richmond began housekeeping at Prospect Hill, which has ever since been their home. They have two children: Mildred Ella Richmond, born October 21, 1888, a graduate of the Geneseo high school of the class of 1907 and a student at the University of Michigan of the class of 191 1; and Warren McLellan Richmond, born July 5, 1895, a member of the Geneseo high school of the class of 1913.

Mr. Richmond has always been interested in horticulture and is a local authority on matters pertaining to fruit and plant industry. He is a member of the National Association of Nurserymen. He has always been a republican, following in the political footsteps of his father, but has never been an office seeker. Like his father, he has also advocated the cause of temperance throughout his entire life, and in the nursery business has always taken the stand that he did not care for the trade that had to be bought with whisky or by treating. He is a member of Stewart Lodge, No. 92, A. F. & A. M. He has led a busy and useful life, has ever been found honorable, reliable and progressive in business and courteous and genial in his social relations, and he thus enjoys in large measure the confidence and regard of those with whom he has been brought in contact.

As printed in History of Henry County, Illinois (1910). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.