Edmund Richardson

June 28, 1818 (age 67)

Caswell County, North Carolina, United States

After serving as a clerk in a dry-goods store at Danville during 1832, he removed the following year to Brandon, Mississippi, where he found similar employment at $40 per annum. The settlement of his father' estate in 1840 left him $2, 800 and a few slaves which, together with his savings, soon enabled him to form a mercantile partnership at Jackson with branch stores in neighboring communities. Richardson invested his mercantile profits in land and slaves, and by 1861 he owned five plantations and several hundred negroes. In 1852 he entered the factorage business in New Orleans as junior member in Thornhill & Company, and although the firm prospered, outstanding acceptances amounting to a half-million dollars caused it to suspend business at the beginning of the Civil War. By 1865 he was heavily in debt, but his energy and business acumen enabled him to rebuild his fortune. His cotton commission firm reopened and within a year he was solvent. The dissolution of his partnership with Thornhill in 1867 was soon followed by the establishment of another factorage firm in New Orleans, Richardson & May, which received annually 100, 000 bales. Having succeeded as planter and factor, Richardson decided to manufacture cotton, believing that factories should be situated near the source of the raw product. For this purpose he leased in 1868 the Mississippi penitentiary for a three-year period at $18, 000 per annum, and was later persuaded to keep it another year. To employ all the convicts he purchased more plantations and leased others. Eventually he acquired about fifty, located in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and on each of them he kept a store and sold merchandise to his employees. He was the largest cotton planter in the world: the 25, 000 acres which he cultivated produced in good years some 12, 000 bales, worth more than a half-million dollars. In 1873 he bought a controlling interest in the cotton mills at Wesson, Mississippi, and served as president until his death in 1886. His business was expanded to include the Refuge Oil Mill at Vicksburg and the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad. His election as vice-president of the Atlanta Cotton Exposition of 1881, came in recognition of his ability as a cotton magnate. The crowning honor of his career came in 1884 when President Arthur appointed him commissioner of the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, held in New Orleans. Richardson was made president of the board of management, delivered the opening speech, and contributed liberally to the expense of the Exposition. He died in Jackson, Mississippi, in his sixty-eighth year.

Edmund Richardson

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cotton planter manufacturer

Background

Edmund Richardson was born on June 28, 1818 in Caswell County, North Carolina, a few miles from Danville, Virginia. He was one of seven children born to James Richardson, planter and country merchant, and Nancy Payne Ware.

Education

At the age of ten he entered an old-field school where he continued four years, supplementing his study by Saturday work on his widowed mother's farm.

Career

After serving as a clerk in a dry-goods store at Danville during 1832, he removed the following year to Brandon, Mississippi, where he found similar employment at $40 per annum. The settlement of his father' estate in 1840 left him $2, 800 and a few slaves which, together with his savings, soon enabled him to form a mercantile partnership at Jackson with branch stores in neighboring communities.

Richardson invested his mercantile profits in land and slaves, and by 1861 he owned five plantations and several hundred negroes.

In 1852 he entered the factorage business in New Orleans as junior member in Thornhill & Company, and although the firm prospered, outstanding acceptances amounting to a half-million dollars caused it to suspend business at the beginning of the Civil War.

By 1865 he was heavily in debt, but his energy and business acumen enabled him to rebuild his fortune. His cotton commission firm reopened and within a year he was solvent. The dissolution of his partnership with Thornhill in 1867 was soon followed by the establishment of another factorage firm in New Orleans, Richardson & May, which received annually 100, 000 bales.

Having succeeded as planter and factor, Richardson decided to manufacture cotton, believing that factories should be situated near the source of the raw product. For this purpose he leased in 1868 the Mississippi penitentiary for a three-year period at $18, 000 per annum, and was later persuaded to keep it another year. To employ all the convicts he purchased more plantations and leased others. Eventually he acquired about fifty, located in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and on each of them he kept a store and sold merchandise to his employees.

He was the largest cotton planter in the world: the 25, 000 acres which he cultivated produced in good years some 12, 000 bales, worth more than a half-million dollars. In 1873 he bought a controlling interest in the cotton mills at Wesson, Mississippi, and served as president until his death in 1886. His business was expanded to include the Refuge Oil Mill at Vicksburg and the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad.

His election as vice-president of the Atlanta Cotton Exposition of 1881, came in recognition of his ability as a cotton magnate. The crowning honor of his career came in 1884 when President Arthur appointed him commissioner of the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, held in New Orleans. Richardson was made president of the board of management, delivered the opening speech, and contributed liberally to the expense of the Exposition.

He died in Jackson, Mississippi, in his sixty-eighth year.

Achievements

In his varied activities he enjoyed an enviable reputation for business integrity and sound judgment, industry and enterprise, thrift and perseverance. Because of his extensive cotton interests Richardson was known as the "Cotton King, " and his appointment as commissioner from the cotton states at the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876.

Connections

In 1847 he met Margaret Elizabeth Patton of Huntsville, Alabama, a sister of former Governor Robert Patton. They were married in May 1848, and to them were born seven children.

Father:: James Richardson
Spouse:: Margaret Elizabeth Patton
Daughter:: Nancy Payne Ware

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