Eunice, left, with her sister Annie Daniel.  Eunice is probably about 16 in this picture.  

Benjamin, Utah

March 3, 1942.

History of Eunice Lettie Hickman Richardson

Written by Herself

Daughter of George Washington Hickman and Lucy Ann Haws Hickman.  Born August 29, 1865 at Salem, Utah.  When 6 months old moved to the lower ranch, the home now of Wren Stewart.  Lived there till I was 4 - 5 years old.  Then moved east about 1 mile, built a log house, two rooms and summer kitchen where we lived till I was 14.  Father built a brick house.  When you stop and think about it, it couldn't be done now.  Mother had 13 children.  We lived in those three rooms till the last one was born.  The night we moved in our new home it was an exciting time.  As it was April, the plaster not dry, Father sat up two days and nights to keep fire.  It was wood and had to be replenished often.  In building this house it took all of us to help.  I have stood on the ground, pitched brick to those on the scaffel or caught them as they were pitched to me.  We were so thrilled at getting a new house we would have done most anything.

A log house to this day is a nightmare.  I have heard people say those log cabins look good.  I just shudder knowing what mother had to do to keep one up.  It was the days when everyone had to work in hay grain and potatoes, same as boys, as there was only one boy big enough to do much in our family.  In the fall we worked in fruit, as we had a lot of it.  We dried apples, peaches, plums.

When I was 17 mother took the rest of the family and went to Provo, took the others to school and I stayed at home and kept house for Father and took care of the fruit.  I dried apples and helped Father what I could.

My first school teacher was Mr. Hudson, he taught in Uncle Franklin Stewart's one room house.  I believe it is still standing.  It was fun for us to hear him give geography lessons to the older ones.  I learned to sing the lesson.  He would start with the State, then the Capitol, and on what river it was on, like New York, Albany, on Hudson River, made a real song of it.  It made such an impression on me I never forgot it.  Some years we only had a few months of school; if teachers lived out of town they had to live around with the families a week at a time.  Then the town built one adobe room.  We thought it was fine, but it proved to be so cold.  The windows hadn't any casings.  The wind would blow around them till we had to wear our coats, or move to a stove.  I wish you could look in our school room.  It would be a scream now, the stove set in the center of the room.  The stove was 3 - 4 feet long with a door in the end the size of the stove.  It would take long pieces if we always had the wood.  It often happened we had to close school before night it was so cold and no wood.  This stove would burn greasewood, and there was plenty of it and we could always get them.  If you could see them bringing them in, brush and all, you would think they were bringing in a Christmas tree.

The janitor work was done by school children.  Just to think of it makes me sneeze.  Raise all the windows and start to sweeping.  In a minute you could hardly see across the room.  Then we would run out and have a frolic till the dust settled.  Then try it again.

I guess we didn't mind.  Then we left to find the dust so thick next morning, and everyone dusted his own seat.  It told for itself on our clothes.

Our dances we thought could not be beat.  Everyone so friendly.  If the musician wanted a change he would get up and dance while he fiddled at the same time if you stepped on or off the tune, nobody knew the difference.

Eunice Stewart Harris was teacher a long time when she would tell us to bring wood all the way home.  Don't think it was a picnic to furnish wood for home and school.  Parents sure had a task.  There was no coal, so the school had to wait its turn.  It would be a calamity now to say bring in an armload of wood, for there is generally an argument when you say a few kindlings.

Did we have mud to wade through, shoe top deep, and then some.  We wore shoes, thank goodness, if we had slippers we would have lost them.  Our stockings looked like they were plastered, but we waited till they dried to scrape it off or waited till we got home, took them to the side of the house and beat the mud off.  They weren't silk, just good old home spun, dyed and knit by our parents.

Church was held in the schoolhouse as dances and all entertainment.  When we put on one of our theater stunts, it was like looking backward.  We didn't know anything about movie pictures, but I think we had the idea.  It wasn't a disgrace if a young man put a blanket behind his saddle and took his girl a horseback riding, or all get in a wagon and go to the lake, if we were lucky enough to have a spring seat.  If not, standing wasn't forbidden; not a blow-out or flat tire, or run out of gas, Oh, but the poor horses.  Then it was father's turn to speak, but I don't think he was as sore as when Son comes home now, "Daddy I wrecked the car."

When I was 16 I went one year to the Brigham Young Academy.  I guess it never took because when I was 18 thought I was old enough to get married.  Lived with mother 3 years, then moved to our own home.  I thought it was so nice to have my own home and such a good husband, only it was such a long way from Mother's, with only one neighbor.  I had been raised in a big family, and I suffered, but I learned to like it with 9 children I thought couldn't be better ones and still think so.  They are very good to me, not one gave me a sassy word--now I am bragging.

George Washington Hickman's daughter Eunice Lettie married Thomas Richardson.  They operated a successful farm in Benjamin, Utah.

Thomas Richardson, son of Shadrach and Sarah Haskell Eames, was born in Payson, Utah February 2, 1861.  His mother died when he was six years old.  He moved with his father to Benjamin in 1869.  He attended such schools as they had at the time and learned to read and write.

In the year 1884 he was married to Eunice Lettie Hickman in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.  They were very popular among the young folks and on their return home a dinner was given for them at the home of her mother and a dance was given that evening in the old adobe school house.

For three years they made their home with Eunice's mother when they bought a ranch in the northwest part of Benjamin and built a three room adobe house where they lived for a great many years.  Later a brick building replaced the adobe one.

Tom Richardson, as he was called by his friends and neighbors, loved hunting and loved to be in the mountains getting out timber for fuel, fencing, etc.  He made a succes of farming and loved the work, especially irrigating.

He was rather retiring in his nature and did not care for work of a public nature.  He was an officer in the Young Men's Mutual Association for a number of years and was associated with others in the Elder's quorum. 

He loved children, which seems to be a characteristic of all the Richardson men.

In the year 1921 he was stricken with paralysis from which he suffered partial blindness and palsy.  On October 1, 1824, he suffered a second stroke which left him helpless.  He passed away on October 21, 1924, and was buried in the Benjamin Cemetery.  His wife Eunice Lettie Hickman Richardson and eight children survived him.  One child died in infancy.  [Eunice died in 1946, and none of their children are now living.]

His children were:  T. Leslie Richardson, wife Hazel Ludlow Richardson, Benjamin, Utah; Shadrach Milton Richardson (died November, 1927), wife Madge Evans Richardson, Spanish Fork, Utah; Genevieve Richardson Lundell, husband F. Joseph Lundell, Benjamin, Utah; Lucy Ann Richardson Roundy, husband Adelbert Roundy, Mapleton, Utah; George Wesley Richardson, wife Pauline Butler, Benjamin, Utah; Alton Richardson, wife Ruth Baadsgaard, Benjamin, Utah; Eunice Lettie Richardson McKenzie, husband Ray McKenzie, Springville, Utah.

The Richardson Family, Pioneers of Oregon and Utah, 1940, p.26

This picture of Thomas and Eunice Richardson and their family was taken in their yard in Benjamin, Utah about 1905 by pioneer Utah photographer George Edward Anderson.  The front row, left to right are:

Alton H. (1904-1977), George Wesley (1899-1952), Lucy Ann (1896-1994), Eunice Lettie (1865-1946). 

The back row, left to right are Thomas (1861 to 1923), Sterling (1892-1934), Shadrach Milton (1888-1927), Thomas Leslie (1885-1963), Genevieve (1894-1951).   Not pictured are children David Othello (1889-1891), who had died, and Eunice (1907-1991), who had not yet been born.

---o0o---

Eunice L.H. Richardson

  BENJAMIN, Utah County---Mrs. Eunice Letty Hickman Richardson, 81, oldest resident of Benjamin, died Wednesday in the family home of causes incident to age.

  She was born Aug. 29, 1865, in Salem, a daughter of George Washington and Lucy Ann Haws Hickman.  She was married to Thomas Richardson, April 24, 1880, in the old Logan L D S endowment house.  He died several years ago.

  An active worker in the L D S church, she was associated with the Relief Society and helped organize the first old folks committee in Benjamin, serving for 25 years on that group.

  Surviving are three sons, Thomas Leslie, George Wesley and Alton H. Richardson, Benjamin; three daughters, Mrs. Genevieve Lundell, Benjamin; Mrs. Lucy Roundy, Mapleton, Utah county; Mrs. Eunice McKenzie, Springville; 32 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; two sisters, Mrs. Annie Daniels, Logan; Miss Laura Hickman, Salt Lake City; two brothers, A.F. and F.L. Hickman, Salt Lake City.

  Funeral services will be conducted Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in the Benjamin L D S ward.  Friends may call at the Valley mortuary in Payson Saturday evening and at the family home Sunday prior to services.  Burial will be in Benjamin cemetery.

--Salt Lake Tribune, Sep 5 1946, p.17

To read Eunice's account of the lives her mother and father, click here.

To return to the Hickman Family Index page, click here.

Eunice Lettie Hickman and her

husband  Thomas Richardson