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Richardson Cemetery
Wilkinson County, MS

In 1809 - 1810 my Richardson ancestors moved from their plantations in South Carolina to Wilkinson County, Mississippi.  They were part of a large migration from the eastern seaboard states -- the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia -- to new lands in "the West"  (Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas).   Farmland on the eastern seaboard had been farmed heavily since early colonial times and, because modern farming practices such as crop rotation were unknown at the time, farmland was becoming very poor and crop yields were falling.  The lure of new land in "the West" drew many families from the SE states and the Richardson's were part of that migration.  

The Richardson migration is described in The Memoirs of Francis Dubose Richardson.

Common practice was for each family to establish one or more family cemeteries near their homes.  Of course, necessity required this because travel was slow -- by foot or horseback -- funeral services such as embalming or cremation were not readily available and the dead had to be buried quickly. 

The Richardson's from SC settled in Wilkinson County, MS, a few miles east of the town of Woodville, west of the town of Centreville.  I was born in Centreville.  My grandparents had family -- cousins, aunts, uncles -- and friends in both towns, between the two towns, and in the adjoining Louisiana parish (county).  I recall several instances when I was young and riding in the car with my grandfather Clarence Richardson -- Granddad -- driving to Woodville to visit Aunt Ada or one of his cousins.  A few miles before we reached Woodville there was a large pasture with a grove of trees in the pasture, about 100 yards off the side of the Centreville - Woodville highway.  Granddad would point to the grove of trees and tell me that there was an old Richardson cemetery in the trees and his grandparents were buried there.

Many years later, I talked with my mother about the old Richardson cemetery and she told me she had visited the cemetery as a child and that recently (late 1990's) one of her Richardson cousins have taken photos of the headstones in the cemetery.

In 2009 I was contacted by Jerome Wall from St. Francisville, Louisiana, who is a Richardson descendant -- he and I share the same great-great-grandfather, Robert Riley Richardson.  Jerome told me that the property on which the cemetery was located had been purchased by a couple who were interested in preserving the old cemetery.  Jerome and the new owners had arranged to have trees and brush removed from the cemetery and he now wanted to erect a fence around the cemetery.

Through 2009 and 2010, Jerome, one of my mother's cousins, and I contacted as many of our Richardson relatives as we could and solicited donations for the fence.  By early October 2010 we had enough money together pay for the fence and it was installed in early December.

Here are details and photos of the Richardson Cemetery on Hwy 24 east of Woodville, MS.

These two headstones are my great-great-grandparents:

•  Robert Riley Richardson; born 25 Jan 1813, died 16 Mar 1874.
•  Mary E. Wells Hatfield; born 7 Oct 1820, died 7 Jan 1891.

The following information provides a few details about my great-great-grandparents.

1.  The 1860 slave census for Wilkinson County, MS, lists Robert Riley Richardson as owning 83 slaves.

2.  Entry in the Richardson family bible states:

The Cemetery Fence, December 2010

The two following photos show the cemetery with the new fence in place.  In the foreground is a row of wooden and steel stakes -- these are parts of the old wire fence that once surrounded the cemetery.  The new fence is the black forged aluminum fence behind the old wire fence, which was removed after these photos were made.

After the fence was installed, there was some money left over and Jerome had this monument erected to identify the cemetery.

Headstones in the Richardson Cemetery

Headstones in Richardson Cemetery

Located on Hwy 24 E., Wilkinson Co., MS

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