Robert Barnwell Richardson:
"He came to his deah by scalding
from the explosion on the Stmr Glider. . . . "
In the Richardson Family Bible
listing of
family member deaths, we find this entry:
"Robert Barnwell Richardson Died on the 18th January 1869. He
came to his death by scalding from the explosion on the Stmr Glider. After
living one week in great bodily suffering which he bore with manly fortitude.
Oh! That this, the repetion of God's inscrutable providence may awaken his
surviving relatives to a greater sense of this mortal state of existence and
follow after the peace that we are encouraged to believe be found with god.
He died in his 19th year of age . (sic)"
Robert Barnwell Richardson, 1851 - 1869
Robert Barnwell Richardson
was born in 1851, the son and fifth child of Robert Reily Richardson and Mary
Elizabeth Wells Hatfield Richardson (maiden name Wells; first husband was Smith
Benjamin Hatfield (1815-1841). He died 18 January 1869.
The "Stmr Glider"
For many years, I wondered
about this reference to the "Stmr Glider." I was misreading the entry as
though it read "steam glider." I thought the "steam glider" was some sort
of steam engine, perhaps in a factory or sawmill or similar installation, that
exploded, killing Robert B. Richardson.
In early 2012, while doing some of my on-again-off-again
genealogy research, I was struck by a
blinding flash of the obvious and realized a "Stmr" probably is a steamboat and
"Glider" is the name of the boat. I did a Google search for "Steamer Glider"
and found several references to the January 1869 explosion and sinking of the
Mississippi River steamer "The Glide." Mystery solved -- Robert
Barnwell Richardson must have died when he was either a passenger or crew member
on "The Glide" when it exploded.
My search turned up a three-page document dated
15 January 1869 that describes in detail the explosion and sinking of "The
Glide," with names of many of the casualties. Robert B. Richardson's name is
not in this document because he died a few days later. The explosion occurred
on the night of 12 January (see page 3 of the document).
I have reproduced the three-page document
on my website at this link;
you can find the original here:
http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/LWP&CISOPTR=6845&REC=1
At the same time, I found a
clip from the Ouachita Telegraph newspaper about the death of Robert B.
Richardson.
The
Ouachita Telegraph
Wednesday, January 27, 1869
Page 2, Column 6
Another Victim of the Glide Steamer Explosion
Mr. Robt. Richardson, a young man of Rapides parish who was on the ill-fated
steamer Glide, which recently exploded her boiler about 50 miles above the
city, and who was a nephew of ex-Gov. Wells, of this State, died yesterday at
the St. Charles Hotel, from the effects of the injuries which he sustained by
the disaster. He makes the sixteenth victim of the explosion of these who have
died in this city. N.O. Bee.
http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/rapides/newspapers/richrob.txt
(Ouachita Telegraph newspaper was published in Monroe, Louisiana, 1836 - 1922).
Note that he was "nephew of ex-Gov Wells" -- his mother, wife of Robert Reilly Richardson,
was Mary Elizabeth Wells (her first husband was Thomas Hatfield); "ex-Gov. Wells" must
have been her brother. "Ex-Gov. Wells" appears to be James Madison Wells,
governor of Louisiana, 1865-1867. According to this entry:
http://www.la-cemeteries.com/Governors/Wells,%20James%20Madison/
Wells,%20James%20Madison.shtml
According to this article, Governor Wells was considered a "scalawag" after the Civil War:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison_Wells
A "scalawag" was a Southern white who supported federal Reconstruction after the Civil War.
And that, folks, is another family story that makes our ancestors more and more human.
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