Benjamin Richardson was born about 1776 and died in 1849.  He was educated at home by his parents.  His father was a Judge of the Inferior Court and instructed his son in the rudiments of law and surveying so that he had more than one skill.  He served as Justice of the Peace in Georgia and was one of the first Justices commissioned in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.  In 1843, he was appointed Justice of the Peace in Jasper County, Texas.  He was a Private in the War of 1812, serving under Captain Elisha Harrell’s Mounted Detachment of Gun Men Acting as Spies, 12^th and 13^th Consolidated Regiments, Louisiana Militia.  He was a Charter member of the Antioch Primitive Baptist Church.  The church is still standing and has a historical marker in front, naming Benjamin as one of its first members.  (Jasper County)  Benjamin came to Texas in the early part of 1830 and settled on the east bank of the Neches River where the town of Evadale now stands.  As soon as possible after his arrival, Benjamin, with two of his older sons, Andrew and William, built a ferry boat and began taking travelers back and forth across the river at the site called Richardson’s Bluff.

During the Runaway Scrape, Richardson and his sixteen year old son, Robert, remained at the Bluff day and night, ferrying frightened refugees across the river.

Benjamin died sometime in the year of 1849 and was buried in the family cemetery near the old mill site of the Kirby Lumber Company.  No trace of the cemetery remains today.

Alice Robicheaux Whitehead, Descendant