Biographical Sketch of
Thomas Richards
from the
History of Cass County, Illinois
Edited by William Henry Perrin
Published by O. L. Baskin & Co. Historical Publishers, Chicago, 1882.
Reprinted in 1968 in its in entirety as part of the
Sesquicentennial History of Cass County, Illinois
Edited by Virgil M. Dowdall
THOMAS RICHARDS, farmer; P.O., Arenzville; is a native of Arenzville Precinct; born May 20, 1837; son of James H. and Delilah (Larence) Richards. James H. Richards, a farmer, born in Botetourt County, Va., April 15, 1800, and died June 29, 1866; his wife was born in North Carolina, May 2, 1802, died Sept. 2, 1860; they had eleven children, of whom four are deceased, Thomas being the eighth child of the family. He received an ordinary education in this precinct, and has always been a farmer. In Morgan County, Ill., March 2, 1864, he married Martha A. Dinwiddie, a native of that county; born Nov. 7, 1844; daughter of Thomas and Vizilla Dinwiddie, natives of Kentucky; from this union have been born five children: Amie R., William T. U., Andrew F., James D. (deceased) and Clara B. Mr. Richards is a member of the A. O. U. W.; he is a Democrat.
(page 321, Perrin's History of Cass County, Illinois)