Captain Charles Richardson’s story in America begins with the arrival of Thomas Richardson (1608-1651) in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Along with his two brothers, Ezekiel (1602-1647) and Samuel (1604-1657), and his wife, Mary Baldwin (1612-1670), Thomas came from Hertfordshire, England, sometime around 1635. The Richardsons became some of the original settlers of Woburn, Massachusetts, where the brothers built their homes on the Mystic side of town and “became prominent citizens of Woburn” (Crane 1907).
Thomas’ seventh child and youngest son, Nathaniel (1650-1714), served as a soldier in King Philip’s War, one of the most devastating conflicts in American Colonial history. Nathaniel was one of the hundreds of militiamen who raided the indigenous Narragansett settlement in Rhode Island on December 19, 1675. Close to a thousand Narragansett people and about 70 colonists died in the conflict; hundreds more were wounded, including Nathaniel, who returned to Woburn with six other wounded men.
As compensation for his service, Nathaniel and the hundreds of other soldiers who fought against the Narragansett people were promised land in the Massachusetts Colony. It would take fifty years for the lands to be granted, and Nathaniel was long dead by then. His grandson, John (1721-1768), would draw a lot in what was then called Narragansett No. 6, about seventy miles west of Boston. Busy with his life as a distiller in Roxbury, John never settled that land.
However, John’s nephew, Captain John Richardson (1737-1819), inherited his great-grandfather’s land, and after his 1757 marriage to his first wife, Ruth Sawtell (1736-1764), he settled the lot. In 1762, John and his neighbors incorporated their properties into Templeton, Massachusetts. Two years later, Ruth died at age 28, leaving her husband and one son, John Jr. (1758-1823). Captain John married Rebecca Moore in 1769 and had thirteen more children. He would serve as selectman and town clerk of the new township before the onset of the American Revolution.
In 1772, Captain John led a committee convened “to consider the encroachments made by the British ministry on the rights and liberties of the American colonies” (Vinton 1876). Two years later, he was appointed to chair another committee to report on British imports. In 1779, Captain John was chosen on a committee “to regulate prices as affected by the depreciation of Continental currency” (Vinton 1876). His patriotic service was complimented by his enlistment in the 6th Massachusetts Regiment in the Revolutionary War. Captain John fought at Bunker Hill and participated in the battle of Fort Ticonderoga. After the war, he returned to Templeton, where he was regarded as “a man of strong mind and will, independent in judgment and action, an ardent patriot, ready to serve his country on every fit occasion” (Vinton 1876).
John and Ruth’s son, John Jr. (1758-1823), also served as a private in the Revolutionary War, enlisting when he was just seventeen. According to an 1844 pension application by John’s widow, Sarah Wilder (1764-1851), supplemented with a statement from their son, Charles Richardson himself, John Jr. served in the Continental Army in Long Island, Dorchester Heights, White Plains, and “various places along the Hudson River,” including being present at the Battle of Saratoga for “the taking of Burgoine (sic), he being one of the men who fire cannon” (Pension Application, 1844). Sarah reported, “I have often heard him state his sufferings while in the service of his country, with hunger and at one time of his going from Springfield, Mass to New York on barefoot.” She continued, “All the compensation he received was in Continental money, which proved good for nothing… his health was very much ignored” (Pension Application, 1844).
John Jr. returned to Templeton after the war and married Sarah in 1782. The couple had nine children: John III (1786-1874), Joshua (1788-1842), James (1791-1845), Thomas (1793-1874), Sarah (1796-1815), Caleb (1798-1871), Charlotte Corday (1800-1899), Henry (1803-1805), and finally, Charles, born on November 28, 1806.
John Jr. died on Christmas Day 1823 at age fifty-five, when Charles was just 17 years old. 1830 census records suggest that Sarah and Charles went to live with Joshua in Templeton. Two years later, on February 28, 1832, Charles married Unity Partridge (1814-1836). He was 25, and she was 17.
Unity and Charles had one son, Charles P. (1836–1906), born in Templeton on August 30, 1836. Six weeks later, Unity was dead at the age of 22. She is buried in the Pine Grove Cemetery in Templeton with her parents and siblings.
On January 23, 1838, Charles married Miranda Cook (1815-1897) and had seven more children: Unity (b.1840), John (1843-1851), Frank F. (1844-1900), Clara (1846-1936), Edward C. (1849-1851), Sarah H. (1849-1880), and Edward C. (1858-1891).
By 1840, the Richardson family had relocated to Waterford, Vermont, a Connecticut River town 175 miles north of Templeton. Charles opened a shop where he made and sold furniture, chairs, carriages, and cabinets.
Around this time, Charles began to be called Captain Charles Richardson. An extensive search of military records in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire does not turn up any proof of his military service. It is possible he was a member of a local militia, or it may be a moniker bestowed on him or by him, given his family history of military service. The origins of the Captain title are unclear.
By 1844, Charles had entered the covered bridge business. Along with mechanic Jesse Bishop (1804-1877), Charles constructed the first covered bridge across the Connecticut River connecting Waterford, Vermont, to Littleton, New Hampshire. This covered bridge replaced an earlier structure built in 1803. The two constructed a 265-foot, two-span covered bridge using a Paddleford truss. Records indicate that not only did Charles build the bridge, but he owned it as well. The bridge was known as the 1st Littleton Bridge or the Upper Bridge, and tolls were collected on the Vermont side for many years.
Jesse Bishop was an interesting man. In 1847, he constructed the 2nd Littleton Bridge just downriver from the Upper Bridge. Like its neighbor, this 220-foot bridge employed a Paddleford Truss and collected tolls. In addition to bridge building, Bishop constructed several houses in Waterford and worked as the village shoemaker for thirty years. In an 1863 notice in the St. Johnsbury Caledonian, Bishop stated that he had cured himself of a lifelong stammer and offered his services to help other stutterers with his method. Fourteen years later, Bishop and his wife were thrown from their wagon. He sustained a broken leg and head injuries. A few weeks later, he got up in the middle of the night and disappeared. He was found dead in the bushes about 20 yards from his house. He was “a man quite well known in this and the neighboring towns, and he leaves a large circle of mourning friends” (St. Johnsbury Caledonian 1877).
An article in the Vermont Watchman and Statesman in February 1845 reported that there had been a fire in the carriage and cabinet shop belonging to Capt. Charles Richardson, of Waterford, upper village. “The shop and all the machinery except one large wheel, also, considerable property in stock and manufactured articles, were destroyed. Loss estimated at full $2,500-$1,000 covered by insurance. Someone made a fire in the shop and left it for breakfast, and it caught in his absence” (Vermont Watchman and Statesman 1845).
The 1850 Census shows the family living in a home owned by 44-year-old Charles, who is identified as a machinist and farmer. In addition to Miranda and the children, seven adult boarders lived on the property, including farmer George Perry (1829-1861), Sarah Perry (1829-1913), mechanic Aaron Tilton (1823-1906), Sumner Stockwell (1827-1893), Ethan N. Lewis (1825-1887), John Temple, and Scotland immigrant Ann Stuart (1827-1910). (Incidentally, Tilton and Stuart were married in 1853.) Charles and Miranda’s daughter, Sarah, is missing from this census report and the 1860 report; whether she was missed or placed elsewhere is unclear.
In 1851, tragedy struck the Richardson family. The village of Waterford was hit with a dysentery outbreak, “which has raged among the children” (St. Johnsbury Caledonian 1851). Eight children died, including two of Charles and Miranda’s sons: Edward, age two years and four months, and John, age eight years. The two little boys were initially buried in the Pike Cemetery but were moved to the Riverside Cemetery in Waterford after the creation of the Moore Dam in 1956.
In 1852, the town of Northumberland, New Hampshire, hired Charles to build a covered bridge in the village of Groveton over the Upper Ammonoosuc River near the paper mill. Records indicate the bridge was built by “Captain Charles Richardson and Son,” which would indicate sixteen-year-old Charles P. helped his father. The other Richardson boys were too young to be of any help. The 126-foot Paddleford truss bridge was built from native spruce cut from nearby Cape Horn Mountain and milled by lumberman George W. McKellips (1826–1908) at his Groveton sawmill. The Groveton Bridge still stands today and is used as a pedestrian bridge.
A year later, the Guildhall Toll Bridge, constructed by Peter Paddleford (1785-1859) in 1842, was destroyed by a windstorm. Charles was hired to oversee the construction of a new bridge spanning the Connecticut River from Northumberland to Guildhall, Vermont, in 1854. He employed a Paddleford truss for this 300-foot covered bridge, which stood until it was destroyed by cyclonic winds in 1918.
In 1857, the town of Barnet, Vermont, was looking to replace an earlier bridge across the Passumpsic River that had been constructed in 1787. The town hired William Adams (1811-1896) and Ezra Parks (1821-1897) as the contractors, who, in turn, hired Charles as the carpenter (Wells 1923) to build a covered bridge. Another Paddleford truss, this bridge stood across the Passumpsic until it was destroyed by a flood in 1927.
An 1858 map of Waterford identifies the Richardson property in Waterford Village along a stream close to the Connecticut River in the southeast portion of the town. A few miles from the Richardson property is the site of the Upper Bridge spanning the Connecticut River into Littleton, New Hampshire, labeled the “C. Richardson Bridge.” All of this now lies underneath the Moore Reservoir.
In 1859, Charles is credited as the carpenter of the third Waterford Congregational Church. The second building had been destroyed by fire that same year. The new structure was reportedly built with timbers from a previous meetinghouse constructed in 1818 by Deacon Abial Richardson (1773-1843) which had been torn down. There does not appear to be a relationship to Charles.
The 1860 Census shows Charles living with Miranda and his surviving children in Waterford. Nineteen-year-old Unity was working as a teacher; 25-year-old Charles P. is recorded as a carpenter journeyman residing in the home with his wife, Kate. Charles’ occupation is listed as a lumber manufacturer. Also living in the home were teamster James Hurlburt and laborer Sylvester Hurlburt.
Sometime between 1860 and 1870, Charles, Miranda, and their three younger children moved across the river to the village of Groveton in Northumberland, New Hampshire. In addition to owning a farm, Charles operated the Charles Richardson & Co. lumber manufacturing company and continued to work as a furniture maker and bridge builder. The 1870 Census indicates that Charles’ son, Frank, lived next door to his father with his wife and young daughter. Frank also worked as a carpenter.
In 1862, the town of Lancaster, New Hampshire, hired a bridge builder to construct two covered bridges in the downtown area. One was the Mechanic Street Bridge, and the other was the Main Street Bridge, which became known as the Double Barrel Bridge because of its unique design. Town reports indicate that it cost $2,610 to construct both bridges, and up until March 2023, the builder’s identity was unclear. However, after a close examination of receipts at the Weeks Public Library, it is confirmed that Charles built both bridges.
The payments for both covered bridges began in May 1862 and ended in November and simply refer to work on “the bridge.” Charles Richardson was first paid for nineteen days of work on May 21, 1862. On June 26, he was paid for 16 days. Richardson was subsequently paid for expenses such as board, belts, pine, nails, treenails, freight, and use of tackle. On November 9, he was paid for “42 days work on the bridge,” bringing his total to seventy-seven work days for both bridges. In all, he was paid $328.49.
The Main Street/Double Barrel Bridge was damaged beyond repair in 1866 and subsequently replaced. The Mechanic Street Bridge stands today.
Up for debate is Charles’ involvement in building the nearby Stark Bridge. It is unclear exactly when the current bridge was constructed and by whom, but the town has settled on 1862. The Stark Bridge looks incredibly similar to Charles’ other covered bridges, specifically the Groveton and Mechanic Street bridges.
An article by Muriel Rogers Stuart (1913–1990) in the July 1947 edition of New Hampshire Highways Magazine credits Captain Richardson as the builder and unilaterally states it was built in 1857, but this has not been corroborated (Stuart 1947). Stuart served as an auditor for the town of Stark, and her husband, Raymond, served on the school board and as town moderator. It is unclear if she had documented information or was reciting oral tradition. Sadly, neither the Stark Heritage Center nor the Town of Stark have any records prior to 1893.
The 1868 Gorham, New Hampshire, Annual Report indicates that Charles Richardson constructed a bridge across the Peabody River in 1867. He was paid $1,485.48 for his work. According to the Androscoggin River Valley by D.B. Wight, the bridge was destroyed by the freshet of October 4, 1869. “The town had just built a new covered bridge over the Peabody River, on the main road to Shelburne… this was the only highway covered bridge that Gorham ever had” (Wight 1967). No photos exist of this bridge.
1844. Upper/1st Littleton Bridge. Waterford, VT/Littleton, NH. Lost 1890.
1852. Groveton Bridge. Northumberland.
1854. Guildhall Toll Bridge. Northumberland, NH/Guildhall, VT. Lost 1918.
1857. Passumpsic Village Bridge. Barnet, VT. Lost 1927.
1862. Mechanic Street Bridge. Lancaster.
1862. Main Street/Double Barrel Bridge, Lancaster. Lost 1866.
1868. Androscoggin River Bridge. Gorham. Lost 1869.
In 1890, Charles’ Upper Bridge in Waterford was destroyed. A log jam gathered around the abutments, causing the west side of the bridge to collapse. “Charles Caswell was driving across the bridge and had barely time to get over when the bridge fell” (St. Johnsbury Caledonian 1890). By that evening, the rest of the bridge went out along with the piers “so that the water now runs as smoothly over the spot as if no bridge had ever been there” (St. Johnsbury Caledonian 1890).
An 1892 map of Groveton indicates C. Richardson living on the corner of Main and State Streets. A bank building stands in that location today. His son, Charles P., is shown as living on what is now Brooklyn Street.
Charles died of heart failure on December 7, 1894, at the age of eighty-eight. He is buried in the Northumberland Cemetery with his wife, Miranda, who died in 1897.
Charles’ son, Charles P. Richardson (1836–1906), also became an established carpenter and builder. Together, they were “successful contractors and builders, especially of dams, bridges, and mills” (Coos County Democrat 1898). Vital records indicate Charles P.’s occupations as a carpenter (1857), carpenter journeyman (1860), mechanic (1860), millwright (1880), building mover (1900), and millwright (1905).
Charles P. married Catherine “Kate” S. Moore (1836-1900) on December 12, 1857, and the couple had two children, Flora E. (1860-1938) and Charles Fremont (1862-1939). The family moved across the Connecticut River to Groveton in 1864. He was soon regarded as “one of the most energetic and picturesque characters that have recently figured upon the stage of business life in this vicinity… he is a keen, spare, resolute man, who studies calmly every element of risk or danger” (Coos County Democrat 1898).
On March 18, 1873, Charles P. received patent number 136,939 for an improvement in grindstone troughs and supports. “This invention relates to the construction of troughs for grindstones, and the brackets or hangers for supporting the stone, and it consists in the manner of putting in the bottom of the trough, and in so constructing the hangers that the trough may be fastened down with screws” (Richardson 1873).
Charles P. was an industrious man. A profile in the Coos County Democrat stated that during his lifetime, he “moved fully 50 buildings, and has built, or helped to build, ten bridges, including one at Upper Waterford long owned by his father, 300 feet long, and one at Bethel, Me., 400 feet long. He has raised bells and has raised 34 smokestacks and taken down 12” (Coos County Democrat 1898). The “helped to build” statement seems liberal, given that Charles P. was only eight years old when the Upper Waterford Bridge was built. The Bethel Toll Bridge in Bethel, Maine, was constructed between 1868 and 1869. Charles P. was 32 and could have participated in the build. However, the builder of this bridge has never been proven and has been speculated to have been Hiram York (1828-1897). Records have not been found to substantiate either claim.
After Kate died in 1900, Charles P. lived with his married daughter, Flora, her second husband, William Nelson (1862-1919), and their surviving son, Charles. W (1900-1968). In 1906, Charles P. married Vesta Viola Smith Stinson (1845-1931). He died a month after their wedding. He is buried with Kate in the Northumberland Cemetery.
References
Historical photos are a part of the author’s collection or were used with permission from Anne Morgan, Beth Kanell, Covered Spans of Yesteryear, and the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges.
Special thanks to Barbara Robarts, Weeks Memorial Library, Lancaster; Beth Kanell, Waterford, Vermont; Helen-Chantal Pike, Waterford, Vermont; Gail Andrews, Narragansett Historical Society, Templeton, Massachusetts; Reuben Rajala, Gorham Historical Society, New Hampshire; Bill Caswell, President, and Scott Wagner, Co-Vice President, National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges..
Affidavit of John Richardson (age 80), 6 March 1844, Sarah Richardson, widow’s pension application file W. 18814, for service of John Richardson, U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900, Department of Veterans Affairs, Archive Publication No. M804, Archive Roll No. 2039, retrieved from ancestry.com: accessed June 23, 2024.
Allen, Richard S. 1947. “Upper Connecticut River Bridges.” Covered Bridge Topics, June: 4.
Casella, Richard M. 2012. Stark Covered Bridge, Stark, New Hampshire, Historic Structure Report. Portsmouth, RI: Historic Documentation Company, Inc.
Conwill, Joseph D. 2002. Historic Amercian Engineering Record, Sunday River Bridge, HAER No. ME-69. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.
—. 2003. Maine’s Covered Bridges. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing.
Coos County Democrat. 1898. C.P. Richardson. Coos County Democrat, May 4, 1898.
Crane, Ellery Bicknell. 1907. Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts: With a History of Worcester Society of Antiquity. United States: Lewis Publishing Company.
Political Manual and Annual Register for the State of New Hampshire. 1867. United States: McFarland & Jenks.
Richardson, Charles P. 1873. Improvement in grindstone troughs and supports. US Patent 136,939, issued March 18, 1873.
St. Johnsbury Caledonian. 1851. St. Johnsbury Caledonian, October 18, 1851.
—. 1863. “To Stammerers.” St. Johnsbury Caledonian, October 16, 1863.
—. 1877. “Sudden Death.” St. Johnsbury Caledonian, June 29, 1877.
—. 1890. “The Bridge Disasters.” St. Johnsbury Caledonian, May 15, 1890.
Stuart, Muriel V. Rogers. 1947. “Stark Covered Bridge.” New Hampshire Highways Magazine, July.
Town of Gorham. 1868. “Annual Report of the Town of Gorham.” Gorham, NH.
Vermont Watchman & State Journal. 1845. “Fire.” Vermont Watchman & State Journal, February 21, 1845.
Vinton, John Adams. 1876. The Richardson Memorial: Comprising a Full History and Genealogy of the Posterity of the Three Brothers, Ezekiel, Samuel, and Thomas Richardson, who came from England, and United with Others in the Foundation of Woburn, Massachusetts, in the Year 1641, of John Richardson, of Medfield, 1679, of Amos Richardson, of Boston, 1640, of Edward and William Richardson, of Newbury, 1643, with Notices of Richardsons in England and Elsewhere. United States: subscribers.
Wells, Frederic Palmer. 1923. History of Barnet, Vermont: From the Outbreak of the French and Indian War to Present Time. United States: Free Press Printing Company.
Wight, D.B. 1967. The Androscoggin River Valley: Gateway to the White Mountains. Charles E. Tuttle Company, Rutland, Vermont.
Wright & Potter Printing Co.; Boston, MA, USA; Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War; Volume: Volume 13.
