In 1842, the widowed Richardson came to Walworth County, Wisconsin, settling on farmland in Hudson which was annexed by the village of Geneva in 1844.
Soon after coming to Walworth County, Richardson was elected a justice of the peace, a position he held for thirteen years.
Richardson was a Democrat, and was elected from the Walworth County Assembly district that included the Towns of Bloomfield, Geneva, and Hudson (now Lyons).
In 1871, he was part of a group who obtained a charter for the State Line and Union Railway Company, which was soon absorbed into the Chicago and North Western system.
Given his history of safe and sound financial practices, the confusion was laid to the infirmities of old age in his final years.