Born in Friedland, Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire, Richter was the son weaver and farmer at Mildenau.
Hearing of good grazing land northwards in British Columbia, he sold out his mine holdings in Washington and bought 42 head of cattle with a man by the name of King, and they drove them to the Cawston area south of the Keremeos, which is located in the Similkameen Valley of British Columbia's Southern Interior in October 1864.
[2] Lucy Simla and Franz Xavier Richter had 5 sons together: Charles 1869-1949, William 1872-1922, Joseph 1874-1971, Edward 1876-1966, Hans 1877-1961.
Richter married Florence Elizabeth Loudon in 1894 prior to the death of his first partner Lucy Simla.
[1] In 1910, Richter was to return to his native Austria but fell ill at a Christmas Dinner at St. Joseph's Hospital in Victoria and died within moments, of "a stroke of apoplexy".