Billy Richardson (Pony Express rider)

He was a native of Virginia and at a fairly young age he was shanghaied onto a seagoing freighter where he sailed the icy seas of the North Atlantic.

The contemporaneous newspaper account (written within hours of the actual event) as it appeared on April 4, 1860 in the St. Joseph Daily West, recorded him as the first Pony Express rider on April 3, 1860, "The rider is a Mr. Richardson, formerly a sailor, and a man accustomed to every description of hardship, having sailed for years amid the snows and icebergs of the Northern ocean."

[3] In the photo of the four Expressmen, Billy Richardson pictured in a sailor's hat and jacket is standing next to Johnny Fry.

Johnny Fry drew the shortest straw, which meant he would make the ride, but injured himself the day before, so Richardson, who was next in line, replaced him.

W. B., who would have been about ten years old the day of the historic ride, boasts that his half brother Paul Coburn, who was the station manager, "accidentally" threw the "mail pouch" on his pony instead of Fry's horse and so he made the ride.