William Henry Richmond

He is reckoned as one of the key actors in the expansion of the Lackawanna Coal Mine district of Scranton, Pennsylvania, during the second half of the 19th Century.

His father, William Wadsworth Richmond, claimed family roots dating back to 11th Century Brittany and an American forefather who was one of the members of Plymouth Colony that launched Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1637.

[3] One of five children,[4] Richmond attended public school in Connecticut until the age of 13, at which time he left home to take a job.

[1] He remained there for three years before moving to the nearby Northeastern Pennsylvania town of Carbondale, where he opened a store of his own as part of a partnership called Richmond & Robinson.

[1] Originally a general merchandise store, the Richmond & Robinson firm brought in some of the first woodworking machinery into the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valleys and began manufacturing doors, coal cars, and other wooden products in 1851.

[1] The enterprise proved successful and in 1861 Richmond sold his Carbondale wood manufacturing operation to concentrate full-time on the coal industry.

[1] Coal breaking remained a specialty, and in 1889 construction was begun on a new facility at Dickson City, closer to mining operations.

[4] Richmond took pride in the economic role played by him and his peers and felt himself the victim of unfair vilification at the hands of journalists and the public.