See also Handbook of Texas entry.

In 1860, Richardson was producing salt for sale and was listed as “Proprietor, Salt Works,” in the Census for Van Zandt County, with property valued at around $50,000.¹ He was appointed chief justice in Van Zandt County in 1865. By 1870, the value of his property as listed in the Census had risen to $75,000, and there was a black farm laborer name George Washington, from Missouri, living in his household along with three other unrelated white men.

Image of Richardson’s entry in the 1860 Census for Van Zandt County, Saline Beat.

A prominent landowner and county judge, Richardson was described in 1874 as “a gentleman of public spirit and enterprise.”² He served in the 22nd Infantry during the war, but deserted in 1862 or 1863, spending the remainder of the war at his brother-in-law’s in Missouri before applying for amnesty in 1865 in order to return home and make salt.³ Upon his return to Van Zandt County, however, he found that his Salt Works at Grand Saline had been leased out by Governor Andrew Jackson Hamilton to some other locals, prompting him to tell his side of the story in a lengthy petition to Hamilton asking that the lease, to a Mr. R. W. Rogers and others, be revoked.

Richardson explained that he had purchased the saline works at Grand Saline (or Jordan’s Saline) in 1859 from the estate of Jordan Hamm. Almost immediately, he began improving the land, raising its value, and worked the saline “as the undisputed owner thereof” until January 1, 1862. But shortly therafter, “a strong disposition was manifested to trespass upon applicant’s rights” that, according to Richardson, threatened his own personal safety to such a degree that he was forced to enter the Confederate army. Richardson claimed that this was the purpose all along of the threatening trespassers, who hoped to “evade the service themselves by becoming salt makers.”⁴

“Under this pressure,” Richardson continued, he made arrangements with David Hill to manage his affairs and joined the infantry, traveling to Arkansas and Louisiana. As soon as he left, “divers persons squatted upon his land and commenced making salt” and cutting timber on Richardson’s land. After hearing of this, ultimately left the CSA army in October 1863 and sought “protection under the Federal authorities” in Missouri, where he remained until June 20, 1865. Upon returning home he found 35 persons squatting on his land and working 37 furnaces. Around 2100 acres of land had also been cleared, while Richardson’s own furnaces were torn up and repurposed for the squatters’ use.⁵

According to Richardson, he attempted to retake possession of his land and collect rent with back interest from the squatters, but they mostly refused and disputed his rights, so he turned to Brig. Gen. Sheets at Marshall, who ordered the squatters to turn over the land.⁶ About 25 respected these orders, but since then had heard of Hamilton’s lease to Rogers, who claimed he had purchased interest in the saline from Hill, and now refused to pay rent and were involved in litigation with Richardson, who added:

Most of them are refugees from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri, and have no interest in the country otherwise than that involved in their trespasses on applicants property which they are now continually using and wasting without the shadow of right derived from him. They are also from time to time selling out their furnaces and leaving, and selling kettles and other property which are being moved off the premises.⁷

Now, Richardson was still in debt for his purchase of the land without the means to use the land to repay the debt. He faced innumerable “threats, impositions, and outrages” since his return, and many of the squatters were now selling out their interests and leaving the country. Sheets had revoked his order upon hearing of Hamilton’s, but “the applicant does not and will not believe that the Governor would intentionally and knowingly do anything to aid these refugees in the continued perpetration of their outrages.”⁸

These outrages also apparently extended to freedpeople working at the saline, according to Richardson’s earlier letter to Governor Hamilton in September 1865. In this letter Richardson reported that men by the name of Anderson, Carlock, Porter, Brown, Pearce, Dixon, Hill, and Washington were harrassing “negroes” whom they claimed as their slaves but were working for a Mr. Moore (whom Richardson recommended as a Freedmen’s Bureau agent) on a different furnace, in one case delivering 500 lashes to one.⁹

Only a few weeks after his lengthy petition to Hamilton, however, Richardson wrote again, on October 12, to report that he had sought through counsel to settle the conflict with the trespassers through an amicable compromise. The said settlers had proposed to retain the furnaces they held until January 1867, paying Richardson five percent of the salt made. After this lease, all of the kettles and furnaces would return to Richardson in exchange for his dropping any charges against them for trespassing.¹⁰

Richardson was originally hopeful that those still doing business at the saline would sign, and he signed the agreement himself, but after one week he reported that few were willing to agree to these terms. Nonetheless, even though Richardson “fears the attempted settlement and compromise will fail, notwithstanding he has agreed to their own proposition after a meeting and [consultation?] of the salt makers for the purpose of a general settlement with applicant who acknowledged themselves to be acting in combination against him.”¹¹

Richardson reiterated to Hamilton that were it not for the lease he had signed granting the rights of Rogers, Pierce, and others, he would have no trouble obtaining entire custody of the saline. Although Richardson says that the lease was granted by Hamilton on the understanding that rights had been granted by the state or the Confederacy to work the salt on his property, he contends that this is “wholly untrue.” Richardson also says that Hamilton granted his lease on the misunderstanding that it was in the public interest to do so because of scarce supply in the region, Richardson asserts that “then and now there was & is a superabundance of salt in the country as is evidenced by the fact that salt is now and has for a long time been selling in this section of the county at the unprecedented low price two dollars per sack of four bushels. Besides, according to Richardson, the intention of the trespassers in seeking a lease was not to continue making salt but to obtain enough title to the land to sell out and leave the state.¹²

The disputes continued into 1866. In a letter to Governor A. J. Hamilton in February, R. W. Rodgers wrote to ask whether “S. Q. Richardson is authorised to collect the five percent that I and others are to pay the State for the privilege of manufacturing salt at this Saline, or have you any other agent to collect the same.” The response from the governor’s office indicated that Richardson could in fact collect the rent.¹³

Van Zandt County District Court Minutes

In August 2013, I requested the county’s district court minutes and scanned the minutes related to the cases below. But I have not yet transcribed or looked closely at the scans. I tried to capture cases involving names that seemed connected in some way to Richardson.

Entries from Index of Minutes

Did not copy every Moore entry from the index.

Biographical Checklist