Person:Jonas Richards (2)

According to William Tucker in "A History of Hartford", Jonas married Hannah Wheeler about 10 years before the Revolutionary War. They removed from Plainfield, CT to Norwich, VT about 1767. Their journey was on horseback, the road much of the way being a mere bridle path. He was one of the first settlers of Norwich, purchasing and clearing a farm in the almost unbroken wilderness, about a mile from the "plain."

According to Merritt Goddard in "A History of Norwich", Jonas Richards was born at Killingly, Conn. in 1744, married Hannah Wheeler of Plainfield, that state, and settled in Norwich in 1767. He was one of the pioneer settlers of the town, locating on the farm lately owned by Rufus Cloud, on the hill northwest of Norwich village, He became an enterprising and thrifty farmer. He was one of the early members of the Congregational church and a man of stern Puritan morality. He had a family of seven children, the eldest of whom, Joel Richards, born Nov. 26, 1767, was the second male child born in Norwich. Jonas Richards died in 1800, at the age of fifty-six years, and his wife died in 1826, aged eighty-seven years. One of his sisters married (at Preston, Conn., in 1748) John Hatch, Esq., one of the early settlers in Norwich. Three other sons of Jonas Richards early removed from town. Wheeler settled on a farm in Derby, Vt., but afterwards removed to Ohio. Alvin went west early in life in quest of his fortune, and was never after heard from. Bela lived and died a farmer at Benton, N. Y. He married Sarah Slade of Hanover, N. H.

All these sons of Jonas Richards, like their father, were large, athletic men, remarkable for great physical strength and power of endurance. Levi, especially, was princely in form and appearance, and was said to be the strongest man in Norwich in his day. They were also highly respected for their intelligence, integrity and purity.

1. ↑ Windsor, Vermont, United States. 1790 U.S. Census Population Schedule.

   1790 Federal Population Census. M637, 12 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. Norwich, Windsor, Vermont, roll M637_12, page , image 0059.

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Goddard, M. E. History of Norwich, Vermont. (Dartmouth Press)
   p. 238.