Richardson Gallery

My Grandmother on my Mother's side was named Mary Elizabeth "Polly" Richardson Andrews. She was the seventh of ten children born to Jeter Baxter Richardson and Temperance "Tempie" Belle Jenkins. My memories of her are all pleasant. These memories are of a kind, sweet, loving and caring Grandmother. I've never heard her utter an unkind word, and I have no idea what she looks or sounds like when angry. I have doubts that she's ever been angry. As a child, I always looked forward to the weekly Sunday visit to Grandma's house. She always had treats and frequent gifts and surprises for us kids. I remember the coal burning stove in the middle of the small living room floor that was always there during the colder Winter months. The stove kept the front of the house warm and cozy. The back kitchen was heated by a small upright kerosene heater and the cookstove oven. She would take the coal burning heater up when warm weather arrived. She always had coffe perculating in a coffee pot on the stove, and used to drink it by pouring some into a saucer, then sipping it from the saucer. A bowl of homemade biscuits was a mainstay of her kitchen table. Her homemade coconut creme pie was always a special treat at Thanksgiving and Christmas. She would always make an extra pie for Daddy. As a small child, if the call of nature hit, we had to go out to the back yard to the old out-house, always taking a stick in with me to knock the spider webs out of the hole before sitting down. Indoor bathroom plumbing eventually did come.
Looking at the photos here, it is quite obvious that the Richardsons were a close, loving and happy family. Great Grandfather Jeter ran a saw mill behind his humble home. I vaquely remember as a child the huge sawdust piles behind the home that we used to climb up on, and get fussed at and ran off of with the threat of danger of the sawdust caving in and sucking us under like quicksand. I was quite small then, and don't remember much about Great Grandma Richardson.

Most of the photos here are copies made from a collection of photographs that my Grandmother's sister Virginia Lucille Richardson Benoist had in her collection.

I'll constantly be adding other photos to the ones here as I further develop this website, and as I am able to acquire more photos. If any viewers of this site have any photos that they would like to share with me and other visitors to this website, please e-mail me here and attach them with a description and I will be happy to add them to the site with recognition for the submitter.

The photos below are not organized in any particular order. There is a link by each one that will take you to the family sheet of that person to give you their relationship. Click on the thumbnail image to see a larger picture of that individual.

Jeter Baxter and Temperance "Tempie" Belle (Jenkins) Richardson

This is my Great-Great Grandfather and Grandmother Richardson.

The Jeter Baxter Richardson Family

Front Row: Jeter Baxter, Belle, Melvin, Emma, Mae Francis(a Cousin). Back Row: Mary Lou, Lucille, Frank, Mary Elizabeth "Polly", and Roland

Young Mary Elizabeth "Polly" Richardson and Ella Mae (Campbell) Richardson

This is an earlier photo of my Grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Richardson and her Sister-in-Law Ella Mae (Campbell) Richardson.

More Richardson photos in album

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