The two individuals central to the Richards Family Correspondence are George Hersey Richards (1816-1903) and his wife, Irene Huse Lincoln Richards (1813-1857). George Richards was born on a farm in Roxbury, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, the son of Eliakim and Susan Hersey Richards. Eliakim Richards was a carpenter, and in his youth, George apprenticed in the same trade. In July 1837 he left Massachusetts for the West, spending time in northwest Ohio and southeast Missouri before settling in Hillsboro, Montgomery County, Illinois, in the south-central part of the state (1839). Here he built and operated a steam-powered sawmill, in partnership with Amos Clotfelder. In 1842 he married Irene Huse Lincoln, daughter of Bradford and Rebecca Austin Lincoln, who owned a farm near the Richards family property in Roxbury. George and Irene Richards had six children, three of whom survived infancy: Susan (b. ca. 1845); Alice (b. ca. 1850); and Edward (b. 1852). By 1850 the family had returned to Roxbury, for reasons that are not entirely clear; for at least part of the ensuing decade Richards worked as a wholesale dealer in structural iron. Early in 1857 George and Irene moved to Charleston, South Carolina, hoping the warm climate would be beneficial to Irene's failing health. There they stayed in the home of Frederick H. Whitney (ca. 1815-1877), a transplanted Bostonian and family friend who had found success operating a soap and candle manufactory. Irene Richards died on 5 May 1857. Later that year George purchased 120 acres of farmland in Hillsboro Township; he was joined in Illinois by his three children and by Irene's older sister, Elisabeth Lincoln (b. ca. 1804). Richards and his son Edward managed this property, farming and raising livestock, for many years. Richards died in 1903.