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Individual Page


Family
Marriage: Children:
  1. Thomas Lewis Richards: Birth: 24 NOV 1884 in Summit Hill, PA. Death: 24 JUL 1941 in Hickory Ridge (Sagon), PA

  2. Harry Richards: Birth: MAR 1886 in Lansford, PA. Death: 18 JUN 1952

  3. Edith Richards: Birth: 13 OCT 1888 in Mahanoy City, PA. Death: 20 MAY 1949 in Home of her sister Sarah, 204 Main St., Hickory Ridge, PA

  4. Sarah E. Richards: Birth: 13 SEP 1890 in Mahonoy City, PA. Death: 19 APR 1958 in Hickory Ridge (Sagon), PA

  5. Margaret Richards: Birth: 20 NOV 1895 in Hickory Ridge, PA. Death: 8 SEP 1945 in Fountain Springs Hospital, Ashland, PA

  6. Lewis Richards: Birth: APR 1898. Death: 20 MAR 1899


Sources
1. Title:   Death Certificate
2. Title:   Shamokin Cemetery Records
3. Title:   1900 Census, Northumberland Co,Coal Twp,East Coal Precinct, Sheet 13B, 6/14/1900

Notes
a. Note:   Yesterday, April 18, 2002, I (David Z. Richards, Sr.) got from PA Vital Records the death certificates of our great grandfather, Lewis W. Richards and his second wife Ada. It showed that they lived at 205 Main St., Sagon, PA. This is a little patch of about 10 houses on a back road between Shamokin and Marion Heights, about 2 miles from Marion Heights. My wife was born in Marion Heights. About two weeks ago, when I told Rocky(my father-in-law) that my relatives came to Shamokin about 1900, he said I bet they lived in Sagon. I ask him now how he knew and he does not know. This was a coal patch of company houses that belonging to the coal company that owned the breaker nearby. Talk about weird! Today I went to Sagon to see if I could locate 205 Main St. There are only two streets, one on the main road and one behind it. Houses are about 3 feet from the road. I ran into an old couple coming back from the store and asked them about 205 Main St. They pointed it out to me. They lived at 215. They knew Ada Richards! After a little discussion, I learn from them and later from my in-laws the following: Ada Richards was a little lady weighing about 70 lbs. She smoked a corn cob pipe all the time. She was a very nice person and a good mother. Even on the coldest day, she would come out on the porch for a breath of fresh air. All the houses were company houses. Ada's daughter Margaret lived on the other side of the double house. Her husband deserted her and her children. Also living with Ada were her children Thomas, Harry, Edith and Sarah. Margaret's grandson currently owns Floyd James owns James Cafe in Shamokin. Maryann's cousin dated him for a long time and almost married him. Edith's husband James Connolly died young and had a boyfriend visit her in Sagon for years. Margaret's daughter Loretta Richard Fiory died two weeks ago. Her funeral flowers today decorate the WW II Veterans memorial in Sagon. Learned my wife's mother went to 8th grade with Loretta Richards Fiory. She said she was a very pretty girl with a beautiful voice. When I was dating my wife, we used to pick up a friend of Maryann's in Sagon and double date. Here she was living next door to the house where our great grand father, great great grandfather and step great grandmother lived and died. Small world. Learned one of Edith daughter's married the brother of Rocky's best childhood friends. Rocky also told me that all the men in Sagon came to his Mother's bar in Marion Heights which Rocky eventually ran. It is possible that he saw out ancestors there. It was the only bar around and all the miners came there. The old guy I met in Sagon today knew Rocky and Rocky knew him. Sagon had to be the worst of the world in its day. Rocky said that whole valley was one colliery after another. Patches of houses here and there all owned by the coal companies. Not a pretty picture. Most of the houses today have been resided. One side of Ada and Lewis's house is not yet sided and has pink tar paper on it of around 1920 vintage. Think of one block of the worst coal town you have seen and that is Sagon surrounded by culm banks of black dirt/coal. I think I am starting to figure out why Mother never talked about this side of the family if she knew of them al all. By the way, Stanley Covaleskie, Hall of Fame Baseball Player, grew up in Sagon and his name is on WW II War Memorial that is there. Currently the memorial is decorated with flowers from the funeral of Loretta Richards Fiory, our cousin. The population of Sagon at its peak must have been about 200. There used to be an Upper Sagon and a Lower Sagon. Lower Sagon is all that remains and there used to be houses on both sides of the road. Those on the South side are gone. By the way, one of the collieries was called Richards Colliery. Relation? I also got a picture of the headstone I bought for Great Grandfather Lewis W., 2nd wife Ada, and their three children Thomas, Sarah and Lewis in the Shamokin Cemetery.


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