Richmond

One of the two witnesses on the plaque's monument lived here fifty years. David Whitmer, one of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon, was excommunicated in 1838 and fled with his family to Richmond after the Danites warned dissenters to leave. He ran a livery stable and served as mayor from May 1867 to January 1868. In 1887 he published An Address to All Believers in Christ, affirming his testimony while denouncing the other branches of the movement. He died here on January 25, 1888, and ordered that testimony placed on his tombstone.

What the plaque says

Richmond Richmond was founded, 1827, as the seat of Ray County on land donated by John Wollard, W. B. Martin, and Isaac and William Thornton. The county, organized 1820, had its first seat at Bluffton, where Camden, an early Missouri River port, was laid out, 1836. The river channel suddenly shifted there, July 3, 1915, leaving Camden several miles inland and placing the Lafayette County boundary north of the river in that area. Richmond and Ray County suffered from troop movements, skirmishes, and guerrilla raids during 1861-65, but the postwar years brought coal mining and railroad growth. The St. Louis & St. Joseph (Santa Fe) came to Richmond, 1870. The North Mo. (Wabash) reached nearby Henrietta, 1869, and Chicago, Santa Fe, & Calif. (Santa Fe), in 1887. Early schools were Richmond Academy, opened in 1856, and Woodson (Methodist) Institute, 1893. At the courthouse is the State statue, by F. C. Hibbard, to Alexander W. Doniphan (1808-87), who lived here 19 years. Colonel in the Mexican War, he led the 1st Reg. Mo. Mounted Volunteers on the famed 1846-47 self-sustaining expedition to Mexico. (See other side) Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1957 Richmond (Continued from other side) Trade and legal center for a livestock, grain, and coal mining county, Richmond lies in the Glacial Plains Region of Missouri in territory ceded by Iowa, Sac, and Fox tribes, 1824. An ancient Indian trail ran along the Missouri. In the vicinity of Orrick, laid out 1869, the river bottom land is one of the State's leading potato producing areas. The county, named for Missouri legislator John Ray, was settled by Southerners who came to the area, 1814-15. First settlements were Bluffton southwest near the present Camden, and Buffalo, southeast, near where Hardin was later founded in 1868. Forrest Smith, Missouri governor, 1949-53, was born near Richmond and here lived Austin A. King, governor, 1849-53. Albert M. Clark, Mo. Supreme Court justice, 1938-50, was born in nearby Lawson. In Richmond's cemeteries are the State Monument to Gov. King; Latter-Day Saints monument to David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery, witnesses of "Book of Mormon"; and unmarked grave of the guerrilla raider Bill Anderson. In town is the gravesite of Mexican War Captain Israel R. Hendley. Erected by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission, 1957

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Battle of Lexington State Historic Site — 8.0 mi
  The Anderson House and the Missouri River bluff at Lexington, where the Missouri State Guard rolled river-soaked hemp bales toward the Union lines in September 1861.
• Fort Osage National Historic Landmark — 13 mi
  A reconstructed 1808 fort and government trading house on a Missouri River bluff at Sibley, where Osage leaders signed the treaty that gave up most of present Missouri.
• Watkins Woolen Mill State Historic Site — 18 mi
  A three-story 1860 woolen mill in the Clay County hills that still holds nearly all its original machinery, at the center of the 3,660-acre Watkins farm called Bethany.
• Harry S Truman National Historic Site — 27 mi
  The Independence house Harry Truman lived in for half a century without owning it until 1953, kept as Bess Truman left it and seen only on small ranger tours.

More markers nearby

• Fort Osage — 15 mi
• Liberty — 24 mi