What the History Books Say About George

Marietta and Washington County, Ohio vol. 1 by Martin Andrews, 1902

"We can readily believe that Mr. Ward's opinion of the men he was sending hither from Scotland was correct, for they have left many worthy descendants in our county. The arrival of the first party at their new home is mentioned in June, 1823, and in November, George Richardson, William McKay, George Duncan, Archibald Fisher and Daniel Nichol report themselves well pleased with the land they have purchased."

Pioneer History of Meigs County, Ohio by Stillman Larkin

"In 1811 a company of Scotch from Glasgow Scotland through the influence of Nahum Ward of the Ohio Company's Land Purchase emigrated to Ohio, and settling on Sterling Bottom, named for the "land of the heather" George Richardson, the Pattersons, McCoys and others. Dissatisfaction, discontent, homesickness and death served to break up and scatter the company. Only Mr. George Richardson remained, and he was a merchant capable of adapting himself to the primitive conditions of the country. Mrs. Richardson was a native of Antigua, one of the British West Indies, and had inherited slaves and plantation interests, but England freed the slaves, and much of the riches vanished. They had a family, one daughter, Eliza Richardson. Nicholas Richardson, the eldest son, married Hannah Lauck. George Jr., and the other children names unknown. The Richardson's left Sterling Bottom some time in the 1830's."

A Scottish Venture in the United States: The Glasgow Ohio Company 1824 by Andrew Gibb

The "Council Aborad" of the Glasgow Ohio Company, consisting of George Richardson and William McKay, managers, and George Duncan and Archibald Fisher, council members, examined the land which they had been offered by Ward, and were delighted to discover that he had understated its quality and value. In enthusiastic reports to the council at home they delcared that, "the situation, soild, eilgibility in prospect of future advantages, in the cultivation of the land, the building up of a town for Commerical, Manufacturing, and Mechanical business, far exceeds our most sanquine expectations."

The author describes the economic failure of the Ohio Glasgow venture and concludes with the following:

The epitaph to endeavour may be left with George Richardson. "This journey has been long and very expensive to me, yet I do not regret coming here. I trust I was directed by a higher power, for it is a good country, (I mean Ohio), and a country that will reward industry."

The Scottish Historical Review, Vol. LXIII: no. 175: April 1984, 50-58.