Bio: Richardson, Georgia (Owen Library – 1965)

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Richardson. Chabot, Johnson

---------Source: OWEN ENTERPRISE (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 04/29/1965

Almost fifty years ago, on June 15, 1915, the Women's Community Club of Owen (Clark Co., Wis.) organized a public library. One of these enthusiastic you matrons, who served as library assistant on busy afternoons and evenings, was Georgia Richardson, who for the past nine years has been regular librarian at the Owen Public Library .

Mrs. Richardson came to Owen early in 1906 when her husband, Dell, came here to manage the J.S. Owen Lumber Company Store. Both she and her husband grew up in Cadott, and the logging industry had always played an important part in their lives. A yearly highlight was the arrival of the "Wanegan" during the spring logging drive. This was the signal for all the youngsters in town to flock to the river's edge after school, where they were fed strong tea and big lumberjack cookies by the drive cook.

In 1902 she graduated from high school, and after a course at Teacher's Institute in Chippewa Falls, she set out on her first teaching assignment.

The schoolhouse was a log cabin south of Hayward. While she taught there she made her home with an Indian family. Some of the pupils in the one room school were older than their seventeen year old teacher. It was an isolated and lonely spot, and the only diversion was a weekly trip to town to get the eagerly awaited mail from home.

After two more years of teacher, he last school nearer home, the local paper reported on June 15, 1906, that Georgia Chabot, one of our prettiest and most popular young ladies, has left the ranks of school teachers to become a bride.

It was in February of 1906 that she came to Owen with her three month old son, Lawrence. The railroad trip ended at Withee, as Owen was not as of yet a railway stop. Most of Owen was then west of the pond and Bret Creek, with only a few scattered residences and business places, the school and the Opera House to the east. It wwas at the Opera House that all social and civic activity was centered. The Richardsons took full part in both.

During the years that followed, Mr. Richardson opened his own general store, which he operated for seventeen years (1912 – 1929), and four more children were added to the family, Virginia, Gerald, Vivian, and William. Mrs. Richardson devoted those years to rearing her family and installing in them the philosophy and ideals imparted to her by her own mother, a wise and tender woman with a strong character inherited from ten generations of American pioneers.

When St. Katherine's Church was organized in 1914, the Richardsons were charter members. Mrs. Richardson has held various offices in St. Katherine's Guild and taught numerous classes of Sunday School until 1933.

Mr. Richards died in 1950, and not long after that Mrs. Richardson began serving as relief librarian. In 1956 Maisie Johnson, librarian, retired, and the Owen Public Library was separated from the school library and moved to its present location. When Mrs. Richardson took over as full time librarian many of the books were still in boxes and there was much organization to be done. The present pleasant atmosphere is mainly her handiwork. She greets everyone who comes to the library with a cheerful willingness to be helpful, and goes about her work with a zest that belies her eighty years. To everyone in the community she extends an invitation to use and enjoy their library.