Richmond Ward

About

The Richmond Ward was a part of the Cache, Benson and Richmond Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1859 until the 1980's. It is the first ward established in Richmond.

History

The Richmond Ward was created on November 15, 1859 by Orson Hyde and Ezra Taft Benson, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The meeting home for the branch was the Issacs Shepheard home. Thomas Tidwell was ordained as the Bishop of the branch and appointed Henry Gibson as Clerk and John Bair as Presiding Elder. Due to the lack of Bishop Tidwell being busy during the summer, spending time tending to cattle in Nephi, Utah, Marriner W. Merrill was appointed Bishop of the Richmond Ward on Jun 30, 1861. Bishop Merrill served without any councilors for many years until June of 1877 when he called Christian L. Hyer as first councilor, and Wallace K. Burnham as second councilor. Bishop Merrill served for 36 years before receiving the call to serve as the Cache Stake president. William L. Skidmore was then called to serve as Bishop, along with Christian Hyer and Wallace K. Burnham until 1900.

On Jan 21, 1917, the Richmond Ward was divided into the Richmond South Ward and the Richmond North Ward. However, history books and Church documents refer to the North Ward as the Richmond Ward and the name stuck around until the 1980s when the North and South wards were again divided and the wards were referred to numbers instead of geography. The Richmond Ward dissolved at this point.