Born in Franklin County, Ohio, ten miles west of Columbus, the State capital, May 11, 1841. He was thirteen years old when he accompanied his parents to Iowa, and he remembers well the incidents of the journey and of pioneer life after settlement. He had attended the public schools in his native place in Ohio, and after the removal to Iowa he became a pupil in the primitive pioneer schools of that period. After his father's death he assisted his elder brother in the improvement of the old homestead, and continued to reside with his mother until he was twenty-one. He then started out in the world to see what he could make of life on his own account. He secured a situation with the Western Stage Company to drive a stage from Afton to Chariton, a distance of sixty miles. He continued thus engaged for a year, and then commenced teaming from Eddyville (then the western terminus of the railway) to Afton. In the spring of 1863 he came to the Territory of Nebraska, and starting from Plattsmouth with a load of freight, drove across the plains, making the round trip in seventy days. He then went back to Afton and resumed his business of freighting. He was widely and favorably known throughout that part of the State where he had made his home since boyhood, his frank and genial manners making him popular with all classes of men, and his keenness, promptitude, and decision of character, securing their respect, so that when he was proposed for the responsible office of Sheriff of Union County, in 1868, he received the hearty support of his fellow-citizens, and was elected; and so well were his constituents satisfied with his able and vigorous management of the duties devolving upon him that he was three times re-elected, serving four terms. In 1879 he settled on a farm in Dodge Township, Union County, and engaged in agricultural pursuits for a few years. In 1880 he was again called from his seclusion to enter public life, his fellow-citizens having elected him to represent Union County in the Eighteenth General Assembly. His course as a member of that honorable body marked him as a wise and sensible legislator, who had the best interests of his country at heart. Among the more important committees on which he served we may mention the Railway Committee and that of compensation for Public Officers. In 1882 Mr. Richey settled up his affairs in Iowa preparatory to taking up his residence in this State. Ever since then he has been engaged in the lumber business in the city of Plattsmouth, and has built up an extensive and flourishing trade. Mr. Richey was married, in 1865, to Miss Paulina Dickinson, a native of Will County, Ill. Mr. Richey has always been a stanch Republican in his political sentiments, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. During his residence here he has been a conspicuous figure in the public life of the city, his fellow-citizens gladly availing themselves of his sagacity, knowledge of affairs and wide experience, to assist them in the government of the municipality. Twice he has been elected to the important office of Mayor, first 1885 and again in 1888, so that he is the present incumbent of the mayoralty. He was prominently identified with the I. O. O. F., having joined the order in Afton, in 1873.