Richard Bladworth Hardie 1848
- Liz Hardie
Richard Bladworth Hardie (1848 - 1917)
Richard Bladworth Hardie was born on 16 July 1848 in Edinburgh. He was the eighth child and seventh son of James Hardie and Sarah Bladworth.
Richard wrote a letter to his cousin John Timmons Hardie (who was 20 years his senior) in either 1866 or 1867 enquiring about opportunities in the United states. In a 1867 letter from his mother to Mary Mead Hall Hardie (John Hardie's widow) Sarah says William "... has written to his cousin John Timmons Hardie in New Orleans, with no reply." Obviously John T did eventually reply because in 1869 Richard emigrated to America, arriving in New Orleans where he worked for his cousin John Timmons Hardie.
Richard returned to England in 1878 to marry, which he did on 6 August 1879 at Christ's Church, Chiswick, London, to Annie Elizabeth Ireland, of Yorkshire, England. Annie was the daughter of William Ireland of Reedness, Yorkshire. According to family lore, Annie was left out of her father�s will because she married a Scotsman, but it was most likely due to the traditional practice of leaving property to the male child and a cash annuity to any unmarried daughters (of which she was neither).
Hardie Seed Company - Elm St Dallas 1914
Perhaps it was at that time that he arranged for his brother David to join him, which he did about two years later. Richard brought his wife Annie back to the United States in 1879 through New Orleans. A yellow fever epidemic forced them to continue on to Texas where they stopped first in Dallas. In 1880 Richard was working as a Commercial Merchant and he and Annie were living with FB Waltem and his wife Mary in Dallas. Mr Waltem was a doctor.
In about 1881 they moved to a ranch in Slidell, Texas. It was in Slidell that the first two of their five children were born:
- William Howat Hardie. Born 1882. Married Nina Partee and Aimee Feltus Aldridge
- James Hardie. Born 1884. Married Lucille Anderson
- Annie Ireland Hardie. Born ?. Died 1952. Married Hardy Greenwood
- John Timmons Hardie. 1 Dec 1887. Died 14 Nov 1975. Married Harriet Burd Goodman
- Richard Bladworth Hardie. 31 Aug 1890. Died 1974. Married Mary Belle Rice on 14 Aug 1916
In 1882 Richard's brother David joined him in Texas, but in 1886 the small family moved to Arkansas where Richard managed a plantation called Red Leaf near Lake Village, Arkansas. According to family oral history tradition, Red Leaf had been owned by Wade Hampton and a grandson of John C. Calhoun, but it was sold to a New York banker who hired Richard to manage it.
It is uncertain when Richard returned to Dallas, but in 1899 he and his brother David opened the Hardie Seed Company, which was located on Elm St Dallas in 1914. The company continued to be run by David and Richard's sons after his death.
The family lived at 2709 Howell St, Dallas, and it is here that Richard died on 14 July 1917. Interestingly according to a newspaper story at the time of his death in 1917, he was �a resident of Texas since 1878.�
Annie Eliza outlived her husband by nearly twenty years, becoming an active member of the Westminster Presbyterian Church. She moved in with her daughter Annie and her husband Hardy Greenwood and it was here she died on 26 October 1936. An obituary notice at the time of her death tells that she �came to Dallas as a bride in 1879 and had been here practically all of the time since."