Hon. Benjamin Wood Richards

Philadelphia Mayor. The son of a successful iron foundry industrialist, he graduated from Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey in 1815. He gained prominence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania politics at an early age, serving on the Philadelphia city council. He was elected to the Pennsylvania State Legislature, in 1826, serving in the General Assembly from 1827 to 1829, during which time he succeeding in appropriating the first State funds for Philadelphia for public schools. When Philadelphia Mayor George Mifflin Dallas (the future 11th United States Vice President) resigned in 1828 to assume the post of District Attorney of Eastern Pennsylvania, Benjamin Richards was elected to fill out his unexpired term. He served as Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1829, then from 1830 to 1832, when he was elected Mayor of the city in his own right, succeeding William Minor. In the 1830s he was an early director of Girard College, and he founded and was President of the Girard Life and Trust Company, an institution which eventually became part of Girard Bank (now Citizens Bank). In 1836 he chartered with three other men Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, which was the second “garden” cemetery in the United States. He served as a manager of the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company until his death in 1851.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 2 2020, 21:05:05 UTC