Euphemia Johnson Richmond (maiden name: Guernsey) was born on July 28, 1825, in Guilford, New York, to Jonathan Guernsey and Frances Putnam. Her father was a physician who owned $5,000 of real estate by 1850. She grew up in Guilford, and she attended Oxford Academy.
She married Orson Richmond on August 5, 1846, and they had at least three children: Catherine, born around 1849; Mary, born around 1851; and Nelson, born around 1857. They lived in Guilford, and her husband worked as a farmer. By 1850, they owned $3,000 of real estate. A decade later, they owned $3,500 of real estate and $1,000 of personal property, and by 1870, they owned $9,000 of real estate and $3,500 of personal property. She published poems, stories, and at least a dozen novels under the pen names “Effie Johnson” and “E. J. Richmond.” She was a member of the Methodist church, and she supported the temperance movement.
By 1900, she and her husband were living in their daughter Mary’s household in Guilford. Her husband died on March 29, 1904, and she died in Guilford on February 10, 1918.
Image: Euphemia J. Richmond (courtesy Wikicommons)