Origen D. Richardson
Origen Drew Richardson was an American lawyer and politician in the U.S. state of Michigan and in the Nebraska Territory. He served in the Michigan House of Representatives and was the fourth lieutenant governor of Michigan.
Biography
Richardson was born in Woodstock, Vermont, the son of Mason Richardson and Mary Richardson. He studied and practiced law in Woodstock. While a student in the law offices of a relative, Israel Putnam Richardson, Origen joined the Army and participated in the Battle of Plattsburgh during the War of 1812. He remained in Vermont and practiced law until 1826, when he moved to Pontiac, Michigan Territory. He was admitted to the bar of Oakland County in July 1826 and began a law practice. In 1830, he was a part of a three-member commission appointed to locate a seat of government for Saginaw County, which at the time was not yet organized.Michigan politics
He was a member of the first convention of assent held in Ann Arbor in September 1836 that rejected the conditions placed by the U.S. Congress on the admission of Michigan as a State of the Union. From 1830 to 1836, he was the Oakland County prosecutor and served as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives in the first legislature, which convened at Detroit in November 1835 and of the sixth legislature, which convened in Detroit in January 1841.In 1841, he was elected the fourth Lieutenant Governor of Michigan and was re-elected in 1843, serving during the first four years of Governor John S. Barry's governorship. He continued the practice of law in Pontiac until 1854.
Nebraska Territory politics
In the fall of 1854, he moved to Omaha, Nebraska, which had been organized as the Nebraska Territory in May of that year. He served as a member of the Legislative Council in the first and second sessions of the Territorial Nebraska Legislature. He took a prominent part in framing the laws of Nebraska and was one of the three commissioners to codify those laws.In 1855, Origen D. Richardson accompanied John Milton Thayer on a diplomatic mission to meet with Pawnee leaders in the Nebraska Territory. The meeting followed reports of Pawnee raids on settlers in the Elkhorn Valley, after which Acting Territorial Governor Thomas B. Cuming instructed Thayer, then a major general in the territorial militia, to lead a council aimed at stabilizing relations.