I, Emma Lynette (Richardson) Conover, was born October 31, 1841, in Granville, Washington County, New York. I am the daughter of Edmund and Mary (Darrow) Richardson. My ancestor, Samuel Richardson came to America in 1636 and settled in Charlestown, Massachusetts with his two brothers, Ezekiel and Thomas. In 1641, they helped settle Woburn, Massachusetts. It is supposed that they came from England and that he was born there about 1610.

My father was born in Mt. Holly, Vermont, and lived in Mt. Holly and Hebron, New York until I was seven years old. My eldest brother, George Alvin, was also born in Mt. Holly. My brothers Charles Edmund and Sullivan Calvin, were born in Manti, Sanpete County, Utah.

When I was seven years old, my parents turned their faces westward. We came by canal boat to Buffalo County, New York, then by steamer across Lake Erie to Cleveland, Ohio, and again by canal to Portsmouth, Ohio, where we stayed six months. Then we travelled down the Ohio river by steamboat to Cannalton, Perry County, Indiana, where we lived about five years. My father, mother, and myself worked in a cotton factory a good deal of the time.

While there, my father and a Reverend Whitworth, a Presbyterian minister, (father was a Presbyterian deacon) decided to form a colony and go to Oregon, as there was much talk of the great possibilities in the far away, new country. My father, being a wheelwright as well as carpenter, and in fact, being a master at most all trades, made our wagon to cross the plains, and shipped it in sections to St. Joseph, Missouri, that being the place chosen to start from.

Mother wove the cloth for the wagon cover in the factory, then my father oiled it to make it waterproof and shipped it with the wagon. One little incident which occurred on the boat going to St. Joseph is recalled to mind. One evening my mother, George and I were enjoying the moonlight on the front of the canal boat, when George said, “Ma, I’m going to knock the moon down.” Up went the stick of wood, and down went George, while the moon went sailing on.