Among the old “land marks” in the medical profession, in the county of Waterloo, is Dr. Samuel Richardson, forty years a practitioner in Galt. He is better known than almost any other man in the town, having been up and down the valley of the Grand river for a long period, a distance of twenty or thirty miles, and at an early day, much farther; and even now, with all the comparatively new settlers, there are very few families in a radius of ten or fifteen miles, that do not know the Doctor. He is a native of the county of Longford, Ireland, and was born February 3, 1809, his parents being Euchmuty and Jane (Moffatt) Richardson. He was educated at a clergyman’s school and Trinity, Dublin; there studied medicine; and was graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in that city, in 1834. In the autumn of the same year he embarked for the western world to follow his profession in Upper Canada, locating first at Guelph, and there practicing for five years. Many of his rides at this date were not only long, but extremely tedious. In 1839 the Doctor removed to Galt, then a small village; and in forty years has seen the country settle up with thrifty farmers, and Galt become a manufacturing town of perhaps 5000 inhabitants. Other doctors had preceded him, or soon followed him hither, but they have gone, some to other parts of the country, one, a pioneer, Dr. Robert Miller, back to England, and others to “that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns.”
Dr. Richardson has been in general practice, and made a comfortable living by his profession. He was seventeen years in the town council; has been deputy reeve and reeve; is holding the office of justice of the peace, and has long been a valuable citizen of the town. He is a member of Trinity Episcopal church, and has served as warden at different times. He is a Master Mason, but pays little attention to the meetings of the lodge.
The Doctor has been twice married, first in 1834 to Miss Mary Ann Brereton, of Dublin, Ireland, she dying in 1849 and the second time, in 1850, to Miss Annie Orr, of Galt. He has two children living by each wife.