George Richardson Washington (Adams County)
State House: 1878-1880
Born: September 7, 1845 in Adams County, MS
Died: October 23, 1910 in Selma, AL
Enlisted with Company E of the 6th Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery on September 1, 1863, and mustered out May 13, 1866. Elected as county coroner and ranger and served in that office from 1884-1887. Appointed to serve as deputy assessor in 1882 and 1888. Also served as a Justice of the Peace.
According to testimonies (sometimes conflicting) of family and friends in his voluminous pension file, he was the son of Dave Richardson and Rebecca, and he was enslaved by John Holmes. He married (perhaps not officially) a woman named Frances Way, who died at Prospect Hill plantation around 1879, and they had sons Woodson, George, and John. In 1882, he married Elnora Davis Smith, the widow of Allen Smith, who had drowned in 1878 or 1879. Washington left Natchez because of political threats and relocated to Selma, Alabama around 1899. Elnora chose to stay in Natchez.
George R. Washington was known as George W. Richardson and worked as an insurance salesman when he lived in Selma, where he was recorded on the 1910 census and died later that year.
Washington’s pension file includes the usual forms; letters written by Washington (including two to John R. Lynch), Elnora, and other family members; testimonies from family and friends; a marriage record; and a copy of Washington’s death certificate.
This page was last updated on July 24, 2026.