Richard Arthur Edwards & Alice M Shirk  

Richard Arthur Edwards Birth 9 NOV 1851 in Bridgewater, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA Death: after or in 1941 ( source said woud be ninety years old in November, 1941.) son of Dr. Richard Edwards & Betsey Josselyn Samson

married Alice M. Shirk Birth Nov 1854 in Indiana daughter of Elbert Hamilton Shirk & Mary Wright & sister of Milton Edward Shirk

They had:

Richard Elbert Edwards BIRTH 10 Oct 1880 Galesburg, Knox County, Illinois DEATH 9 Apr 1969 Peru, Miami County, Indiana, BURIAL Mount Hope Cemetery Peru, Miami County, Indiana married Marie Stewart BIRTH 11 Sep 1880 Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana DEATH 17 Nov 1970 Peru, Miami County, Indiana, BURIAL Mount Hope Cemetery Peru, Miami County, Indiana

Milton A Edwards Birth Dec 1882 in Indiana Death 03 JUL 1922 in Miami County, Peru, Indiana married Desdemona F. Bearss Edwards Birth 17 NOV 1890 in Indiana Death 12 JAN 1929

Mary Alice Edwards Birth Feb 1884 in Indiana

Clara Ellen Edwards Birth 27 Jul 1885 in Indiana Death 21 Oct 1962 in Los Angeles married Marshall E Crume Birth abt 1882 in Indiana

Florence E Edwards Birth Jun 1887 in Indiana married Robert Campbelll
Moiina Campbell Killed in Automobile Accident

Miss Moina Campbell 16 year old daughter of Mrs. Robert Campbell, who will be rememberd by the lake colony as Florence Edwards, was killed last Thursday at Cape Cod when the automobile in which she was leaving for home crashed in a severe storm. Miss Campbell was a student at Miss Porter's school at Farmington, Conn.

Mrs and Mrs Richard Edwards atteneded the funeral services at Orange, New Jersey, on Saturday

Mrs Campbell and older daughter, Betty will visit with Mr. and Mrs. Richard Edwards at their cottage on the East Side diuring the first two weeks in October.


Carrie E Edwards Birth abt 1887 in Indiana

History of Miami County, Indiana: a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests (Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1914,) pg. 563-5

Richard A. Edwards, a prominent and influential business man and progressive citizen of Peru, of Miami county.

Mr. Edwards here holds the office of the president of the First National Bank of Peru, with which institution he has been identified with for more than thirty years and in the upbuilding of the substantial business of which he was wielded much influence, the while he has gained secure prestige as enable executive of broad views, impregnable integrity of purpose and most progressive policies.

He is a man of fine intellectual attainments and prior to entering his present field of endeavor he had been a prominent and valued factor in educational work, as an able exponent of the pedagogic profession, which likewise was signally dignified and honored by the character and services of his distinguished father.

Mr. Edwards is essentially on of the strong and representative figures n connection with financial and general business activities in his home city and county, has impregnable vantage place in popular confidence and esteem and is well entitled to specific recognition in this publication.

Richard Arthur Edwards was born at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on the 9^th of November 1851, and is a scion of a family whose name became identified with the annals of New England in the colonial epoch of our national history.

He is a son of Rev. Richard and Betsey {Josslyn) Edwards,

and he was a child at the time of the family removal to the historic town of Salem, Massachusetts, where the father held position of president of the Massachusetts State Normal School until 1859, when he removed with his family to the City of St. Louis, Missouri, where he assumed the office of president of the St. Louis Normal School, for two years.

He was then tendered advancement to the position of president of the Illinois State Normal University, at Normal, McLean county, an incumbency which he retain from 1861 to 1873, within which period he did splendid work in bringing this great institution up to a high standard both in the efficiency of its work and in gaining to the same a largely ncreased and appreciative support.

He was a man of fine administrative ability and specially broad and liberal education, and his nfluence upon the youth who came within the sphere of his earnest activities has widened in beneficence through their worthy lived and achievements. He served as state superintendent of schools in Illinois for several years after his retirement from the presidency of the normal university and thereafter entered the ministry of the Congregational church, in which he found another broad field for the aiding and uplifting of his fellow man.

He served for a number of years as pastor of the Congregational church at Princeton, Illinois, and the gracious twilight of his long and noble life was passed in retirement from active labors. He maintained his home at Bloomington, Illinois, until he death, which occurred on the 7th of March, 1908, and his name merits enduring place on the roll of those who have done a great work for humanity, his reputation as an educator and a clergyman being of the highest.

He was a man of broad and mental keen and well ortified opinions, and he ever manifested a loyal interest in all that touched the general welfare of the community, his political allegiance having been given to the Republican party.

Richard A. Edwards gained his rudimentary education in the public schools of St. Louis, Missouri, and Normal, Illinois, and was signally fortunate in having the environment and gracious associations of a home of distinctive culture and refinement, - relations that could not fail to benignant influence in the formative period of his character.

He availed himself of the advantages of the Illinois State Normal University at the time when his honored father was its president, and at the age of eighteen years he initiated his practical pedagogic career, as a teacher in the public schools of Paxton, Illinois, where he held the position of principal of the schools. After devoting two years to successful work as a teacher he entered, in the the year 1872 Dartmouth College, where he remained a student for one year, and later he was graduated as a member of the class of 1876 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

For two years after his graduation Mr. Edwards held the position of instructor in Greek and Latin in Rock River Seminary, at Mount Morris, Illinois, an institution with which he had previously been connected in this capacity for a term of one year. Upon resigning this position, in 1878, he became professor of English literature and rhetoric in Knox College, at Galesburg, Illinois, and continued as one of the valued and popular members of the faculty of this nstitution until 1881.

The year last mentioned marked the arrival of Mr. Edwards in Peru, Indiana, where he assumed the position of assistant cashier of the First National Bank. In 1884 he was advanced to the office of cashier, and of this position he continued the able and efficient incumbent office until 1911, in January of which year he was elected to his present office, that of president, in which he has continued to direct the policies and operations of the bank with marked discrimination.

He is conservative in his financial methods, has gained broad and accurate knowledge concerning real-estate values and general resources in his home county, and through his progressive business policies he has done much to make the First National Bank a power in the local industrial and business field.

Loyal and public-spirited as a citizen but never imbued with ambition for official perferment of political order, Mr. Edwards is found aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Republican party, and he has given his co-operation in the furtherance of measures and enterprises that have conserved the industrial and commercial advancement of Peru, where he is president of the Peru Canning Company and also of the Clute & Butler Company,manufactures of pianos, besides which he is a stockholder in various other industrial and commercial institutions in his home city.

He and his wife are zealous members of the Baptist church and he holds membership in the Columbia Club in the city if Indianapolis, and the University Club of Chicago.

In the year 1880 was solemnized the marriage of Mrs. Edwards to Miss Alice Shirk, daughter of the late Elbert H. Shirk, who was at that time president of the First National Bank of Peru and who was long numbered among the most honored and influential citizens of Miami county. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have two sons and three daughters.

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RICHARD A. EDWARDS, cashier First National Bank,

son of Prof. Richard and Betsey (Sampson) Edwards, was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, November 9, 1851.

Richard Edwards, Sr., was born in Wales, and came to the United States in 1832, settling originally in Ohio.

He subsequently moved to Massachusetts, where for a number of years he was principal of the State Normal School at Salem, in the organization of which institution he took an active part.

In 1859 he went to St. Louis, Missouri, to take charge of the City Normal School, a position he retained until 1862, at which time he accepted the presidency of the Illinois State University. He held the latter position for a period of sixteen or eighteen years, and was for some time pastor of the First Congregational Church at Princeton, Illinois.

In 1886 he was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction of Illinois, and is the present incumbent of that office. Prof. Edwards is a man of brilliant attainments, and as an educator ranks among the first in the country.

He is the father of eleven children, nine of whom are living, the subject of this sketch being the second in number.

Richard A. Edwards received his elementary education at Normal, Illinois, and subsequently attended Princeton and Dartmouth Colleges, graduating from the latter in 1876.

His literary education then completed, he accepted the position as instructor of Latin and Greek in the Rock River Seminary, Morris, Illinois, and two years later became Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in Knox College, Galesburg. He held the latter position three years, and at the end of that time severed his connection with the college, and in 1881 came to Peru, Indiana.

He entered the First National Bank in this city as assistant cashier in 1882, and in June, 1886, became cashier, a position he holds at this time.

On the 1st of June, 1880, he married Miss Alice Shirk, daughter of the late E. H. Shirk, of Peru. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have four children, viz. - Richard E., Milton A., Mary A. and Clara E.

Politically, Mr. Edwards votes with the Republican party, and in religion adheres to the creed of the Congregational Church. Mrs. Edwards is an active member of the Baptist Church of Peru.

From History of Miami County, Published in 1887 by Brant and Fuller in Chicago - Peru Township