Caborca Profiles

Antonio Richards

Antonio Richards was born in Caborca in 1840, the son of Dr. Alexander Richards (who was originally from Kentucky) and Carmen Cañes of Caborca. When he was just three years old, his father was killed in an Indian raid near Yuma.

In April of 1857, when Antonio was 17 years old, he was one of the townspeople of Caborca who defended the town from inside of the historic temple at Pueblo Viejo against an attack by Californian Henry Crabb and his group of armed mercenaries, also known as filibusteros.

Renowned as a marksman, he shot one of the filibusteros with a pistol round from his position in one of the temple’s bell towers.

After that early experience in the defense of the town, Caborcan Antonio Richards would lead a long and illustrious life.

In the early 1860’s Richards became the first secretary to Mexican President Benito Juarez, and he accompanied Juarez as the administration was forced to leave Mexico City in 1863 during the French Incursion and attempt to establish a Second Mexican Empire.

While the Juarez administration was in exile, Richards went to Kentucky, where he studied and received a law degree at the University of Kentucky. During that time he was also reportedly an emissary between Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Benito Juarez.

Richards returned to Mexico City with Benito Juarez after the defeat of French forces in 1867 and he remained in the Juarez administration until the president’s death in 1872.

He then studied law in Mexico City, received a law degree and established a law practice there. While in Mexico City he was one of the first investors and incorporators of Ferrocarriles Nacional de Mexico, the Mexican national railroad.

However, during those years conservative political forces were eliminating former associates of Benito Juarez, so Richards left his law practice in Mexico City to return to Caborca.

After returning to Caborca, he purchased the Sierra Pinta gold mine and became the magistrate for the district of Altar. Political enemies caught up with him though, and he was captured and sentenced to be executed.

He would tell the story that the general who was assigned to execute him got drunk and forgot why he was supposed to be executed, so he released Richards, who then left Mexico and never returned.

In 1890 Richards married Concepción LaMadrid in Tucson. Concepción was also from Caborca, she was born there in 1855. They had three children – David, Moises and Anibal.

Antonio Richards died in Tucson in 1920, at the age of 80.