The Life of Susan Tullia Richardson

Catherine Gauldin
4 days ago
8 min read

The story of Susan Tullia Richardson’s life is shadowed by hardship, instability, and a pattern of violence that echoed across generations. Her father, remembered as mentally unstable, was listed as “insane” in the census and died in the state asylum. Susan herself was said to have punished a young enslaved boy by tying him to a chair and forcing him to breathe the fumes of boiling hot peppers—an act that reveals the harshness that marked her household. Her children carried these wounds forward.

The difficulties within Susan Tullia Richardson’s family did not end with her own troubled upbringing. Her son William Wallace Gaulden was remembered as a harsh and volatile man whose temper caused the death of his wife Missouri. Another son, George, appears in the 1910 census as a divorced man working as a farm laborer, his life marked by quiet struggle. Susan’s daughter Birdie was also remembered for her unkindness toward her stepsons, William Louis and Ernest Asa Huggins, and Ernest in turn became known in family memory for his brutal treatment of animals, behavior that those who witnessed it found deeply troubling.

These pictures were shared by Julliette Hyatt on ancestry.com

Married at sixteen to Joshua W. Kelly

Susan’s early life was marked by instability from the beginning when in 1846, at the age of sixteen, Susan Tullia Richardson entered into her first marriage.

Marriage Certificate, Joshua W. Kelly and Susan T. Richardson, 26 May 1846, Adams County, Mississippi (1)

The record, dated 26 May in Adams County, Mississippi, reads “Susan T. Richardson to Joshua W. Kelly,” and includes a sworn statement from Samuel W. Reily, who testified that he was well acquainted with Susan and that she was “more than eighteen years of age.” The claim was incorrect because the dates make clear that she was only sixteen at the time. They had a daughter Mary Jane Kelly born in 1847.

Does this refer to Joshua Kelly, the first husband of Susan Tullia Richardson who disappeared in 1846? (2)

The following was printed in the New Orleans Delta Newspaper, 1847

"PRIZE FIGHTING IN NEW ORLEANS - The Delta has this paragraph -

Arena for Athlete - There is a piece of ground near the Metairie Road, on Alard's plantation, surrounded by trees and having a firm foundation which is used by the 'bruisers' of New Orleans as an arena for the display of their pugilistic and cannibal Aric powers. On Monday last a desperate fist-fight took place there between two men named Campbell and Burns, and yesterday two other brawny specimens of male humanity, named Cox and Kelly, amused themselves and nearly a hundred spectators by a regular set-to of fisticuff duel. A.H. Poynot, the officer at the Bayou Bridge Post, yesterday made an affidavit before Recorder Genois, who has issued orders to put a stop to such brutal proceedings."

Dated 24 March 1847

"Death from a Prize-Fight _ On Wednesday morning last we mentioned that two men, named Kelly and Cox, had gone out the day before to have a prize-fight, near Alard's plantation, on the Metairie road. They fought for $300 aside, Kelly coming off the victor, and Cox being so bruised that he had to be conveyed home. From the time of his arrival at his boarding house, which was on Tuesday evening, until yesterday morning at about 8 o'clock when he died, Cox never spoke a word. Immediately after his death, the Coroner was called to hold an inquest, and the jury brought in a verdict of "died from extravasation of blood upon the brain." All were of opinion that the death of Cox was occasioned by the violent blows he had received in and about the temples during the prize-fight on Tuesday last. A warrant for the arrest of Kelly was issued by Recorder Genois yesterday, but we are informed that Kelly, fearing that his opponent might die, sailed on board a ship bound for Liverpool on Tuesday night last. - N.O. Delta."

Because of the era and the nature of the event, surviving records beyond these newspaper accounts are usually sparse. Recorder Jean Baptiste Genois handled the complaint and issued the arrest warrant. If any additional documentation survives, it would be in the Recorder's Court minutes, Affidavits, Warrant books or Docket entries. These records sometimes still exist in the New Orleans City Archives, housed at the New Orleans Public Library. They may contain a full affidavit by Officer A.H. Pynot, the official warrant for Kelly, notes related to attempts to locate him and any follow-up after Cox's death.

Family tradition on the other hand holds that Joshua W. Kelly, Susan Richardson’s first husband, was killed in a knife fight in or near New Orleans. At present, no surviving newspaper report, court record, coroner’s inquest, or burial entry has been found that documents the death of a man named Joshua Kelly in such an incident. New Orleans newspapers of the 1840s did report violent altercations, gambling‑related disputes, and prizefights, but none yet discovered mention a Joshua Kelly by name. Likewise, no death record or probate file for him appears in Adams or Wilkinson County, Mississippi, where such a document might have been filed if his body had been returned home.

The absence of evidence does not disprove the story — violent deaths of transient young men were common in the river towns of the 1840s, and many went unrecorded or were reported only under partial names or nicknames. But as of now, the family account remains unverified, supported only by oral tradition rather than surviving documentation. All we know is that Susan Tullia Richardson was free to marry again by 1849.

Second Marriage to Richard Holmes Gaulden

In December 1849, Susan Kelly married for the second time. The marriage record, dated 20 December in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, lists the union of “Susan Kelly to Richard H. Gaulden.” He was the son of Wade Hampton Gaulden (1795-1849) and Ann Chivers (1795-1850). His grandfather on his father's side was William Geers Gaulden (1764-1839), the son of John Gaulden, Jr. and Susannah Brumfield. His brothers were Samuel F. Gaulden (1819-1845) and William A. Gaulden (1840-1850). Susan’s brother, Samuel J. Richardson, served as a witness and signed his name to the document. The license was issued the same day by Susan’s uncle Wesley Reily, Justice of the Peace. This record appears in Wilkinson County Marriage Book I, page 41.

Their children were:

William Wallace Gaulden 1849–1909

George Keller Gaulden 1854–1923

Louella Placidia Gaulden 1861–1884

1860 U.S. Census, Wilkinson, Mississippi (3) Susan’s older daughter Mary Kelly was living with them.

Richard Holmes Gaulden was in Company E. 21st Mississippi Regiment, "Hurricane Rifles", Infantry (4)

The officers were Isaac D. Stamps, First Captain (killed), W.P. McNeely, Captain; Others were O.H. Cox, A.C. Ardrey, Wm. Beach, John Bildart, W.F. Miller, Smith Gerion, Hiram Smith, John Gildart, John Strickler, W.A. Lanehart and R.J. Wigley.

Gauldin, R.H. is listed as a Private. There were 154 men in the Regiment.

Company E entered the Battle of the Wilderness as part of Mahone’s Brigade in A. P. Hill’s Corps. By May 1864 they were a seasoned but depleted unit, and the dense thickets of the Wilderness turned their fighting into close‑range, chaotic combat. On May 5, the regiment helped stop the Union advance along the Orange Plank Road, firing at enemies often only yards away in the tangled underbrush. The next morning, May 6, they were thrown into the desperate Confederate counterattack that prevented a collapse of the right flank.

It was in this brutal fighting that Richard Holmes Gaulden was killed. His death occurred during the heaviest action of the battle, when Mahone’s men were struggling to hold the line amid smoke, fire, and confusion. By the end of the Wilderness, the Hurricane Rifles had suffered severe losses but had played a key role in stabilizing the Confederate position during one of the most chaotic engagements of the war. (5)

Third Marriage to William S. Byrd

Left a widow once more, she married William S. Byrd on 23 November 1864 in Wilkinson, Mississippi. They had a daughter, Tullia, known as Birdie. What became of Byrd is uncertain; he may have died or simply disappeared. He was born about 1845.

Marriage License, William S. Byrd and Mrs. Susan T. Gaulden, the widow of Richard Holmes Gaulden

Their Marriage License reads: (6) "State of Mississippi - Wilkinson County - Know all Men by these Presents that William S. Byrd and James M. Miller of said county are held and firmly bound unto the State of Mississippi in the sum of TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS, lawful money of said State, to which payment, well and truly to be made, we bind ourselves, or executors and administrators, each and every of us and them, jointly and severally firmly by these .., sealed with our seals and dated this twenty second day of November one thousand eight hundred sixty four. The Condition of this Obligation is such, That, whereas a MARRIAGE is shortly to be -- between William S. Byrd and Mrs. Susan T. Gaulden.”

Tullia "Birdie" Byrd was born on 21 January 1866 in Mississippi and she died on 4 January 1947 in Franklin Parish, Louisiana. She married William Everett Huggins (1847-1907), who had previously been married to Louella Placidia Gaulden (1861-1884), who was her half-sister, the daughter of their mother Susan and Richard Holmes Gaulden. Louella died on 4 April 1884 in Gilbert, Franklin, Louisiana and her children with William Huggins were William Louis Huggins 1879–1965, Ernest Asa Huggins 1881–1964 and Luella Tullia Huggins 1884–1965.

All of these pictures were shared by Juliette Hyatt on ancestry.com

Birdie's children with William Huggins were Daniel Henry Huggins 1890–1964, Avis May Huggins 1894–1970, Wade Ellis Huggins 1896–1970, G D Huggins 1898–1902, Waldo Bruce Huggins 1901–1981 and Gladys Lucile Huggins 1902–1989.

Louella Placidia Gaulden, Birdie Byrd, Wade Ellis Huggins, Waldo Bruce Huggins and William Huggins.

Final marriage to Joseph Deer

Susan’s final marriage was to Joseph Deer, who also seems to have left her. In later years she was described as a “grass widow,” a term used for women whose husbands had died, deserted them, or drifted away. She was 28 and he was 42 years old in 1880 and he was born in New York. They are listed in the census of that year. They were living next to William Huggins and his first wife Louella and their son William. Birdie was 14 years old and was listed as the step-daughter.

1880 United States Federal Census, Franklin, Louisiana

Susan Tullia (Richardson) Gaulden Byrd Deer died on 10 April 1909 in Winnsboro, Franklin Parish, Louisiana, at about seventy‑seven years of age. Although she appeared in a 1903 family photograph taken on the porch of the dogtrot house in Gilbert—where she was shown with her daughter Birdie and Birdie’s family—she did not remain there in her final years. According to family recollections, Susan and Birdie did not get along well, and Susan eventually left Gilbert to live in Winnsboro with her eldest son, William Wallace Gaulden, and his daughter, Mary Luella Davis, her granddaughter. It was in Mary Luella’s household that Susan spent her last days and ultimately died.

Susan was buried in Wayside Cemetery in Winnsboro, formerly part of the old Wayside Plantation. Family tradition holds that she was laid to rest beside two of her brothers who had worked on and managed the plantation—likely Jacquery Y. Richardson and Francis S. Richardson. Her headstone was purchased and paid for by her granddaughter Mary Luella Davis, remembered within the family as “Cousin Babe.”

Susan Tullia Richardson is buried in the Wayside Cemetery in Franklin Parish, Louisiana (7) Also buried here are her brothers Franklin S. Richardson 12 Mar 1824 – 26 Nov 1898 and Samuel C. Richardson.

Taken together, the fragments of Susan’s life reveal a woman shaped by instability, loss, and the harsh realities of her time—realities that left deep marks on her children and grandchildren.