RICHMMOND – There are numerous stories about Northwestern Band of Shoshone Indian interactions with the pioneers that settled Cache Valley.
The Richmond Encyclopedia compiled by Bryce Holt, 25, has several personal histories of the town’s beginnings, the pioneers and some of the interactions with the indigenous Shoshone people.
One of those interactions documented in the Richmond Encyclopedia tells how a one-year-old Shoshone child was traded for to a pioneer family for some food.
Bessie Croshaw of Richmond was traded to the family for a sack of groceries in the pioneer days of Richmond.
Betsh, or Bessie, was born in 1865 in the Northwestern Shoshone Indian Tribe near the Bear River west of Franklin.
She accompanied her grandfather to Richmond to find food for the family. The grandfather traded the little girl for a large sack of food to the John and Jane Croshaw family. Currently, there is no information about the Croshaw family and their children. There also was no mention of who Bessie’s Shoshone parents were nor her grandfather’s name.
Bessie was adopted a year later and was raised by the Croshaws until she went to work in Montana, the Richmond history said. She was one of a few Native Americans to live in Richmond in pioneer times.
Bessie was raised by the Pioneer family. When she was six years old her grandfather returned to visit her and wanted to take her back to the tribe. Bessie was hesitant but was forced to go.
Some six months later, she was brought back by her grandfather.
“She got too much white in her,” he said. “She cry, cry, cry all the time.”
From that time on Bessie became very afraid of Native Americans when they visited Richmond. Bessie would hide from them; she was afraid that they would take her away from the Croshaw family.
“Bessie learned to read from the Bible with her mother Jane,” the history said. “Bessie later became so talented at reading that she would read stories to the neighbor’s children. Once the school board was created by the City Council in 1872, Bessie was able to excel in her reading and writing abilities.”
When she was eight years-old she was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bessie stayed active in the church all her life. When she lived in Richmond, she attended church regularly, and had multiple callings in the Richmond Ward and Richmond South Ward.
As a young woman, Bessie went to Montana to work. She met and married Alfred “Bud” Johnson there. He was a Latter-day Saint born in Alabama and was of Spanish and English descent.
After their marriage in 1898, they moved back to Richmond to live.
Bryce Holt shows a locket an early pioneer brought across the ocean and ended up in Richmond. Photo was taken on Tuesday Aug. 26,2025.
Her husband contracted tuberculosis and died May 19, 1921, in Richmond. Later, Bessie also contracted the decease and was taken to a Native American Hospital in Blackfoot. Bessie Croshaw died Aug 1, 1924, in Blackfoot and was buried in the Richmond Cemetery.
The story of Bessie Croshaw is just one of hundreds of stories Holt has written in the Richmond Encyclopedia.
“The Richmond Encyclopedia is my website. It is a record of the city of Richmond and I love working on it,” he said. “I started working on it in 2021 while working as an intern at the Family History Center in Salt Lake City. If I were to put in book form, it would be 2700 pages long.”
He has been a resident of Richmond all his life and is a descendant of the 1860 pioneers.
“My parents are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but let me join the church when I was 14 years old,” Holt said. “The church opened my eyes to the rich pioneer history of Richmond, and I grew a strong bond to it.”
“In 2021, I was working as an intern at the Family History Center and had an impression to put together a history of Richmond,” Holt said. “I began to work on the history at that time.”
He also helps the local Lions Club and the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers distribute information through social media while working on a BYU-I family history degree.
“I didn’t do this to make money, I did it because I love my hometown and I love its history,” he said. “I did it not only for people who live in Richmond but for people who live outside of Richmond.”
Artifacts in a glass case in the Richmond Relic Hall on Tuesday Aug. 25, 2027.
The encyclopedia is not finished; it is a work in progress. It is updated at least once a month.
“About 99.9 percent of the people who have seen the website love it,” he said. “Most seem like they are head over heels for it.”
Holt works full time at Cache Valley Cabinets and Countertops and lives in Richmond. He is excited to hear from people who have information about the history of the town and its people.
To explore Holt’s version of Richmond’s history, go to https://sites.google.com/view/richmondsencylopedia or contact him at bdholt14@gmail.com