Cordley, Richard, author and Congregational minister, was born at Nottingham, England, Sept. 6, 1829. When he was about four years of age he came with his parents to America. The family settled on a tract of government land in Livingston county, Mich., where Richard attended the pioneer public schools. In 1850 he entered the University of Michigan and graduated with the class of 1854, working his way through the institution. He then worked his way through the Andover Theological Seminary, where he was graduated in 1857. On Dec. 2, 1857, he preached his first sermon in the Plymouth Congregational church at Lawrence, Kan., where he remained as pastor until 1875, when he went to Flint, Mich., for awhile, after which he was pastor of a church at Emporia, Kan., for six years. In 1884 he returned to Lawrence and continued as pastor of the Plymouth church until his death, which occurred on July II, 1904. In May, 1859, Mr. Cordley married Miss Mary M. Cox of Livingston county, Mich. At the time of the Quantrill raid, Aug. 21, 1863, his house and all its contents were burned, and he was one of the persons marked for death, but he managed to elude the guerrillas. Mr. Cordley was several times a member of the National council of Congregational churches. In 1871 he was elected president of Washington College, but declined the office. Three years after this the University of Kansas conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He served for some time as a regent of the Kansas Agricultural College, and was for several years president of the Lawrence board of education. He was the author of "Pioneer Days in Kansas" and a "History of Lawrence," and was a contributor to magazines and church periodicals.