page_title: Richard Cordley
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Cordley / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: "The Brick Church" of the Plymouth Congregational Church of Lawrence, Kansas after its completion in 1870.
context_page_description: Richard Cordley was a Protestant minister and abolitionist associated with the Jayhawkers of Kansas. Known primarily as the pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church in Lawrence, Kansas in the 19th and early 20th century, Cordley was an early settler of Lawrence and a survivor of both the Sacking of Lawrence and the Lawrence Massacre in 1863. Cordley wrote about the history of Lawrence and the state of Kansas later in his lifetime and was also the recipient of the first degree awarded by the University of Kansas.
context_section_description: Cordley was born on September 6, 1829, in Nottingham, England. He later immigrated to Livingston County, Michigan, with his family when he was four. He began attending public school when he was about nine, although he had been taught how to read by his "cultivated" mother prior to his attending a formal school. He earned degrees from the University of Michigan (B.A. 1854) and the Andover Theological Seminary (M.A. 1857). In 1874, he also was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Kansas—making him the recipient of the first degree bestowed by the then-fledgling KU.
  In 1857, he became the pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church in Lawrence, Kansas, a position that he held until 1875. From that later year until 1884, he served in Flint, Michigan, and Emporia, Kansas. Then, in 1884, he returned to Lawrence and resumed his role as the pastor at Plymouth Congregational Church. He died on July 11, 1904, and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Lawrence.
caption: The Plymouth Congregational "Brick Church", shortly after being constructed, c. 1870. During this time, Cordley was the church's pastor.
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