Who is behind Richmond's Encyclopedia?

According to the "About" page, the purpose of Richmond's Encyclopedia is to "record and describe historical events, people, architectures, and other developments in our beautiful cities of Richmond and Cove Utah..." Richmond's Encyclopedia was launched August 5, 2021 by a young man by the name of Bryce Holt. But who is he exactly?

Bryce Holt has been a citizen of Richmond for his whole life. In fact, he is not the first in his family to live in Richmond. "I am the eighth generation to live in Richmond. Ninth nonconsecutively." Says Bryce in an interview.

Bryce is the descendent of the Diderick E. Funk family, originally from Denmark, who settled in Richmond in 1860 after converting to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1857. Diderick's eldest son, Christopher M. Funk, also settled in Richmond with his father.

Bryce is not only the descendent of the Funk family, but also the Marriner Wood Merrill family and Stillman Pond family. Clarence L. Funk, the son of Christopher Funk, married Laura V. Merrill, the daughter of Marriner Wood and Maria Loenza Kingsbury. Maria Kingsbury is the granddaughter of Stillman Pond.

When Richmond was incorporated in 1868, Christopher was hired as the first Supervisor of Streets. Farming and agriculture were important to the Funk family for their occupation. In 1912, after reading a farming magazine, Clarence L. Funk, the son of Christopher, read an article about a cattle show in Paris, Idaho. Clarence gathered a group of men together to form the first Black & White Day's Show, which Clarence would preside as the president for an un-numbered amount of years.

On the south end of Richmond lies the farm that Clarence built in the early 1900's, known today as the Funk Farm. The farm was passed on to Clarence's son LeRoy Conrad Funk in 1932, then to his son Calvin Williams Funk in 1960. In 2003, the farm was passed to one of Calvin's children. LeRoy and Calvin served as key members of agriculture in not only Richmond, but northern Utah and southern Idaho. In 1955, Calvin married the love of his life, Carol Nobel. Carol knew her history, and in 1976, she helped with the creation of the first history book of Richmond: "The History of Richmond, Utah" by Amos W. Bair.

Calvin and Carol's son, who shall stay anonymous, served as a city council member in the late 1980's to 1996. His daughter, who will also stay anonymous, serves in the Cache County Sheriff's Department. She is the mother of Bryce Holt.

Bryce gives all his credit to his ancestors who taught him what it ment to serve his community and work hard. Bryce was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age of 14. After his baptism, his missionaries introduced to him the website "Familysearch.org '' that was designed to help individuals learn about their family history. This was the beginning of Bryce's love for history.

Bryce said of his ancestry, "After I learned all that my ancestors did, I wanted to do something for myself. What it was, I did not know for some time until I returned home from my mission in Dallas, Texas where I had the idea of making a history website."

After launching the website, Bryce anonymously posted about the website on Facebook, telling individuals he had "found" the website by accident. Later, Bryce would embrace the idea of being in charge of the website, and created the Richmond's Encyclopedia Facebook page, where he shares fun history facts about the city's history and updates to the website.

Bryce has now been working on Richmond's Encyclopedia for about a year and a half. According to Bryce, "if you were to put Richmond's Encyclopedia into a book format, the book would be 1,500 pages long, with 10 different volumes." 

Bryce is currently in online school at BYU Idaho for Family History Research. He as been a professional genealogist for nearly a decade. Included with his work on his website are two family history books, one about his Holt ancestors, and one about his Funk ancestors. He has worked with the Church of Jesus Christ many times in callings and an internship at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

But what next?

"I hope to make history websites for other cities, starting with Lewiston and Newton. I think they have wonderful histories, and they could benefit well from what I make. I want to pursue a career in this. I know it is a difficult task, but I take strength from my ancestors."

Bryce will be in the parade of Black & White Days this year with a cart advertising his website. Bryce will be present when this article releases, so if you want to ask him any questions yourself, leave a comment down below.