| Notes |
- Horace W. Stafford, GENEALOGY AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE STAFFORD FAMILIES OF OHIO AND INDIANA; 1066-1927; Springfield, OH, privately published, 1927; pp 38-39,126; Troy [OH] Historical Soc Library [MSS/X/S7795, Vol 1-2].
"James Stafford born 1778; Joseph, born 1772; Nancy Stafford Hoge (wife of Daniel Hoge); Catherine Stafford Mitchell; ***GEORGE STAFFORD, born 1769; Ralph, born 1775; were in the company with Samuel Mitchell, Sr., William Mitchell, born 1785; Howard Mitchell, born 1801 and George Mitchell, born 1798, which came to Clark and Miami Counties from Virginia in 1811. [p 87]
"A few years after their settlement in Virginia, ***GEORGE STAFFORD, who was born in 1769, and was 21 years of age when he left Ireland, married Catherine Fair. He seems, from the record, to have been 11 years her senior.
Seven children were born to this couple prior to their removal from Virginia, namely: Elizabeth, James, John, George, Ralph, Nancy and Margaret. Nancy died in infancy and was buried in Virginia.
After their removal to Ohio, other children were born to them as follows: Susannah, Joseph, Ruth, Finley and Catherine....
***GEORGE and Catherine, with their six children, settled on a tract of land in Clark County, bordering on the Miami County line....
The first work of the back-woods settler, after building his cabin-home, was the clearing of the land. In this, as in all the hardships of pioneer life, Catherine was, doubtless, a true helpmate for tradition tells us she paid a laborer for clearing one acre of land by making him a linen shirt.
The hewed log cabin that sheltered the family had a large sitting-room with a big fireplace, and an outside chimney at the north end, two bedrooms next to it on the south, the big kitchen at the south end and what was called an entry between the bed rooms and the kitchen. On the second floor was a large but low room with short windows at the sides. On the east side was a long porch. This house stood till after the marriage of the youngest son in 1845, when it was replaced by the present brick structure now owned by George's grandson, Albert Eaton Stafford. Most of the original entry of the land is still in possession of the family after a lapse of more than 100 years.
Before he left the green hills that overlook Enniskillen and Loch Earne, in the Emerald Isle, ***GEORGE had learned the weaver trade, and the loom was set up in the wilderness home at an early period. The big spinning wheel, the little wheel, and the loom were essential parts of the pioneer's outfit a century ago. He also had a rope-walk where tow was converted into useful ropes.
Later in June, 1812, the United States Congress made a formal declaration of war against Great Britain. Not long afterward Dr. Asa Coleman was called from the little straggling village of Troy to attend a sick woman in the Indian Creek settlement, and brought the startling news that the war was on, and the bloody red-skins had gone on the war-path.
Early the following year some of the settlers on Indian and Honey Creeks, including ***GEORGE, and one or two other Staffords, were mustered as militiamen, and taken to the north-western part of the state. But their military careers seem to have begun and ended with helping to build Ft. Meigs, on the south bank of the Maumee River, just where the Ohio Electric Railway now crosses that stream.
***GEORGE died in December, 1840 and was buried in Black's Cemetery. Catherine survived him thirty years and died in 1870, at the advanced age of 90 years. The last 19 years of her life were spent in total blindness.
Their eldest daughter, Betsy, born in 1799, never married, and was a sort of foster-mother to the younger children and all the grandchildren by whom she was universally loved. She too was afflicted with blindness in her old age, having lost her sight 11 years before her death, which occurred in 1882 at the age of 82 years. Both of these sightless old people were tenderly cared for in their declining years by the youngest son Finley and his good wife Catherine, in the old home." [pp 37-38]
"***GEORGE STAFFORD, married: Catherine Fair in Giles Co. Va.
Died: 12/19/1840 Clark Co.: buried in Black's Cemetery."
ERRORS: They were married in Montgomery Co VA; they are buried in McKendree Cemetery, Miami Co, OH. [p 126]
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1769 - 1840 (71 years)
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