IAGenWeb Project - Allamakee co.

Seth N. Stafford

 

Seth N. Stafford has been a resident of Allamakee county since pioneer times and is today accounted one of the successful agriculturists of Franklin township. He owns three hundred and forty-six acres of valuable land on section 23 and success has rewarded his well directed efforts in its cultivation so that it is now a valuable and productive property. Mr. Stafford was born in Virginia, on the Monongahela river, nears Morgantown, of the 1st of June 1848, and is a son of James Harrison and Christina (Trisler) Stafford, also of the same state and locality. In early life the father was a boatmaker and a river man in the Old dominion, but in 1852 came to Iowa, making the journey by boat up the Mississippi river and thence overland to Allamakee county. He located next in Linton township and entered government land, which he cleared of timber and continued to operate for a few years. Eventually he bought a say and grist mill at Smithfield and was active in its conduct for some time, although he still gave a great deal of attention to the development of his farm. About the years 1859, he sold his mill, and went to Pikes Peak in Colorado, where he remained until the spring of 1860. He then returned to Iowa but in the following years went again to Colorado, this time taking his son, Seth N., with him. They returned to Allamakee county on the 10th of June, 1862, and soon afterward the father bought a caring mill, which was located on what is now a portion of his son’s homestead. This he operated for two or three years thereafter but at the end of that time left this neighborhood, his death occurring some time afterward. His wife died in 1887.

In the acquirement of an education Seth N. Stafford attended public school in Smithfield and has spent practically his entire life in Allamakee county with the exception of the one year which he passed with his father in Colorado. At the age of nineteen he assumed charge of the homestead and continued to develop it for a number of years, residing thereon until his marriage. During this time and for a long period thereafter he also operated a threshing outfit and made this a profitable source of income to him. When he left the homestead he purchased eighty acres of land in Franklin township and this still forms a portion of his present farm. To it he added from time to time until he acquired a tract of over four hundred acres, one of the finest farms in this vicinity. Eighty acres of this has been given to his son and eighty acres he has sold, his holdings now comprising three hundred and forty-six acres. This he operates with the aid of his sons, carrying on general farming and also engaging extensively in stock-raising, keeping at times as many as one hundred head of cattle. Success has rewarded his well directed efforts and his farm is today a valuable property, evidencing everywhere his constant and careful supervision.

Mr. Stafford has been twice married. He wedded on the 25th of February, 1873, Miss Mary White, who was born in Franklin township in 1850, a daughter of John and Mary Ann White, natives of Ireland. They came as very early settlers to Allamakee county and the father became an extensive landowner, engaging the remainder of his life in farming. Mrs. Stafford passed away in 1876, leaving two children: Edna May, the wife of Peter Hefner, a farmer in Linton township; and David E., who is residing on the home farm. On the 1st of January, 1879, Mr. Stafford was again married, his second wife being Miss Betty C. Entwisle born in this township in 1858, a daughter of William and Martha (Hancock) Entwisle, the former a native of England and the latter of Indiana; Ollie, the wife of William Nebaugh, who resides near Monona, Clayton county; and Ernest Hampton, who makes his home with his parents.

Mr. Stafford is a stockholder in the Monona Creamery and the Farmers Shipping Association. He gives his political allegiance to the democratic party and his is progressive and public-spirited in matters of citizenship without being active as an office seeker. His long residence in this township has made him widely and favorably known throughout the community.

-source: Past & Present of Allamakee County; by Ellery M. Hancock; S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.; 1913
-transcribed by Diana Diedrich

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