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Subject: [INHENRY] Stafford, Pritchard, Albertson, Newby, Parker
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 18:52:11 EST

Surnames in this biography are: Stafford, Pritchard, Albertson, Newby,
Parker, Stratton,

COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY
Of Henry County, Indiana
B.F. Bowen
1920



REV. SETH STAFFORD

America is pre-eminently a land of self made men for here abound
opportunities for achieving success such as no other country affords. The man
of energy and correct training may here readily rise to positions of
usefulness, if not distinction, provided he is well grounded in the
principles of rectitude and integrity. Not only is this the case in the
present day, but to some extent conditions have with long existed whereby the
individual with a proper conception of the dignity of his mission might rise
superior to environment and win for himself positions of honor and trust in
the community. The life of the widely known and eminently popular subject of
this sketch affords a striking example of what a man plentifully endowed with
good common sense, supplemented by sound mental discipline, accomplished in
days gone by, when opportunities were not so numerous as at the present time
and many discouraging circumstances had to be surmounted and obstacles
removed from his pathway of success. The life of Seth Stafford has had a
farther-reaching effect and perhaps a greater influence for good than the
majority of men of his day and generation in eastern and central Indiana.
Many youths who formerly sat at his feet received instruction in the
mysteries of books and in the greater and more important matter of how to
live up to their highest ideals of manhood are found today filling important
stations in the world, blessings to society and true helps to humanity. A
benefactor of his kind and long a prominent factor in moulding the character
and controlling opinion in his community, this veteran educator and honored
citizen still remains to make the World brighter and better and from
the topmost round of the ladder of success now looks back over a well spent
life, seeing therein little to regret and much to commend. The paternal
ancestors of Mr. Stafford came from Scotland in a very early day and settled
in North Carolina. Many years ago there was born in Randolph county, that
state, one Eli Stafford, who when a young man married a neighbor girl by the
name of Elizabeth Pritchard. They were poor people, but, blessed with
exuberant spirits and abundantly endowed with that admirable quality known as
self-reliance, resolutely faced the future and carefully formulated their
plans for the years to come. Realizing that but little could be accomplished
in their native state in the way of acquiring a competence and having
favorable reports of the new and fertile Indiana country, they loaded their
few household effects on a one-horse cart and started for the wilds of what
is now Henry county. Mrs. Stafford and her sister-in-law rode, while the
husband walked, carefully selecting the most favorable routes over hills and
through swamps, and in this manner after a long and tedious journey, attended
with many hardships and not a few dangers, the couple finally reached their
destination. This was as early as the year 1818 and for some time after his
arrival Mr. Stafford worked on a lease, which he took to clear a certain
amount of land within the present limits of Wayne County. After laboring hard
for two years he sold the lease and improvements for one hundred dollars and
with this sum of money entered eighty acres in Greensboro township from which
in due time he cleared a very respectable farm. About the year 1834 he built
a mill on his place of forty acres, the first enterprise of the kind in that
part of the country and subsequently purchased another eighty-acre tract on
which he spent the remainder of his life, dying at the advanced age of eighty
years. Eli Stafford and wife were zealous members of the Society of Friends
and are remembered as among the first of that religious body to settle in the
county of Henry. They were kind-hearted and true, lived lives of usefulness,
filling up the measure of their days with good deeds and always exerted a
wholesome influence in the community where they resided. Eight children were
born to this excellent old couple, namely: John. Cynthia, Phineas, Abigail,
Achsah, Seth, Elizabeth and Sarah.

Seth Stafford, the direct subject of this review, was born on the
original family homestead in section 24, Greensboro Township, Henry
County, November 5, 1830. The story of his youth is similar in many
respects to the early life of many of our best public men. In summer
he worked beside his father and brothers on the farm, laying up
stores of health and strength for the trying demands of his subsequent
professional career. Here was formed the intimate acquaintance with the
affairs of daily life, its difficulties and needs which was to keep him ever
after in warm sympathy with those who toil. In his home life tinder its firm
but kindly parental government was acquired that habit of industry and those
principles of integrity, independence and love of right, which have been such
marked characteristics of the man. In the winter time he attended the
subscription schools and made substantial progress, meantime developing a
taste for books and a fondness for learning which awakened a desire for
greater scholastic training than the means at hand afforded. Actuated by
this desire, young Stafford finally entered Antioch College at Yellow
Springs. Ohio, when that institution was under the management of that noted
educator and celebrated American, Horace Mann. While there he studied with
great assiduity with the object in view of preparing himself for teaching and
on leaving college took charge of his first school in his home township and
from the beginning demonstrated peculiar abilities and fitness as an
instructor. He began his pedagogical work in Henry Township, receiving the
magnificent salary of ten dollars a month, boarding himself. Mr. Stafford's
experience in the educational field took a wide range and extended over many
years filled to completion with toilsome duty faithfully and conscienciously
performed. His methods did not, like many of the more modern schools, tend to
dull uniformity; they gave to the ambitious youth opportunities to acquire a
training that tended to individual development and that personal independence
and self-reliance which peculiarly fit the pupil to grapple with the various
questions relating to American industrial and political life. Being far in
advance of the majority of teachers in intellectual ability and professional
training, his services were eagerly sought by the more intelligent
communities and he never experienced any difficulty in securing schools,
although his salary at first was very meager. As years went by men of his
abilities began to command much more liberal remuneration, accordingly his
salary was gradually increased until he received larger wages than were paid
to any other teacher in the county. Mr. Stafford never permitted him self to
fall behind the time, but by spending his vacations attending normal schools
and other institutions always kept in touch with the general trend of
educational thought. He was always a high-grade teacher and as such
introduced many reforms, which had a far-reaching effect upon the educational
system of Henry County and in other counties where he was employed. His
standing as the most scholarly as well as the most successful teacher of his
day in this part of the state was universally conceded by school met: and
never questioned by the public. He threw all of his powerful personality into
the work, which he pursued with the interest of a born enthusiast and to his
indefatigable labors are many of the leading men of this country and
elsewhere indebted for the instruction and gentle but firm admonition
which led to the success which they have since obtained. Mr. Stafford taught
and attended school continuously from 1848 to 1878, during which period he
led to the pathway of knowledge hundreds of boys and girls who have
since become the moral bone and sinew of the country. He appears to
have been born for the high office, which he so long and so faithfully filled
and retired there from only when he thought it his imperative duty so to do.
Mr. Stafford was married on the 8th day of March, 186o, to Miss Rebekkah J.
Albertson, of Wayne County, this state, a union resulting in four children,
Julia, Charles, Milton and William M. Julia was born September 20, 1862,
graduated from Spiceland Academy and is now the wife of Clinton Newby;
Charles, whose birth occurred on the 21st day of November, 1867, married
Virgie Parker and lives on a farm adjoining his father's place; Milton was
born September 9, 1873, married Miss Minnie Stratton and is one of the highly
esteemed citizens of the community in which he lives; William M., who was
born July 28, 1877, is an alumnus of Spiceland Academy, also attended Earlham
College and has taught in the public schools of this County. Since the year
1874 Mr. Stafford had lived in section 24, Greensboro Township, on a farm,
which he purchased of his father for one hundred dollars per acre. He has a
beautiful and attractive place, well improved, his large and imposing brick
dwelling of eleven rooms being one of the most desirable as well as one of
the most valuable rural homes in the county of Henry. The place and
everything thereon bear evidence of thrift and prosperity, directed and
controlled by good taste, the orchards, graceful shade trees and well-kept
lawns bespeaking a home where genuine hospitality and true refinement reign
supreme. Mr. Stafford is a birth-right member of the society of Friends, in
which he has held various official positions, among others those of clerk and
correspondent. In the year 1878 he was acknowledged as a minister and since
then has devoted part of the time preaching for his home congregation and as
an evangelist at other places where his services are requested. As a minister
he has been instrumenital in accomplishing much good wherever he has
exercised the duties of his holy office, being a good speaker a clear,
logical reasoner with a sufficiency of pathos in his sermons to make them
interesting and very reflective to his auditors. Mrs. Stafford has also been
very active in religious work, for a number of years holding the position of
elder in the church, in which capacity she has done much to strengthen and
build up her own and other local societies. Not only as an educator
and leading church worker is Mr. Stafford known, but as an enterprising,
public-spirited citizen, interested in the material development of his
township and county, his position has long been duly recognized. He is a
Republican in politics and keeps himself well informed relative to all great
national and international questions, always taking an active interest in the
issues, which divide parties and affect legislation. At different times he
has served on United States juries and as a leading member of the Henry
County Historical Society has done much to collect and put in permanent form
many interesting facts concerning the early history and development of this
particular part of the state. His life has been a very active one and the
amount of good he has accomplished will only be known in the great day when
the Books are opened and every man rewarded according to the deeds done in
the body. The retrospect of a long and useful career is his and the future
awaits him with bountiful rewards. Mr. and Mrs. Stafford have in their
possession two old parchment deeds, one executed October 15, 1835, and
bearing the signature of President Andrew Jackson, or Old Hickory, and the
other bearing date March 15. 1837, the year of the great panic, and the
signature of President Martin Van Buren.

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