Joseph Warford

May all of you have a wonderful Fourth of July and remember the sacrifices that our ancestors gave to have us live in a FREE country.  The ancestor I will be talking about this week is my eighth great-grandfather, Joseph Warford, from my Mom’s side of the family.  His descendants have fought in every war from the Revolutionary War to the present war, and many of them gave their lives along the way.  Joseph Warford was born about 1714 in Monmouth County, New Jersey the son of John Warford and Elizabeth Stout and Joseph was number three of the nine known children born to John and Elizabeth.

Joseph’s siblings were the following: Job Warford 1709-1757 married Sarah Delameter, John Warford 1711-1791 married Mary Lee, James Warford 1716-1794 married Sarah Jewell, Abigail Warford 1718-1794 married George Warne, Elizabeth Warford 1720-???? married John Colvin, Rachel Warford 1723-1777 married Isaiah Quimby, Jane Warford 1725-1765 married William Allen and Ann Warford 1727-???? married Gabriel Fox.  Some of these siblings stayed in New Jersey some went to Pennsylvania like Joseph and some went into Virginia in the part that later became West Virginia.

Joseph soon met a young woman who family tradition states was born in Ireland, her name was Elizabeth Banner and she was born about 1721 and died in about 1785.  I have yet to find anything more about Elizabeth other than her name and that she died after Joseph did.  Joseph and Elizabeth were married around 1737, probably in New Jersey and possibly in Hunterdon County, which is where the majority of their children were supposed to have been born, as well as some of them in Monmouth County, where Joseph was supposed to have been born.

Joseph and Elizabeth also had at least nine known children, and they were the following: John Warford 1738-1816 in Jefferson County, Kentucky and he married Mary Wickersham, Henry Warford 1740-before October 1784 married Elizabeth Van Hook (They are my direct line and family stories say that they came to Kentucky in 1781 and that Henry went back to Pennsylvania for something and took sick and died there, but his family stayed in Kentucky.), Joseph Warford 1742-After 1782 married Rachel Stillwell, James Warford 1744-After March 1771 married Eleanor Truax, Abigail Warford 1746-After March 1771 (Family stories say she was scalped by Indians, during a raid, and that she was found under a large oak tree dead.), Jane Warford 1748-1818 in Warren County, Ohio married Dr. David Blair, Sarah Warford 1752-1823 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania married John Stillwell, Elizabeth Warford 1754-After March 1771 married Mr. Graves and Rachel Warford 1760-before August 1797 in Bedford County, Pennsylvania married Joseph Graves.

Life in New Jersey during the early and mid-1700’s would not have been a picnic and I am sure there were lots of day to day trials and tribulations for Joseph and his family to endure.  From what I have found so far Joseph worked mainly as a farmer, but he must have done fairly well at that occupation, because they seem to have been better off than most for that time period.  But as was the case so many times during these early years here in America, they outgrew or thought things were getting to crowded and so sometime around 1766, they headed northwest to the new lands that were opening up in Pennsylvania.  Joseph, his wife and nine children, plus others in the area went to the area that is now Fulton County, Pennsylvania but was Cumberland County at the time they were there.  The Stillwell’s, Graham’s and Truax’s, all blood lines of mine were in the same areas in New Jersey and in Pennsylvania, so they may have traveled together to the wilds of Pennsylvania.

In December 1766, Joseph Warford was deeded 100 acres of land on which he laid out a small village which was to soon carry his surname, and it became the town of Warfordsburg, Pennsylvania which is now located in Bethel Township.  The family built a large stone structure that served as their home and also as a tavern, and this building stood until 1947, when it was destroyed by fire.   For your information Warfordsburg lies just north of the Mason-Dixon Line in southern Fulton County, off Interstate 70.  On July 2, 2002 I was able to go with my husband and our two youngest daughters and drive around the area where this family lived.  I always get such an overwhelming feeling of family when I am able to go to the places that my ancestors lived and died, and to feel their spirits still there is wonderful.

This family must have had some fantastic genes, because for the time period that they lived infant mortality was quite high and I know of no children that died young in Joseph’s family.  As a matter of fact none of Joseph’s children that I am aware of had died before Joseph, which was very uncommon back in those days.  If you have been reading my blog since I first started it back in November of 2014, you will remember the story I told about Penelope Kent Stout in December of 2014.  Penelope was one of Joseph’s great-grandmothers and she lived to be 110 years old.  That was after being scalped, peeled and gutted by Indians, after having been shipped wrecked first when she was around 18 to 20 years old, and having ten children later, none of whom died young.   STRONG GENES!!!

I have yet to find any kind of military record for Joseph Warford, but he could have fought in King George’s War 1744 to 1748, the French and Indian War 1754 to 1763 or any of the other numerous Indian wars that happened during his life time.  They lived on the frontier, so there were always Indian problems, little raiding parties that would come through and terrorize the settlers, burn crops and run off livestock, you would have always had to have been on your guard at all times.   Joseph died the year before the American Revolutionary War started, so I doubt there was ever any kind of a pension that his widow could have filed for.

Joseph Warford left a Will, which was written March 2, 1771 and which was probated on January 10, 1775 and again, according to family stories he died in December of 1774.  I found Joseph’s Will at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City on Microfilm #331358 and the records are from Bedford County, Pennsylvania Probates Will Book 1, pages 11-12.   In Joseph’s Will he says that he is from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania but the will is recorded in Bedford County.  This area of Pennsylvania was first settled in about 1750, and the county seat of Bedford County, was established March 9, 1771 from Cumberland County, which at that time included the whole southwestern part of the state.  So technically he would have been from Cumberland County at the time he wrote his Will.

In Joseph’s Will he mentions his beloved wife, Elizabeth Warford, his sons: John Warford, Henry Warford (my direct line), James Warford and Joseph Warford, and his daughters: Abigail Warford, Jane Warford, Sarah Warford, Elizabeth Warford and Rachel Warford and he states that if any of his daughters die before marriage, then their share to be equally divided between their remaining sisters.  The following is a copy of the actual will, but there is some bleed through which makes a little part of it hard to read.

Joseph Warford, another one of those ancestors I would like to meet one day.  The things he saw in just his 60 short years of life, a country that would, within a year after his death, be fighting for their independence from Great Britain.  Something Joseph might never have even dreamed of, but almost all of his children lived to see was, FREEDOM from tyranny.  I am proud of the heroic acts it took for my ancestors to come to this country, clear the land, and make something that we, as their descendants can hopefully be proud of to this day.  I hope we can all stand up to those that try to break the laws of this land, which our founding fathers and our ancestors so diligently fought for.  May we as true American’s follow what our founding father’s wanted for each and every one of us, FREEDOM of Religion and FREEDOM from tyranny.  May we make our VOICES heard, when those that want hope and change to supposedly make things better, when we already have a wonderful document called the Declaration of Independence, can be put down and those that want what is actually good for America, be put back in charge, that is the hope and change, I hope to see. 

  

The following picture I ran across online at: http://www.historique.biz/ makes me proud to be an American, the other picture I saw on Facebook and it reminds me that we still have FREEDOM of Religion, and we will be able to keep that too, if we don’t allow others to try and take it away from us.