Sylvester Woodruff Spafford

The following information and photos on one of Hamilton County's early settlers came from John Walker.

Sylvester Woodruff (S.W.) Spafford was born Feb.28, 1829, in Conneautville,Crawford Co., PA, m. Mary Spafford, Feb. 1, 1849, in Conneautville, Crawford Co., PA (they were first cousins); emigrated to Dubuque Co., IA, in 1851; then moved around 1855 to Waterville, Allamakee Co. IA; In the Spring of 1870 settled on Lincoln Creek (Section 32), Hamilton Co., NB, near Aurora, NB. With him came his family, with his children: Henry Lyman, Anna Elizabeth, Ella De Ethe, Victor William, Mary Olive, Waldo Worth, Letta Virtue, and Sylvester's brother, Nathan Prior Spafford (also on section 32).

The Shooting Incident --- occured around 1866 in Allamakee County, Iowa.
The story passed down from my grandfather, Ray Spafford, Sylvester Spafford's grandson, is that while serving as justice of the peace, he was attempting to save a woman from her armed, deranged husband, who shot Sylvester with a musket. The ball passed through a lung, carrying with it bits of flannel of his shirt... the wound never completely healed, and he died from the effects of it about 10 years later, at his home at Aurora, November 9, 1876. He crafted is own coffin and kept it under the house.

My grandfather said Sylvester worked as a surveyor as the town of Aurora was laid out... he may well have helped out the surveyor during this. (He was a farmer as I know it for his family's subsistence).

In the spring of 1871, a post office was established on Lincoln Creek at the Spafford home, called "Spafford's Grove," with Sylvester Woodruff Spafford as Postmaster.

He was named Director of Hamilton County School District No. 4 on February 14, 1872.

Around 1884 the Spafford family migrated to California's San Joaquin Valley, settling first at a settlement no longer in existence, Wahtoke, near Reedley, then to the Hanford and Tulare area.