From History of Walworth County Wisconsin by Albert Clayton Beckwith, Vol. II, 
Publ. 1912 - Page 796-797
 
SAMUEL H. STAFFORD.  A study of the career of the late Samuel H. STAFFORD, one 
of the best known and most highly respected citizens of Walworth county during 
the generation that has passed, cannot help but be instructive and encouraging 
to those who stand at the beginning of the paths leading toward the steeps, 
for his life was conservatively lived so as to result in no harm to those with 
whom it touched and he permitted no obstacle to thwart him when pursuing a 
course which he knew to be right.
 
Mr. STAFFORD was born near Saratoga, New York, in 1811, and his death occurred 
in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in 1889.  He was the grandson of Amos STAFFORD, who 
was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.  The latter was a native of Rhode 
Island; his father served in the British army in the French and Indian war, 
and he died in Rhode Island of the smallpox, contracted while in the army.  
Almost STAFFORD, who was then quite young, was taken by his uncle John to 
Pennsylvania, where he was taught to hunt and trap, which he followed for a 
number of years in early life.  In 1778 he had a very narrow escape from the 
Indians at the massacre of Wyoming.  He was then nineteen years old and was 
serving as a reserve rifleman.  His three comrades fell around him and he felt 
that his turn would be next, but he noticed that the fatal shots were preceded 
by a puff of smoke from behind a certain log, and as the head of an Indian 
appeared at that place a bullet sped thither and his life was saved.  
Retreating, he sought concealment in a wheat field, but the Indians 
accidentally came upon him and he was forced to run.  One of the savages 
overtook him and was lifting his tomahawk to strike when Mr. STAFFORD cleared 
a brush fence at a single bound, then turning, shot his pursuer dead.  
Throwing away his musket, he plunged into a nearby river, which he swam, 
reaching the opposite side in safety, although a shower of bullets fell about 
him, and finally hid in a marshy spring, in which he remained all night, and 
he spent the next two nights in a hollow log.  Once several Indians sat on the 
log and he could hear the bullets rattling in their pouches.  For three days 
and nights he lay concealed without food or clothing, for the latter he had 
cast aside in swimming the river.  Finally, not able to stand it any longer, 
he ventured forth, and in a short time met a band of men among whom was a Tory 
whom he knew and who exclaimed: "My God, Amos! how came you here stark 
naked?"  His friend gave him food and clothing and two days later he reached 
the American camp in safety and was the first to tell the news of the terrible 
massacre of Wyoming.  After the war he located at Saratoga, New York, at what 
is yet known as Stafford's Bridge, and there his death occurred in 1813.
 
Samuel STAFFORD, the immediate subject of this sketch, grew up at Saratoga, 
New York, and there, in 1841, he married Eliza GAY, who was born there in 
1811.  They came west in 1842, locating first at Kenosha, Wisconsin, but soon 
they moved to a farm near Bloomfield and from there to Lake Geneva.  Here Mr. 
STAFFORD engaged in the general merchandise business until the beginning of 
the Civil war, when he retired and gave his attention to the care of his 
private estate.  He had met with a large measure of success in his business 
operations and owned valuable farms in this county, one in Lyons township, one 
in Bloomfield township, and one in the northern part of Geneva township.  For 
many years he was a leading business man in Lake Geneva, and he took much 
interest in the life and public affairs of the town.  His family consisted of 
three children, namely: James Wellington, born in 1842, died in 1861, when 
eighteen years of age.  He was a youth of much promise, intellectual and a 
fine character.  Samuel Harvey, born in 1844, died in 1810.  Mary Alice 
married George VAN SLYCK, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume.
 
After the death of Samuel STAFFORD his widow made her home with her daughter, 
Mrs. VAN SLYCK, until her death, April 5,1 905, at an advanced age.
 
Submitted by Carol