Nathan Sanford Family

Submitted by Donald L. Sanford
PO Box 155,  Lavalette, WV  25535

Nathan SANFORD started the first SANFORD family in Lawrence County, Ohio (Union Township). He workd as a boatman on the river and came from the state of Connecticut, town unknown.  The names of his parents are unknown.  He was born in 1798 and died in 1868.  In the year of 1825 he bought two hundred and eight (208) acres from the Land Grant of Chillicothe, Ohio and settled in Rockwood, Ohio (Chesapeake), which is across the river from Huntington, WV.

Nathan married SARAH SMITH (1805-1883) from Virginia on 7 October 1827 in Ironton, Ohio.  Sarah's father was Augustine SMITH and her mother was Sarah HALL.  After Nathan married, he traveled around, working on a riverboat, and later settled on the property he bought in Lawrence County, around 1830.  Nathan and Sarah had seven children.

The first child was William (1829-1850).  He drowned in the state of Indiana in August of 1850, at twenty-one years old.  He never married and had worked as a boatman.

The second child was Mary (1830-1919).  She married Amaziah THOMPSON (1821-1865) in Portsmouth, Ohio in the year 1850.  They had three children, William (1852--1923), Joseph (1854-1936), and Adah (1856-1868).

JOHN (1832-1917) was the third child and marriage is unknown.  He was a merchant in Ironton, Ohio for a dry goods store.  He had purchased the store from Mr. Goldcamp.

GEORGE (1836-1921) was the fouth child and married Clarinda DAVISSON (1838-1920) of the French Grant Settlement near Haverhill, Ohio on 14 October 1862.  They had one child, Carolyn G. (1863-1907) who married Markus MARSHALL of Greenup, Kentucky in 1884.  Carolyn had one child, Birdie Helen (1883-1973).  Birdie was later adopted by her Grandfather, George SANFORD.  Birdie graduated from Marshall University in 1908 with a Master's Degree in Music.  She married John Harvey GHOLSON, Jr. (1882-1957) who owned Gholson Funeral Home.  Birdie and John  had one son, George S. (1924-1987) who married Harriett BEODDA (1924-1995).

MARGARET (1838-1925) was the fifth child and married Allen T. BRATTIN (1829-1892).  Allen served as Captain in the Civil War, Company F, 9th West Virginia Infantry. They had three children, Nolia (1856-1941), who married George COX (1849-1915), Nettie (1858-1890), who married M.G. McKNIGHT, and had a son named Lincoln Grant Brattin (1861-1945), who moved to California.

HESTER ANN (1840-1930) was the sixth child, she married William PORTER (1837-1924). William served in the Civil War with the 6th Ohio Calvary, Company H as a Sargeant. Hester and William had two child, Nettie (1876-1956), was the firstborn and she married Ben OSWALD (1865-1945).  They lived in Huntington, WV.  The second child was George (1878-1965), who married Anna Maude KITTS (1887-1981), and they had one daughter named Nettie (b. 1917) who drowned in the Ohio River, near Rockwood (Chesapeake), Ohio at the age of eighteen.

NATHAN was the seventh child (1843-1921), he served in the Civil War for Company E, 5th WV Infantry.  He married Barbara GRUBER (1860-1948) in Ironton, Ohio on 7 October 1883.  Barbara's father was Daniel GRUBER (1830-1910) and he mother was Sarah ROOK GRUBER(1837-1905).  Nathan and Barbara had four children.  The firstborn was Sarah (1886-1940) who married Pearly GIBSON (1869-1939) and they had one child, Wilma (1923-).  Wilma married SANBORN and they live in Ironton, Ohio.  HESTER (1889-1894) was the third child and died at the age of five.  William Daniel (1893-1975) was the fourth child and married Golda (Rose) SANFORD (1903-1986).  William was an electrian for the C&O Railway. William and Golda had four children, WILLIAM H. (1924-1995), Marin D. (1926-2005), Mary Rose (1930-1986), and Barbara Ann (1932-).  William lived at 1550 Sixth Avenue in Huntington, WV.

NATHAN fathered a child named MERTON SANFORD (1875-1946) before he married Barbara GRUBER.  Merton's mother was Nathan's sister, Hester Ann SANFORD PORTER.  Merton SANFORD married Elizabeth WILKES (1890-1970) in Cabell County, WV.  Merton fathered seven children, Nathan (1909-1985), Clyde (1910-1940), Dora (1912-1976), Flora (1914-2005), Barbara Ann (1919-1984), Grace Marie (1923-1999), and Merton Jr., who died at six weeks old in 1926.