The Biography of John Willeford

From: A Directory of Henry County
Published in 1887; p. 502
(Sutro Library, San Francisco, Microfilm)

John Willeford

John Willeford, one of the pioneers of Henry County, Iowa, was born in Clay County, Ky., in 1807. His parents were James and Jane (Bales) Willeford, natives of North Carolina, who settled in Clay County in an early day. John Willeford was united in marriage with Miss Susana Smallwood, by whom he had eight children: Henderson M., a farmer of Center Township, Henry County; Paulina, wife of David Hitt, of Sift County, Minn.; Belinda, deceased; Celia, deceased; Amanda J., wife of J. D. Trowbridge, of Henry County; William H. H., of this county; Sarah A., wife of Hiram Jones, of Mt. Pleasant; Adeline A., wife of George Pixley, of California; she died in 1887.

Mr. John Willeford left his home in Kentucky in the spring of 1834, and with his wife and three small children, took passage on board a boat for Burlington, and from thence proceeded to Henry County, locating on land in what is now Center Township. He was compelled to live in a camp three months after reaching Henry County, until he could build a cabin. This was slow and laborious work as there was no one in that section of the country that he could get to help him. A log cabin with puncheon floor and a chimney made of mud and sticks, was finally erected, the family living some time in this cabin before there was a door, but a quilt or blanket served the purpose. Their nearest neighbor at this time lived many miles away, gristmills were unknown, and for the first year the only meal they had was pounded out in the top of a stump, a hole being dug in the stump for that purpose. The first milling they had done was at the mill on Henderson River, Mr. Willeford passing down the Skunk River, embarking at Oakland in a canoe borrowed of the Indians, then up the Mississippi to Henderson, where he loaded his canoe and returned home.

When Mr. Willeford came to this county he was in limited circumstances, and only by hard labor could he make enough to support his family. When they came, the country was so thinly settled that tribes of Indians might almost daily be seen, but as the country became more thickly populated, they [Indians] were driven farther West. Mr. Willeford was a man who stood high in the community and was ever ready to do a neighbor a kind action. He was, in politics, and old-line Whig and a great admirer of Henry Clay and William Henry Harrison. Mr. Willeford died in Center Township on the 11th of March, 1845. Mrs. Willeford is still living and is now seventy-seven years of age, and is the first white woman who came into Henry County. She is a woman of remarkable memory for her age, and is loved and respected by all her neighbors, whom she has so long lived among. At the time she came to Henry County there were many wolves, and many times at night they would come and scratch at her door. Chickens and sheep had to be well guarded or they would have been carried away by the wolves. Now all this has changed, civilization has advanced step by step, the log cabin is transformed into a comfortable home, and the timber lands into well cultivated farms.

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A Short Biographical Sketch of a James Walker of Indiana

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The Walkers - Paperwork

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Celia [Willeford] Leas

James W. Leas