JAMES and TIMOTHY STAFFORD -- 96th INFANTRY LOST A BROTHER TO MEASLES - The Staffords were a traveling family --first from England in the 1600s then from Rhode Island, to Quebec after the Revolution. One branch of the family, the Palmer Staffords, moved from Hemmingford to Mooers in the early 1840s. Two sons were born to them in the 1840s -- Timothy born in Quebec in 1840 and James born in 1845. Both sons enlisted in the 96th Infantry in Mooers in November 1861 and went to Plattsburgh to muster in January 1862. James died of measles there on January 24th and was buried. He isn't even documented on the original muster roll. Timothy was mustered into Captain James Sweeney's Company F on January 21, 1862, to serve for three years. By April, the 96th was at the Siege of Yorktown then fought in Virginia until December before going to the Goldsboro area in South Carolina. They stayed there through 1863 defending the coast from blockade runners. In 1864, the regiment was recalled to the battlefields in the Petersburg/Richmond area and had over 200 casualties before the end of the year. They stayed near Petersburg for the winter and on April 2, 1865, witnessed the fall of the city. Timothy came home to Mooers Forks. His mother Sarah Wood had died in 1861, and his father remarried a widow, Margaret Linton, in 1862. Their first child, who was born in April 1865, was named James after the brother who died in 1862.Timothy married, Chloe Burdick and by 1870 took up residence in Mishawaka, IN, near the Indiana/Michigan state line. To support the family, he worked in a furniture factory. Their first child was also named after James.Both Timothy and his father died in 1885. Timothy was buried in Illinoisand Palmer was buried just north of Mooers Forks on Covey Hill, Quebec.
