The stories of many of our ancestors, and perhaps even our own, are constructed of a mixture of life experiences, good and bad. Life is more often than not, a journey of pain and loss mixed with joy and fulfillment. My parents used to say that life was just one problem after another and that the trick was in learning how to deal with these problems that always arrive unexpected at our door. Challenges confront us and we must find a way of moving through and eventually past them. For many of us, it’s faith in a compassionate God, which allows us to keep moving forward despite what life throw at us. Of course there are also many who can no longer believe in a God that has allowed too much tragedy to come our way. Tragedy is certainly always been a test of one’s faith.
James Gray Whitford was born in Crown Point, New York in 1810. When he was almost 6 years old his father was in the process of moving the family “west.” We don’t know their intended destination, but we do know that James’ father, Greene Whitford, died during some part of this journey. This was the first tragedy. Greene was 57 years old and we might presume that the family had not gone too far west as his widow returned east with her young children, of which James appears to have been the eldest. Now a widow, Hannah Whitford, chose to live near her brother in Bridport, Vermont. She was destitute at this point, so young James, now age 6, was taken into the family of Thomas Jewett of Weybridge, Vermont, where he lived until he turned 20. James’ educational opportunities were slim and he attended school only in the winters. But, at the age of 18, he was inspired by the ministry of Rev. John C. Green of the Methodist Episcopal church and became a convert. By the age of 20, James was licensed to exhort, which allowed him to read the scripture lessons in church.
In 1832, when James was 21, he married 17-year-old Betsy Amanda Hindes in Addison Vermont. The following year he was licensed to preach by the Methodist Episcopal Church and began to work as a circuit preacher in Vermont. These circuit preachers traveled over a wide territory. They visited communities that, either from lack of money or available preachers, had no local minister. They preached the Word and performed marriage ceremonies and generally got paid minimally for their tasks.
In October, a year after their marriage, Betsy and James were blessed with the birth of their first child, Amanda. Three years later, another child was born, Mary Elizabeth. Soon after the birth of Mary Elizabeth, about 1836, James and Betsy moved west to join the Illinois Conference of the Methodist Church and at some point he was eventually assigned to the church’s mission to the Chippewa Indians in Wisconsin. At that time, these areas were for the most part wilderness and the dangers were many. It is not clear if Betsy and the girls joined him at the mission or remained at some type of home base in Illinois or a more settled part of Wisconsin than where the mission was located. My guess is that Betsy did not accompany him to the remote mission, as there seems to be no mention of her in the descriptions of this small Methodist mission near Ft. Snelling. There are descriptions of this group of missionaries that included James and several other Methodist ministers. They tried to teach Methodist hymns, translated into the Chippewa language, and to preach the gospel, but basically their efforts proved to be unsuccessful.
Another daughter, Sara Jane, was born in 1837. It was after this joyful event that tragedy struck the Whitford household. On June 7, 1837, Betsy died. We don’t know the details of her death, but only know that her husband James had shot her accidentally. Was he cleaning his gun or hunting too near the house? We simply do not know. The little girls were all under the age of 3 and certainly this must have shaken James’s strongly built faith to the core. There were so many threats and dangers in this wilderness but to have her die because of his own carelessness must have been unbearable. Others seemed to have stepped in to care for the girls. James was unable to continue with the ministry. How does one recover from something so tragic? How could he live with himself or ever face his children again, much less preach the Word of God? He had killed his own wife!
We don’t know what he did over the next few years but we do know that in 1841 he was ordained as a local deacon in the Rock River conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. Somehow his faith had brought him through the darkness. His travels in the region often brought him to the Sauk Prairie community in Wisconsin. It was there that he met Betsy Teel, a childless 22-year-old widow whose husband had died after less than a year of marriage. Betsy Teel’s father was quite active in the Methodist Church community of Sauk Prairie. In August of 1840, Betsy Teel and James G. Whitford were married. It appears as if at least two of James’ daughters came to live with the newlyweds while the youngest continued to be raised by a Mrs. Jones in Evansville, Wisconsin. Then in 1841 a son, James, was born to the couple and a new family had begun. Perhaps the past could be overcome. Perhaps now, after the darkest of darkness, life would be filled with joy and happiness! The following year James was appointed to be the minister in Burlington, Iowa, where he would serve two years.
Things seemed to have gone smoothly for the family after this latest tragedy but I suspect that again James’ faith had been put to the test. He spent the next several years doing one year stints at the following locations: Plattville, Dodgeville, Hamilton Grove, Mineral Point and South Grove Circuit. By 1850 three more sons had been born, Charles, Wilber, and Samuel.
In 1851, at the age of 40, James Gray Whitford officially retired from the church and settled down in Clayton County, Iowa, pursuing farming. Another son, Allen, was born the following year, but died soon after birth. Then, the next year, a daughter Martha was born. Son Warner was born in 1855 and a daughter Emma in 1858. James continued to farm and, even though he was officially retired from the church, he still preached, visited the sick and dying and performed marriages. In an obituary he was described as the “spiritual father” of the Volga City, Iowa community.
Tragedy raised its ugly head for the family again in 1862 when the eldest son, James, was killed in a Civil War skirmish in Montevallo, Missouri. He was only 20 years old. But in life’s bittersweet mix of tragedy and joy, another son, Henry, was born to James and Betsy Whitford a month after their eldest son’s death.
James G. Whitford and his wife Betsy were blessed with long lives. In their later years they lived with their daughter, Martha. James died in September of 1900, just short of his 90th birthday. Betsy died the following year at the age of 82.
I am reminded of the third verse of John Newton’s “Amazing Grace”
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
'Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home
Reverend James Gray Whitford is my husband Doug's GG Grandfather
-Mary
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