Whiteside County IL Archives Biographies.....Gifford, Charles F 
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Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 January 31, 2008, 1:50 am

Author: Portrait/Bio Album, Whiteside County IL 1885

Charles F. Gifford, editor and proprietor of the Tampico Tornado, was born in 
Elgin, Ill., June 25, 1847. His father, Edmond F. Gifford, died of apoplexy at 
the residence of his daughter, Mrs. L. S. Norris, of Grinnell, Iowa, Thursday, 
July 19, 1883, aged 72 years, 10 months and 15 days. He was born in Duxbury, 
Mass., Sept. 4, 1810, was early in life thrown upon his own resources, and he 
worked for others at farm labor during the summer, and attended school during 
the winters. He learned the cabinet trade, at which he worked and also taught 
school, and thereby earned money sufficient to enable him to complete a 
classical course, graduating at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. For a 
year or two following he practiced law in Boston, Mass. May 25, 1840, he 
married Miss Lucy W. Sampson, of Duxbury, Mass., and shortly afterward 
emigrated West, locating in Elgin, Ill., where he practiced law and for a 
number of years held the office of County Superintendent of Schools. At the 
breaking out of the War of the Rebellion he enlisted, and served as Adjutant 
of the Second Battalion of the Eighth Ill. Vol. Cav. After the seven days' 
battle before Richmond, Va., he was appointed Paymaster and stationed at New 
Orleans, which position he held to the close of the war. During the Red River 
Expedition he was wounded in the right arm, the scar resulting from which he 
carried ever afterward. After the close of the war he returned to Elgin, but 
soon moved to Louisiana, where, under the Kellogg government, he was appointed 
a District Judge. In February, 1882, he returned Norths and after making his 
home several months with his son, Charles F., at Tampico, he went to Grinnell, 
where he died, as stated. Charles' mother is now residing in Boston, Mass., 
with her daughter, Mrs. Ada Sampson, and is aged 64 years. She was the only 
daughter of a New England ship-builder, and came of a family of considerable 
prominence. Mr. Gifford, the subject of this biographical outline, is the 
third in order of birth of a family of nine children, five of whom are now 
deceased. At the age of 13 years he went with his father into the army as 
clerk for him. In 1862 he quit the field of war and entered the military 
school at Fulton, this county, and after a year's drill there he enlisted as 
Corporal in the 141st Regt. Ill. Vol. Inf., which was attached to the Army of 
the Cumberland. At the expiration of the 100 days, for which he had enlisted, 
he was honorably discharged. He then went to Louisiana and served as Clerk in 
the Paymaster's Department of the Division of the Gulf, remaining there with 
his father until the close of the war. In April, 1866, he became an employee 
of the Elgin Gazette, under the management of Kincaid & Post, where he 
remained for two years, when he accepted a position, as foreman of the Elgin 
Watchman, E. C. Kincaid then being the proprietor. One year later, the Gazette 
and Watchman consolidated, and he was elected, by the hands of both offices, 
as foreman of the new office. He held that position until the fall of 1870, 
when sickness compelled him to resign. In the spring of 1870 he went to 
Missouri and acted in the capacity of clerk, for his father-in-law, John 
Murdock, who was a contractor in grading a railroad running from Hannibal to 
Edina. In October he returned home, and in November, 1871, he, in company with 
Mr. C. F. Larkins, established the Dundee (Ill.) Weekly. They soon after 
suspended for an indefinite time, and shortly afterward Mr. Gifford went to 
Chicago and for a time served on the Post and then the Inter Ocean, during the 
Greeley campaign. Next he was engaged with Mr. Bent on the Sentinel at 
Morrison, this county, and then was employed at Fulton. In 1876 he went to 
Tampico and established the Tornado, an historical sketch of which paper will 
be given in the last division of this work. In politics, Mr. Gifford is a 
Republican. May 4, 1868, is the date of Mr. Gifford's marriage, at Elgin, 
Ill., to Miss Mary J., daughter of John and Jane Murdock, who was born in 
Ulster Co., N. Y., Sept. 25 1848, and came West with her parents when a child. 
Her father was born in Delaware Co., N. Y., in 1826, a mason by occupation, is 
now a farmer, residing at Tolona, Mo.; her mother died when she (the daughter) 
was very young. Mr. and Mrs. Gifford are the parents of six children, namely: 
Harry L., Agnes L., Ella L., Mabel L., Arthur L. and Julius L.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois, Containing Full-
page Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens of the County. Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1885.

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