Licking County OhArchives Obituaries.....Belford, Elizabeth Patterson September 21, 1918
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Jeanne Porter jeannep@sonic.net September 27, 2006, 11:39 pm

Granville Times 26 Sep 1918
Mrs. Elizabeth Belford died at her home here September 21.  The funeral 
services were conducted by Dr. C.L. Williams from her late home on Broadway, 
Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock.  Interment was made in Maple Grove 
cemetery.  The pall bearers were Joe Rodes, W. A. Mitchell, John Geach, Era 
Perry, Burton Case, Hubert Wright.
Elizabeth Patterson was born in Madison township, six miles east of Newark in 
1829 and was married at the age of eighteen to Mr. Abraham Belford, five 
children being born to this union, four of whom, Mr. Edward Belford of 
Sacramento, Calif.; Mr. Herbert Belford of Cloverdale, Calif.; Mr. Charles 
Belford of Georgetown, Texas; and Mrs. Chas. Robinson of Granville, survive 
their mother.  Just at the close of the civil war, Mr. and Mrs. Belford 
brought their family to Granville and shortly thereafter occupied the house in 
which Mrs. Belford spent the remaining years of her long life, though in 1875, 
just nine years after their remonval to this village, the husband and father 
was called by death.
These briefly stated facts of Mrs. Belford's life, though significant, do not 
reveal the rugged strength of character which were hers.  
They do not reveal the wonderful power of her motherly instincts, for, to her, 
as to few people, fell the responsibility of raising three families.
Her own mother dying when Mrs. Belford was only a little girl herself, she met 
the demands fate made upon her and filled the mother's place to a high degree 
for her own brothers and sister, continuing these responsibilities until she, 
herself, was married.
Just before her nineteenth birthday the oldest son was born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Belford and again the responsibilities of motherhood were hers.  Amonst the 
trials that the women of this country, today, yet know little of, she kept her 
brood together through the years of the War of the Rebellion and with no other 
hep [sic] than that of her young sons, she cultivated the land during Mr. 
Belford's absence in the army, when "there was not an able-bodied man within a 
radius of fifteen miles " of that lonely farm.
She often referred to the fact that the house, which was still "the home" at 
the time of her death, was the one which she told her husband she most wanted 
as they drove through the main street of Granville in 1866 and this Mr. 
Belford soon purchased.  He did not live long to enjoy it and with his death, 
in 1875, the sole care of the family again devolved upon the wife and bravely 
assumed by her until her children were well able to direct their own lives.  
Then when no longer a young woman, the care of an infant granddaughter, 
Maggie, the incidents of this birth and death being still vividly recalled by 
Mrs. Belford's friends.
Thugh Mrs. Belford was not born in true pioneer days, nor did she experience a 
long journey from the East by prairie schooner as did so many women of her 
age, the whole tenor of her life was that of the pineer.
Her ruggedness of will-power, courage, to take up whatever obligation life 
laid upon her, affectionate self-sacrifice for the members of her family, 
constancy to her church and to whatever cause she espoused and unwavering 
devotion to her departed husband through a widowhood of forty-three years, are 
characteristics all the more appreciated because not often met with in the 
present day.
These coupled with the brightness of mind that was hers almost to the last and 
the fact that she was always to be found at the house selected for a home 
nearly fifty years ago, made of Mrs. Belford, a pillar in the community where 
she spent her life, and an inspiration and encouragement to those who knew and 
loved her. - Granville Times 26 Sep 1918 p. 1 -2; Granville, OH

Additional Comments:
Daughter of James W. Patterson and Margaret (Casterline) Patterson

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