Southampton-Isle of Wight County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Raiford, Merritt L., 1925 

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MERRITT LEE RAIFORD 

In the death of Merritt L. Raiford at his home in the Black Creek community on 
Friday of last week, his family are bereaved of a loving and indulgent husband 
and father, his church of a faithful and loyal member whose Christianity was 
reflected in the good deeds of a long and useful life, the Confederate 
Veterans of the county and section have another gap in their fast-thinning 
ranks and his community mourns the passing of a good neighbor and citizen.

Mr. Raiford was a native of Southampton County and was born on August 19, 
1843.  Spending his boyhood days on the old homestead, he heard the call to 
his country's service in 1861 and served with gallantry and bravery throughout 
that long and severe conflict from 1861 to 1865.  He was a member of the 
18th VA Battalion Co. A Heavy Artillery.

There were a few memories in his life more dear than the recollections of the 
years spent under the Stars and Bars with the comrades of those days, and he 
enjoyed to the utmost his affiliation with his fellow veterans in Urquhart-
Gillette and Beaver Dam camps of Confederate Veterans.  He also took an 
unusual interest in the annual meetings of the State and Grand Camps and 
missed few of these reunions, no matter in what far distant part of the South 
they were held.  It was quite fitting, indeed, that the beloved banner to 
which he had given such loyal service and some of the best years of his life 
draped the casket as it was lowered to its last resting place.

On March 24, 1868*, he married Miss Mary Frances Darden of Isle of Wight with 
the two spending 57 years of happy wedded life together and living into an 
honorable old age to see children and grandchildren about them.  Besides his 
widow, Mr. Raiford is survived by seven children: Mrs. John A. Edwards of the 
community, R.E. and R.H. Raiford of Norfolk, Lloyd M. Raiford of Burdette, 
Mrs. C.N. Gibson of Ocean View, Miss Lily V. Raiford of Burdette and Miss Alma 
L. Raiford, who teaches at Ocean View.  He is also survived by 17 
grandchildren, a large family connection and a wide circle of friends.

Funeral services were conducted from his late home on Sunday afternoon at 3 
o'clock by his Pastor Rev. R.P. Welch, assisted by Rev. W.W. Edwards of Yale, 
an old friend and former pastor.  A large assembly of friends and neighbors 
had gathered to pay their last tributes of esteem and respect, and favorite 
hymns of the deceased were sung by a choir from Black Creek Church.  Interment 
was made in a new graveyard on the place, it being an unusual fact that there 
has not been a death in the Raiford family for something like thirty years. 
The body bearers were R. E., R. H. and Lloyd M. Raiford, John A. Edwards, Hoen 
and Talmadge Edwards, C. N. Gibson and R. L. Corbitt.  The honorary 
pallbearers were four of his comrades of the Confederacy, all of whom attended 
in uniform, L.L. Manry, Jno. I. Turner, E.F. Reese and Jacob T. Bradshaw, 
several members of Agnes Lee and Beaver Dam chapters Daughters of the 
Confederacy, and the following friends and neighbors: Gen. C.C. Vaughan, 
Franklin Edwards, R.E.L. Watkins, W.T. Pace, Paul Scarborough, H.B. McLemore, 
C.A. Bell, C.T. Stephenson, J.S. Drewry, W.H. Raiford, W.G. Raiford, John T. 
Raiford, L.P. Raiford, J.E. Avis, Sr., R.E. Britt, Allan Beale, J.E.T. Joyner, 
J.B. Joyner, W.H. Johnson, David E. Joyner, Wm. E. Whitfield, J.E. Beale, R.L. 
Bailey, J.R. Councill.


Merritt Lee RAIFORD, retired farmer, Confederate veteran, 
b. 19 Aug 1843, Southampton Co., d. 6 Mar 1925, at home, near Burdette, 
interred in a RAIFORD family cemetery**, Black Creek Rd., 8 Mar 1925, 
"The Tidewater News" (Franklin, VA), Mar. 13, 1925 

**Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project, 
   Miscellaneous Cemeteries, Vol. 2 (II-5): 
   http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/cemeteries/miscvol2.txt 

D.Cert. 1939-799-7545 [7533 & 7537 struck] gives d. 6 Mar 1925, near Burdette, 
   of Heart Trouble (chronic) {no doctor}. 

*The date of his marriage is problematic - 24 Mar 1868 given above. 
   His widow's Confederate pension app. gives m. 25 Feb 1868. 

"Marett L. Rayford" m. 24 Feb 1871, at Cedar Grove, Hertford Co., NC, 
"Dora Darden" dt/o Marett & Nancy (Hertford Co. M.Reg. {Ancestry.com}). 
   - error!  Decedent m. Martha Frances "Fannie" DARDEN, not her sis "Dora" 
   - Eudora "Dora" DARDEN 1m. 13 Feb 1868 (IoW.Co.) Isaac P. BARNES; 
     2m. 14 Dec 1880 (Nansemond Co.) Tiberius G. JONES. 
   - mistakenly transcribed "24 Feb 1870" at FamilySearch.org. 

Merritt is not readily found in the 1870 Census. 
   Eudora is enumerated with Isaac & 2 daughters (Holy Neck, Nansemond Co.); 
   Martha F. is enumerated with her parents (Windsor Dist., IoW.Co.). 

The family appears in the 1880 Census in Windsor Dist., Isle of Wight Co., VA. 
Date of his death mistakenly abstracted as 4 Mar 1925, from his widow's 
   Confederate pension app. (on Ancestry.com)  


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