Updated 02/08/2025History Room - 442 Hewett Street | Neillsville WIMailing Address: P. O. Box 41 | Neillsville WI 54456Ph: 715. 743. 2150 Email: 1897ccjm@gmail.comWeb: 1897clarkcountyjailmuseum.com 2011-2025 - All Rights Reserved - 1897 Clark County Jail Museum Inc.
Leonard R. Stafford was born in Hartland, Somerset Co, Maine and was listed as a farmer in the 1850 census of Hartland Maine. He was married to Merribah Elliott, daughter of Isaiah & Betsy (Maloon) Elliott on October 1, 1848. They moved to Clark County Wisconsin in 1858 and was engaged in the lumber industry. They travelled from La Crosse WI in a wagon drawn by four mules. They passed through Neillsville and went to Weston Rapids a few miles north of Neillsville where there was a large hotel. They stay there until Leonard had built a house on his land a mile or so from Weston Rapids. Leonard continued to build, and finally induced others to build and live near him, that the village wasnamed “Staffordsville” after him. During the 1860s to early 1870s Staffordville was a very lively place of business. There was a saw mill, grist mill, hotel, machine shop, etc. The little village continued tothrive till 1871, when the founder died. Since then the settlement has entirely disappeared.Nothing was left but the hotel, which was patronized until, on the breaking out of the small pox,it was used as a pest house, and was eventually burned. Today Staffordsville is merely farm land with no traces of the lumber company which once stood there. He was a farmer,hotelkeeper, livery stable owner, and lumberman, with many people living in his establishment and working for him. His log mark was a line cut across the back with four smaller lines cut at a certain angle--it was called the “long forty”. At his death in 1871, the Hall of Hercules Lodge,IODF requested all lodge members be in attendance at his funeral.
30. Leonard R. Stafford Born: August 12, 1823 - Hartland, Somerset County, MaineDied: August 19, 1871 - Weston Rapids, Clark County, WisconsinBuried City of Neillsville Cemetery - Section 1890 #68
Self-Guided Cemetery Tour
Wife - Meribah W. Elliott Stafford Reddan b. May 21, 1834 - d. July 26, 1886. (second marriage to James Reddan in August 1874 - an early lumberman in the county and well known throughout the area.) Children of Leonard and Meribah Stafford:Alice b. 1850 - d. July 29, 1929 (see obituary below)Albion b. 1853 - d. 1887James b.1855 - d. 1887Maud b. 1871 - d. 1900