Woodford, Isaac & Statira Cowles

Isaac Woodford: Pioneer, Farmer, War of 1812 Veteran

Birth: November 24, 1775, Connecticut
Death: April 22, 1838, Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio
Burial: Vienna Township Cemetery, Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio
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Statira Cowles Woodford Lane: Pioneer, Farmer

Birth: July 3, 1776, Kensington, Hartford County, Connecticut
Death: March 1860, Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio
Burial: Vienna Township Cemetery, Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio
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Military Service: Isaac Woodford served in the 3rd Regiment (Hayes'), Ohio Militia.

Isaac Woodford and Statira Cowles were married in Avon, Hartford County, Connecticut, on July 10, 1794. After an attempt at settling in New York State, Isaac Woodford appears on the Ohio Tax List for 1804 as owning 250 acres of land in Vienna Township. They had been accompanied on their western journey by Timothy and Ruth Hart Alderman. They were joined later by Isaac's brothers Darius and Sylvester.

After Isaac's death in 1838, Statira married Henry Lane, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War. Nevertheless, her remains are buried next to her first husband and her gravestone does not include her second husband's surname.

Published Biographies

From History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches (Cleveland, Ohio: H. Z. Williams & Bros., 1882), Volume 2, p. 456:

Isaac Woodford, Sr., came from Connecticut to Trumbull county in 1802, locating on the farm now owned by Albert Powers, Vienna township. He married Miss S. Cowles. There were twelve children; ten grew to maturity. Mr. Woodford was elder of the Presbyterian Church from the time of its organization. His son Isaac married Miss Phebe E. Merritt. The names of their children are as follows: Frank, residing in Kansas; Jerusha M. Sanford, resides in Vienna; Isaac W., in Vienna; Lovilla M. Struble, dead; Eliza and Martha E., died young. Mr. Woodford has always been a farmer, having resided on the same farm forty-eight years.

From Harriet Taylor Upton, A Twentieth Century History of Trumbull County, Ohio: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People, and Its Principal Interests (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1909), Volume 1, pp. 592-593:

The third family [after the families of Dennis C. Palmer and Isaac Flower] to settle in Vienna was Isaac Woodford’s. He came in the usual way, by ox-cart, and suffered the usual privation, cutting a roadway, and all that. The Woodford family dates back to the Puritan stock more directly than many of the early settlers of Vienna. He was ordinarily called “Deacon,” and having joined the church at twenty-four, it is record that he adhered to the motto “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” This puts the author in the right frame of mind to preach a sermon. Was it not strange that custom interpreted religion and men themselves believed that a man was absolutely religious, that he was saved from hell fires, when he said that “He and his house would serve the Lord.” It has only just begun to dawn upon people that a man can speak for himself; that the wife may have her own religion, that the children under guidance may develop themselves. No man has a right to say what others shall do, but he has not only a right, but a bounden duty to say what he himself shall do. Well, Deacon Isaac was a pretty good man. He led prayer meetings, taught Sabbath school, did his share of civic work, and his wife, Statira, literally, “kept to her knitting.” She not only knit, but she spun and wove, made cheese which she sold at five cents a pound. She not only sold her products, but she packed the same on her horse, and trotted off to Warren, ten miles away, when she exchanged them for necessaries and luxuries, which her family ate or used. It is said she had an indomitable will, was exceedingly robust and healthy; at any rate, the deacon died before she did. She then married Henry Lane, and was the second time a widow. She had six daughters.