Stanford, Joshua R.

Born: 1798-XX-XX Massachusetts

Died: 1871-06-01 Alton, Illinois

Born in Worcester County, Massachusetts, Joshua R. Stanford was an attorney, store owner and merchant, real estate investor, farmer, and judge. He moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1830, but only stayed a brief time, as he began working as an attorney in Illinois at least as early as 1831. In 1833, he helped lay out the town of Griggsville, Illinois and established the town's first store in partnership with one of the town's other founders. Between 1832 and 1839, he purchased hundreds of acres of public land in Illinois, primarily in Pike County. He had at least three children with his first wife, Elizabeth, by 1850. By then, he was farming in Pike County and his real estate holdings were valued at $6,000. Elizabeth died in January 1853 and, eight months later, he married Margaret Kennedy, with whom he had at least two children. He moved to Alton, Illinois in 1855, and, from 1855 to 1858, served as an alderman for the city's Board of Trustees. He later became a judge in Alton. He was buried in Griggsville.

Prettyman et al. v. Wilkey et al., 19 Ill. (Peck) (1877), 238; History of Pike County, Illinois (Chicago: Chas. C. Chapman, 1880), 515, 550; For an exhaustive list of Stanford's land purchases, search "Stanford Joshua," https://www.ilsos.gov/isa/landsrch.jsp; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Pike County, IL, 77; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Calhoun County, 26 September 1853, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Illinois, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1772-1999, 1871, Madison County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2015); Elizabeth Stanford, Gravestone, Griggsville Cemetery, Griggsville, IL; Gazetteer of Madison County (Alton, IL: James T. Hair, 1866), 86, 89; Alton Weekly Telegraph (IL), 9 June 1871, 1:8.