26. Austin Comer⁸ Vanderford (William⁷, John⁶, Richard⁵, Charles⁴, George Paul³, Michael Paul², Paul¹) was born in Eagle Township, Hocking Co., Ohio January 11, 1821. Austin died About 1857 in Noble County, Indiana.

He married Dorothy Heltzell in Woodstock, Virginia, About 1845. Dorothy was born in Woodstock, Virginia September 23, 1824. Dorothy was the daughter of Henry Heltzell and Elizabeth. Dorothy died July 14, 1905 in Ligonier, Perry Township, Noble County, IN, at 80 years of age. Her body was interred July 20, 1905 in Ligonier, Perry Township, Noble County, IN, Oak Park Cemetery. Austin Comer Vanderford was born in Eagle Township, Hocking County (now Vinton County), Ohio in 1821. Austin and Dorothy had 6 children - John, Jenny, Lou, and Homer were the ones who survived Dorothy.

Records at the US Department of the Interior - Bureau of Land Management (http://www.glorecords.blm.gov) show Austin Comer Vanderford applied for and was awarded a land patent twice. On June 1, 1847, he received a patent to transfer 80 acres of land in Noble County, IN. On May 1, 1849 he received a patent to transfer 40 acres of land also in Noble county, IN. Land patents document the transfer of land ownership from the federal government to individuals. In the early 1800's people could buy public land for $1.25 an acre. For a time, they could buy up to 640 acres under this law. Austin Comer purchased 120 acres of land that are located in York Township, just west of the city of Albion, the Noble County, Indiana government seat. Austin Comer's brothers also received land patents for land purchased in northern Indiana and in Ohio.

The following information is about Austin's brother Joel Vanderford, and is published in the history of Noble county by Goodspeed and Blanchard. It will provide the reader with some insight as to life in the middle 1800s in Indiana.

"JOEL VANDERFORD was born in Ross County, Ohio, November 5, 1813 where he passed his boyhood and youth. At the age of twenty-two, he packed his earthly possessions in a cotton handkerchief, and tramped to this county (Noble County, Indiana) where he grubbed and cut wood at 25 cents a cord and boarded himself, to make the money with which he bought the first land he ever owned-the eighty acres on which the fine buildings of Orlando Kimmell now stand. In the summer of 1836, Mr. Vanderford and John Male felled the timber, cut and split 40,000 fence rails. They also laid up a portion of them into fences. March 21, 1837, he married Miss Emeline Bull. She was born in Perry County, Pennsylvania, February 23, 1815. Their housekeeping outfit was a board laid on the flour barrel for a table, half a dozen plates, half a dozen knives and forks, one kettle, a teakettle and a skillet. For a cupboard, he put clapboards on wooden pins on the wall. They had one good bed and a bedstead; for the extra bed he put a long and a shorter pole into holes in the logs and put on clapboards for the tank to lie on. They had two chairs with splint bottoms and two without bottoms, Mr. Vanderford grubbed for Joel Smith until he accumulated $2.50, with which he purchased two bushels of wheat, had it ground and took it home. It proved to be worthless and made him sick, so he went to John G. Hall, who had a mill one mile east of Wolf Lake, and bargained with him for a bushel of corn meal. He was to bring his yoke of oxen and log one day for the meal. When night came, the miller could scrape together but a half bushel. This necessitated coming to the mill again. As he lived four miles from the mill, he had to drive his ox team sixteen miles and do a hard day’s logging for a bushel of corn meal. In 1852, Mr. Vanderford went to California and then to Oregon, and traveled over near its entire extent. While there he split three thousand rails. He was absent three years, and returned in 1855, touching in Havana and Key West. While on the Pacific Ocean, he barely escaped being lost in a storm, but he has weathered it all, and is now a hale and hearty man, surrounded by all that tends to make life enjoyable. He owns 317 acres of good land. His residence is on Section 28, six miles west of Albion. The following children are living: Sarah Ann, Elizana, Richard Clark, Mary and William C. Two are dead-Nancy Jane and John Fremont. Two of his sons were in the Army-Richard Clark and William C. Richard C. received five wounds, two of which were severe. One son, John F., was drowned in the lake at Chicago. Mr. Vanderford is a Republican, and a member of the Church of God. He was on the first grand jury impaneled in this county."

Austin Comer's death is not registered in any public records. It is estimated he died between 1857 and 1859. See John Austin Vanderford's biographical text for further details.

Austin Comer Vanderford and Dorothy Heltzell had the following children:

29 i. Homer⁹ Vanderford.

30 ii. Emily A. Vanderford was born in Indiana 1846.

31 iii. William H. Vanderford was born in Indiana 1848.

32 iv. Sarah F. Vanderford was born in Indiana 1850.

+ 33 v. John Austin Vanderford was born September 28, 1853.

34 vi. Mary G. Vanderford was born in Indiana 1854.

Send email to preparer: charlie@vanderford.net

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