Stafford, Adam (1806–1880)

Adam Stafford, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, son of William Stafford, was born in North Carolina on February 5, 1806. In 1824 he came from Tennessee to Texas to join his father. On August 24, 1824, he received title to a labor of land now in Waller County. Ten years later he led his stepmother to the Neches River while she moved some slaves to the United States. Although some sources contend that Stafford fought in the Texas Revolution, his name does not appear on revolutionary army muster rolls or records of land grants to Texas veterans. However, he sold supplies to the Texas army during the revolutionary period. Stafford lived in Richmond in 1845 but by 1850 had moved to Victoria, where he became an important landowner. He possibly fought in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, but his name does not appear in official records pertaining to that conflict. However, a Confederate marker stands at his grave. His granddaughter believed that he lost his left arm during the Civil War; other acquaintances described him as a "cripple" by the time of the Texas Revolution. Stafford died in Victoria on November 21, 1880, and was buried there. He was preceded in death by his wife, Maria E. and their two daughters.