Needham Judge Alford

1789 - 1869  (80 years)

• Name	Needham Judge Alford  [1, 2, 3, 4]
  Birth	12 Jul 1789	North Carolina   [1, 5]
  Gender	Male
  Death	19 Sep 1869	Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas   [1, 5]
  Burial	Horton Hill Cemetery, Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas
  Notes	According to "Sabine County Historical Sketches and Genealogical Records" by Edna McDaniel White and Blanche Finley Toole, Needham Judge Alford was a pioneer Methodist Preacher and was preaching the gospel in East Texas as early as 1832, while living in Sabine Parish, Louisiana and was a member of Jackson Lodge at Milam, Texas. He was the son of Jacob and Elizabeth Alford. Kathy Casagranda's 1850 Sabine Parish census is more specific, citing his parents as Jacob Alford and Elizabeth Bryant Alford of Warren County, North Carolina, and notes the family can be traced back to the Alford's of New Kent County, Virginia. He was listed as being elected to the board of the first parish administrators of public schools in 1843. In the spring of 1832, Needham Alford and Sumner Bacon, a Cumberland Presbyterian, held a 2-day meeting in Sabine County, near the town of Milam; meetings had been forbidden by the Mexican officials and there was other opposition. Just before the meeting began, a person appeared on the grounds declaring he would horsewhip the first preacher who entered the stand. Alford arrived and someone repeated the threat to him. "Well," he said, "I am as able to take a whipping as any man on this ground." He was muscular, strongly built and a stranger to fear who had gone by the name of "Bulldog Preacher" in Louisiana. The antagonist looked for a moment at the brawny arm of Alford stretched out at full length over the buckboard and quietly retired. He was commended to the Texans by letter from the Presiding Elder of the San Augustine District Texas Conference as he travelled through Texas (Rep. TX, Sabine July 5, 1848). Source:?u??sup? ?/u?http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=bogeyman&id=I23783?/sup?
  Person ID	I2062	Strong Family Tree
  Last Modified	17 Aug 2014

  
  

  Father	Jacob Alford,   b. 15 Aug 1761, Bute County, North Carolina d. 16 Jul 1824, Washington Parish, Louisiana (Age 62 years)
  Mother	Elizabeth Bryant,   b. 20 Jun 1765   d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	Abt 1785	North Carolina   [4]
  Family ID	F10444	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Martha Waddell,   b. Abt 1798, South Carolina d. 7 Nov 1876, Limestone County, Texas (Age 78 years)
  Marriage	18 Feb 1815	Franklin County, Mississippi   [1, 5]
  Children	1. Samantha Alford,   b. 5 Feb 1818, Sabine Parish, Louisiana d. Aft 1849, Sabine Parish, Louisiana (Age 31 years)   2. Thomas Seabourn Alford,   b. 1 Feb 1821, Louisiana d. 26 Jan 1873, Gatesville, Coryell County, Texas (Age 51 years)   3. Elizabeth Bryant Alford,   b. 16 Sep 1823, Louisiana d. 30 Apr 1889 (Age 65 years)   4. Rev. Needham Bryant Alford,   b. 30 Jul 1826, Sabine Parish, Louisiana d. 7 Apr 1908, Sabine County, Texas (Age 81 years)   5. Jesse Powell Alford,   b. 20 Dec 1828, Louisiana d. 2 Aug 1890 (Age 61 years)   6. William Theodore Alford,   b. 25 Feb 1832, Louisiana d. 8 Jul 1905, Sabine Parish, Louisiana (Age 73 years)   7. Jacob L. Alford,   b. 25 Dec 1834, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana d. 22 Mar 1884, Finis, Jack County, Texas (Age 49 years)   8. Noel Waddell Alford,   b. 25 Dec 1838, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana d. 7 Aug 1915, Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas (Age 76 years)   9. John Waddell Alford,   b. 15 Nov 1842, Louisiana d. 17 Jul 1863, Creek Nation, Indian Territory (Age 20 years)
  Family ID	F1350	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	9 Dec 2006

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 12 Jul 1789 - North Carolina Marriage - 18 Feb 1815 - Franklin County, Mississippi Death - 19 Sep 1869 - Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas Burial - - Horton Hill Cemetery, Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Documents

  Many, Louisiana Masonic Lodge #88 Listed as an officer

  
  

• Sources

  [S461] White & Toole, "Sabine County Historical Sketches and Genealogical Records" c. 1972. [S416] Casagranda, Kathy "Sabine Parish The 1850 Census with added Family Information" (May, 1999: P.O. Box 2195, Palmer, Alaska 99645), p 78, 94 (Reliability: 3). [S677] Polk, Billy "Descendants of James Alford" ; http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/p/o/l/Billy-F-Polk/FILE/0039text.txt. [S683] Miller, Bob (miller148@bellsouth.net) "Pioneers of Central Louisiana" ; http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=bogeyman. [S416] Casagranda, Kathy "Sabine Parish The 1850 Census with added Family Information" (May, 1999: P.O. Box 2195, Palmer, Alaska 99645), p 94 (Reliability: 3).