The following biography was printed in a local history of Mahaska County, Iowa.
STAFFORD, DR. ELAM, physician and surgeon, Oskaloosa; born in Wayne county, Indiana, February 1, 1826; he lived there and in Tippecanoe county for seventeen years, and came with his father’s family to Iowa by wagon, and arrived here in this county in June, 1843; the principal thing here then was a pole stuck up to designate the spot supposed to be the center of the county; he was one of the earliest settlers here; he sat on a log and wrote tickets on election day; the election was held one mile north of town, in the edge of the timber; he studied medicine, and graduated in Cincinnati in 1852, and began the practice of his profession, and is one of the oldest physicians here; he was connected with the drug trade here for eleven years; married Miss Sarah Stanley, from Illinois, in June 1852; they have one daughter, Emma F., and have lost one son, Charles W., and one daughter, Katie.
