Samuel B. Langford, the sixth generation to carry the identical name, was born in Bocastle, Cornwall, England, January 8, 1837. A son of Samuel and Mary Langford, both natives of England. Mr. Langford was rightly proud of his ancestry. He came of the house of Langford, which originated in 1225 with Roger de Langford, sheriff of Cornwall, who took his name from the estate of Langford in the parish of Marham Church. The Coat of Arms of the family is significant:
Military strength and fortitude are indicated by the Coat armor, while willing obedience and serenity are the heraldic meaning of the feathers.
Mr. Langford left England at 21 years, and then located in Ontario, Canada, where he farmed. He married Mary Brown in 1859. Mrs. Langford died in 1861 leaving two children, Samuel and Bessie. Mr. Langford remarried in 1865 to Hannah Lewis, a native of England. To this union nine children were born. In 1872 he moved to St. Claire, Michigan, where he farmed. His son, Samuel, came alone to North Dakota in 1880 and worked for R. C. Cooper, returning to Michigan in 1881.
That spring, Samuel Sr., bringing Samuel Jr., came out to the new land to file on a preemption in Sverdrup Township. Years later when the claim had been satisfied, the formal document was signed by President Harrison. Samuel Jr. also homesteaded later in Section 6. Each person was allowed a homestead and a tree claim free. Thus Samuel Sr. and Samuel Jr. each took up a claim in Section 6, Sverdrup Township, Griggs County.
Late in August, delicate in frame, gentle by nature, but with indomitable spirit, Hannah Langford began the long journey with their eight children. She brought with them the household goods, twenty chickens, and a pure bred cow. This cow was the beginning of the strain of shorthorns raised on that Langford farm until it was sold. She came by boat to Duluth and train to Sanborn, North Dakota, where Mr. Langford met them with two wagons pulled by oxen. They started out the next morning, getting as far as where the present City of Rogers is located.
The next day they reached the home that Mr. Langford had already built. It was one of the first shanties built in the neighborhood. It was a 14' x 20' unpainted frame house of one room upstairs and one downstairs, with a small shed in the back. A special touch was the installation of two double paned windows of glass, 10" x 8". Here it was that the family of ten children and two adults were to live several years until the permanent home was built, one-half mile north. That home is still there, now owned by Lyle Bender.
Their nearest town at that time was Sanborn. A trip there meant starting very early in the morning, going by oxen and buying up large quantities of supplies to last. In the winter when it was bitter cold they put a hot potato pie under their jackets to keep warm and later to eat. This was made of potatoes, meat and onions inside a deep-dish piecrust.
Besides being a farmer, Mr. Langford was a veterinary surgeon, having taken a postgraduate course in Minneapolis. He traveled many hundred miles as a veterinary, using a horse and buggy. For some time he was Justice of Peace, President of the Old Settlers Association and was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Langford's children by his first wife were:
Samuel B. , married to Jennie Glaspell. They had seven children:
Vera (deceased) married Albert Jacobson, Marvelle, married Emil Thompson, Garth (deceased) married Faye Smith, Marion, married August Hogenson, Maynard, married Edith Hagberg, WARREN (OLE), who lives on his father's homestead, married Emma Erickson and Lois, married Leonard McCulloch. Bessie married Benjamin Kuhns and lived in Honolulu. There were eight children, names unknown.
Mr. Langford's family by his second wife consisted of:
Laura, married James Gimblett. They had ten children, names unknown. Alberta married Charlie Houghton and had three children, Milton married Ida Hammer, Cora married James Hazard and Ruth married Paul Brent. Olive married Willmot Houghton, no children. John Herbert married Bertha Sansburn and had three children, Nellie married Carlton Clausen, Gladys married Kenneth Curtis and John married Lucille Mathison. Alfred Edgar married Mary Jenkins and had four daughters, Dorothy (deceased) married Clarence Sansburn, Helen married Ernest Wold, Evelyn married Elmer Miller and Bernice married Floyd Pratt.
Lillian married Edwin Burling. They had four children, Godfrey, Maurice, Ann, Esther and Richard. Ida who died in infancy. Cora married Rollin Jones and had three sons, Robert, Raymond and Richard. Minerva (Minnie) married N. J. Zellar and had no children. She was the only one born in North Dakota.
Mr. Samuel Langford died in Cooperstown, North Dakota on December 26, 1913. He was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, north of Cooperstown. Mrs. Langford died in 1923.
Source: Griggs County History 1879 - 1976 Page 433