Fire At Tell Township Killed Two

Did you know? On March 3, 1819, the house of William Gifford, of Tell township, was destroyed by fire.

Africa's 1883 county history records that one of his daughters and a young lady visitor perished in the flames. The entry does not name either of them; it gives the date, the house, the father, and that one of the two was a visitor.

In its account of Tell township's early settlers, the same history says Isaac Gifford located west of Blair's Mills in 1780, that there were also a William Gifford and a Joseph Gifford, and that the Gifford tract was still in the Gifford family when the history was written in 1883. It does not say whether that William is the man whose house burned.

Checked 2026-10-30 · County histories and primary sources, read in full

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