Tufford, Levi (Died)

Levi Tufford, the last surviving son of the late Leonard Tufford, and the last surviving member of nine brothers, died very suddenly at the home of Mr. Frank Howell, near The Thirty on Wednesday, January 22, 1919 from heart failure. Mr. Tufford had been in his usual good health and was engaged in assisting Mr. Howell when the call came. He seemed to falter and fell over into Mr. Howell's arms, and was dead instantly. The late Levi Tufford was born in the township of Clinton and lived in the neighbourhood of Beamsville and The Thirty all his life. He was a son of the late Leonard and Catherine Tufford and was a member of a family of nine sons and two daughters. A remarkable feature about this family was that 8 of the boys were in active service at the time of the Fenian raid, several of them belonging to each of the two Beamsville companies - these were Martin, John, William, Leonard Jr., George, Peter, Robert and Levi, the other boy, Edward probably being too young for service. One sister married a Mr. Ross of St. Ann's and was the mother of the well known businessman and politician Jas. A. Ross of Wellandport. At the funeral of the deceased gentleman was George Tufford, a nephew, who had just returned from overseas, and his sister; these being children of the late George Tufford, and residing in St. Catharines. There were also present two nephews, James of Niagara Falls and Joseph of Elyria, Ohio, sons of the late John Tufford, accompanied by their wives. Another nephew, and a brother to the last two mentioned, is George Tufford of Elyria, Ohio, who has become very successful as a businessman, and the inventor and patentee of a rubber boot-heel, which has attained great popularity in the United States and is now being introduced into Canada. ... This family of Tuffords are descended on their mother's side from Patrick McGraw, an Irishman whose tombstone is the oldest in the Baptist Church Cemetery, Beamsville. This gentleman died at Beamsville on June 6, 1806 - over 112 years ago. The funeral of the late Levi Tufford took place from the home of Mr. Frank Howell on Friday, January 24, 1919 and was largely attended by old friends and acquaintances. The Orangemen of Grimsby and Beamsville turned out to pay their last respects to a man who had been a good Orangeman and a stout patriot all his life.