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Fordham, Henry (1817-1887)
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History of Ritchie County
by Minnie Kendall Lowther
Wheeling News Litho. Co., Wheeling W.Va., 1911

Pages 504-505

The First Silversmith. — Henry Fordham was the first silversmith of
the town [Cairo]. He was born in Yorkshire, England, on September 7,
1817, and there grew to manhood and learned the watch and clock-
maker's trade in his father's shop.

In 1841, he was married to Miss Sarah Mitchell, daughter of William
Mitchell, who passed on in 1849, leaving two children, the late Mrs.
Elizabeth (Abner) Hatfield, and Thomas Fordham, of Goff's.

After her death he married her sister, Miss _____ Mitchell, and in
1851, they embarked to America, landing in Baltimore, where she died
a few years later, leaving one son, Henry Fordham, junior, who died
in his early manhood. He then married Miss Barbara Ellen Gettier, of
Baltimore; and from there came to this county, and settled at
Cornwallis, for a brief lime, before coming to Cairo in 1858, where
he continued to work at his trade until his death, in 1887.

He spent two years of his life as a sailor, and served as a soldier
in the Civil war for a few months. He was Secretary of the Board of
Education for seven years — just before his death — and was
unusually skillful in his trade as repairer of clocks and watches,
as is his son.

The children of his last marriage are Mrs. Mary Hall, Mrs. Florence
Hall, and the late Mrs. Emma (A. L.) Gracey, of Marietta, Ohio, who
died at the birth of her first child. Mrs. Fordham still survives
and at the Gracey home at Marietta, where she resides.

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There's a double tombstone in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery, Cairo, 
Ritchie County, WV

    Henry Fordham (1817-1887)
    Barbara Ellen, his wife (1831-1914)

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