Thomas Lafayette Warford (1888-1943)

I never knew my grandfather, Thomas (“Tom”) Warford. He was ill much of my mother’s life
with a brain tumor, and he died soon after her wedding in 1943. But from all she has told me, Grandfather Warford was a man I would have wanted to know.

It is not entirely unusual that 19th century people died or became seriously ill before their 70th birthday. Though born in that century, it was more common in the 20th century for men to live to that age. It was not to be. As with so many other ancestors, one can only wonder at “what might have been” had he lived longer, with no tumor. His incapacity served to shape much of my mother’s life.

Tom, as he was later known to most, was born August 3 of 1888 to James (“Bud”) L. Warford and Missouri Price Thompson, the second of two boys. His mother died in 1896. In just under three years, Bud married Bettie Belle Miles, a woman 15 years younger, and just nine years older than Tom’s brother, Sam. In the 1900 census, Bud is listed as a farmer who could neither read nor write, and both boys are “farm laborers” rather than students. This situation was remedied by Dr. Charles Burkhalter, who took Tom in to live among his wife and five daughters. According to a newspaper article, the Burkhalters adopted both Tom and Sam.

Tom graduated from high school in Higbee Missouri, then began studies at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri. Concurrently with his college studies he became a school teacher after being examined by the county school commissioner. While in school, Tom met his future bride, Mary L. Farris, though it would be several years before they married.

During the summers off from college, and afterward, Tom held a variety of jobs as seen in newspaper accounts from Higbee. He sold books, ran a bowling alley and skating rinks, taught, and briefly was a school administrator. He finally decided to attend pharmacy school in St. Louis, perhaps aided or encouraged by an inheritance from his grandmother and help from Dr. Burkhalter.

After pharmacy school, Tom became a druggist in Higbee, MO. He married Mary Louis Farris on 31 May 1914. For the remainder of his story, see Mary Louis Farris Warford’s biography.

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