Genealogy and Life

One of the truths that we learn from genealogy is that every family has its share of heartbreak and tragedy.  The Langford family is no exception. We have seen the loss of loved ones, the dissolution of families, the loss in war and the hardships of persecution. It is part of the human condition that takes its toll on all of us at different times and in different ways.
Life had to be especially tough for Temperance Palmer. Her first husband, David Mason, died in 1837 when Temperance was just 34, leaving her with a family to raise on her own. When Charles Langford entered her life, it must have seemed like a new life was beginning. When he left her to move to Iowa with children from his first marriage, she was left with two more small children to raise on her own.
It is a few years after this that the following newspaper article appeared in the Sandusky, Ohio, Daily Sanduskian:

Notice

Whereas Temperance Langford represented to me that she was a widow by the name of Mason, and under this impression I married her; and whereas I have since learned that such was not her name, but that she had a husband living, by the name of Langford; and whereas she has left my bed and board without any just cause or provocation, I do hereby forbid all persons harboring or trusting her on my account, as I will pay no debts of her contracting after this date.

Henry Thomas
Margaretta
January 31, 1850 

There is an old saying the desperate times require desperate measures. Temperance was certainly desperate. It is likely that this episode ended with her move to Ingham County, Michigan. Her sons would both serve the state of Michigan well, George as a doctor and Daniel as a soldier, both in their own way saving lives.