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- [S7790] Find a Grave: WESTFALL Joel J Westfall 1819-1910, Joel James Westfall (Veteran).
At the age of 17, Joel was made lieutenant of Co. D, 133rd Regiment of the Virginia Militia, an office he held for seven years. After the flood of 1852 and the death of his young wife, a disheartened Joel left his only child, James Rienze (J.R.), with relatives and left West Virginia. In a letter written to his nephew, Charles Kuykendall Westfall in 1884, he said he left West Virginia on the 14th of April 1854, driving cattle across the plains from the state of Missouri to the state of California, arriving in Mariposa county, California on the 16th of October 1854. When the town of Mariposa burned on May 8,1858, Joel lost his saddle & harness shop to the flames and "was left to commence life in California again". Joel served as Deputy Sheriff of Mariposa for four years. At the end of that term he was elected Road Commissioner & Supervisor, an office he held for sixteen years. For a number of years Joel had a 160 acre sheep ranch on the Old Wawona Trail and later opened his own meat market in Yosemite Valley. He was also a gold miner and it is said that one time he unearthed a nugget weighing nineteen ounces. Joel was also quite a hunter. He killed the largest bear on record in California, weighing in at one thousand pounds.Joel married his Chinese cook, Mary Tongere on November 21, 1863 because she didn't want to go back to China. He and Mary lived in the ranch home he had built at what is now the corners of Triangle & East Westfall Road in Mariposa county. On October 6, 1906, Joel J. Left California and returned to his home state of West Virginia where he lived the remaining years of his life with his son, J.R Westfall. This is why his death date is not inscribed on the tombstone in the Mariposa County Cemetery (pictured). Joel is not buried there.
According to the Lewis County West Virginia marriage records, Joel was first married to Eliza B. Mills on January 22, 1843. According to cemetery records for the Westfall Cemetery in Ritchie County West Virginia, Eliza died July 16, 1848. According to the above mentioned letter written to his nephew in 1884, Joel was married a second time to Julia A. Tinsler on June 23, 1850. As he left West Virginia in the spring of 1854, I am thinking that Julia died 1853-54. James Rienze Westfall was his child by Eliza B. Mills.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44447694/joel-james-westfall
- [S274] Ancestry.com, West Virginia, Marriages Index, 1785-1971, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT ; Date: 2011;).
- [S556] Ancestry.com, West Virginia, Deaths Index, 1853-1973, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT ; Date: 2011;).
- [S8915] Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1880 United States Federal Census, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Lehi, UT ; Date: 2010;), Year: 1880; Census Place: Township 3, Mariposa, California; Roll: 68; Family History Film: 1254068; Page: 177B; Enumeration District: 041; Image: 0704.
- [S273] Ancestry.com, Virginia, Compiled Marriages, 1740-1850, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT ; Date: 1999;).
- [S11629] Ancestry.com, 1900 United States Federal Census, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Lehi, UT, USA; Date: 2004;), Year: 1900; Census Place: Township 5, Mariposa, California; Roll: 93; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0038; FHL microfilm: 1240093.
- [S11805] Ancestry.com, 1870 United States Federal Census, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Lehi, UT, USA; Date: 2009;), Year: 1870; Census Place: Township 3, Mariposa, California; Roll: M593_74; Page: 122A; Image: 94553; Family History Library Film: 545573.
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1870 United States Federal Census
Year: 1870; Census Place: Township 3, Mariposa, California; Roll: M593_74; Page: 122A; Image: 94554; Family History Library Film: 545573 |
- [S11466] Ancestry.com, 1910 United States Federal Census, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Lehi, UT, USA; Date: 2006;), Year: 1910; Census Place: Murphy, Ritchie, West Virginia; Roll: T624_1693; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 0074; FHL microfilm: 1375706.
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1910 United States Federal Census
Year: 1910; Census Place: Murphy, Ritchie, West Virginia; Roll: T624_1693; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 0074; FHL microfilm: 1375706 |
- [S9910] Ancestry.com, 1850 United States Federal Census, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Lehi, UT, USA; Date: 2009;), Year: 1850; Census Place: Western District, Ritchie, Virginia; Roll: M432_973; Page: 229B; Image: 47.
- [S12] Ancestry.com, Geneanet Community Trees Index, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Lehi, UT ; Date: 2022;).
- [S10421] Find a Grave Cenotaph, WESTFALL James Joel 1819-1910.
Joel Westfall was for many years a prominent citizen of this county and a resident of Darrah. He served as a member of the Board of Supervisors for about sixteen years, representing the Fifth district. About six years ago he sold his property in this county and left for the home of his son in West Virginia to spend his remaining days. [Mariposa Gazette (California), 26 Nov 1910]
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/33106163/joel-j-westfall
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Burial Cenotaph-WESTFALL Joel
Cenotaph for Joel James Westfall - Mariposa Masonic Cemetery, Mariposa CA + https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/33106163/joel-j.-westfall |
- [S7791] Smith, Julie Campbell, Find a Grave - Ancestor (Campbell): SIMON Elizabeth Westfall, (Name: SmithLC.com;), SIMON Elizabeth Westfall 1797-1880.
Elizabet Simon and John Westfall married 7 February 1819 in Lewis County in what is now West Virginia
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44447841/elizabeth-westfall
- [S7792] Find a Grave: MILLS Eliza Westfall 1823-1848, Eliza B Mills Westfall.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44448103/eliza-b.-westfall
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1819 - 1910 (91 years)
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