Ja Hu Stafford

Ja Hu Stafford
Born	Jehu Stafford June 2, 1834 Davidson County, North Carolina, United States
Died	November 14, 1913 Cochise County, Arizona
Nationality	American
Occupation	Frontiersman, soldier, rancher, farmer
Known for	Pioneer of Cochise County, Arizona

Ja Hu Stafford (1834–1913) was a pioneer of Cochise County, Arizona.

Ja Hu's name is very uncommon and was spelled in many different ways over time. Some of his descendants, many of whom still live in Cochise County, prefer to use "Jay Hugh", which was the name put on his replaced tombstone in the El Dorado Cemetery. However, the earliest known legal documents written by Stafford prove that his name was originally spelled "Jehu", after the prophet in the Hebrew Bible. Other variations of his name include "Ja Hu", which he used later in his life, "Jahu", and "J. Hugh", among others.

Ja Hu Stafford was born on June 2, 1834, in Davidson County, North Carolina, to John Wesley and Clementine Reid Stafford. When Ja Hu was still a boy, his family moved to Kentucky and then to Missouri, where he lived until joining the United States Army in 1852, stating his age as twenty-one. He spent the next five years at various posts in the Indian Territory, including Forts Towson, Arbuckle and Washita, before leaving the army to travel around the country.

Ja Hu first went to Texas, then on to Arkansas and Kansas Territory, marrying his first wife Dorothy Francis Hicks, possibly in Illinois. He then drove a small herd of cattle up to Oregon and settled along the Powder River to become a rancher and farmer. After seven years of operating a saloon near Baker, Oregon, Ja Hu sold his property and went back to Kansas. In 1872, Ja Hu owned a large herd of cattle, which he sold a year later to purchase property in Garnett, Kansas. He left Garnett two years after that, but returned a short time later after continued financial difficulties. It was around this time he left his first wife, Dorothy, his daughter Alice, and his stepson Theodore to go to Colorado.

In 1879, Ja Hu was in the town of Manti, Utah, where he met a Danish-born Mormon pioneer named Christoffer Madsen. Madsen, his wife, and his two daughters first traveled west to Salt Lake City in 1867 as part of a large Mormon wagon train, consisting of about sixty covered wagons. Both of Madsen's daughters died during the journey, but a third was born in western Wyoming and named Pauline Amelia Madsen. According to family tradition, Ja Hu met the twelve-year-old Pauline in the spring of 1880, when she arrived at his cabin to get warm, after herding cattle barefoot. A few months later, on June 3, 1880, Ja Hu and Pauline were baptized into the Mormon faith in Manti and probably married at the same time. Soon after, Ja Hu and his young wife left Utah to settle in Arizona Territory.

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