Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Samuel R. Clifford Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

SAMUEL R. CLIFFORD

(Transcribed by Peg Luce)

Many words in our language are often misused. Gentleman is one of them. But as applied to Samuel R. Clifford it is a term at once exact and comprehensive. Gentleness was the keynote of his life. He pursued pathways that were calm and peaceful and filled with simple pleasures. His nature was singularly devoid of violence. There was a sweet, old-fashioned courtesy about him – all the more effective because it lacked effusiveness. He sought no starry heights, wasted no energy or blood or tears in contests for that possession which the world calls honor, permitted no envy to gnaw at his heart. Soft-spoken, imperturbable, tolerant, without malice – he went his way to the end as he had begun it – finding rare happiness in a few fundamentals which the world, oppressed and dizzied by its present complexity, is inclined sometimes to regard as insignificant and inconsequential.

Sam Clifford was that uncommon being – a gentle man, and because he was always so, the memory of him will remain long years in a community that cherished deeply the quality of his manhood and his friendship for over half a century. – July 12, 1926.