History of Bucks County, Pa Volume 3 by William H. Davis
Names and Page # Index

SAMUELCOMFORT, son of George and Susan (LOWER) COMFORT, grandson of Samuel and Rebecca (MOON) COMFORT, great-grandson of John and Mary (WOOLMAN) COMFORT, was born at the COMFORT homestead near Morrisville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1837.   He was educated under private instructors and at the Trenton Academy.At an early age he developed special talents in mathematics and sciences, and attained considerable distinction as an inventor of improvements in mowing and reaping machines, sewing machines, counting machines, etc., for which he received numerous patents.

                Samuel COMFORT joined the union army in October 1861, and served in Captain PALMER’s “Anderson Troop,” the bodyguard of General D.C. BUELL, in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Northern Alabama, and was present at the battle of Pittsburg Landing.  After eleven months’ service in this command he was honorably discharged form the service on account of physical disability contracted in the service.  In June, 1863, under special authority from Governor CURTIN, of Pennsylvania, he recruited an independent company of cavalry in Bucks and Montgomery counties and the city of Philadelphia which was mustered into the service of the United States for a term of six months under the name of “Captain Samuel COMFORT, Jr.’s Independent Company of Cavalry, the Bucks County Troop.”  This company served on escort and provost guard duty at the headquarters of General CADWALLADER at Philadelphia.  In January 1864, Captain COMFORT re-enlisted his company for a further period of three years, or during the war, and was mustered into the service as captain of company “F” of the 20^th Pennsylvania Volunteer cavalry, One Hundred and Eighty-first Pennsylvania Volunteers, commanded by Colonel John E. WYNKOOP.  The regiment was ordered to join the army in West Virginia, and Captain COMFORT was never absent from his command when any important operations were in progress from that time until the end of the war.  Captain COMFORT was promoted to be major of the Twentieth regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry in March 1865.  He was mustered out and honorably discharged from the service as major of the first Provisional Pennsylvania Cavalry, July25, 1865.  Major COMFORT was present in nearly fifty battles or skirmishes of more or less importance, chiefly in and near the Shenandoah valley and in other parts of Virginia and West Virginia.  His last campaign was with General P. H. SHERIDAN from the Shenandoah valley to Appomattox Court House.   AT this time his regiment was in General DEVEN’s Second Brigade of General MERRIT’s First Division of General SHERIDAN’s Cavalry Corps, and he was actively engaged in the battles of Five Forks and Sailer’s Creek, and at the surrender of General LEE’s army at Appomattox Court House.  He was wounded in the right arm while in Command of the skirmish line in the battle of New Market, in the Shenandoah valley, in 1864.

                After the close of the war Major COMFORT engaged in manufacturing and mercantile pursuits, and traveled extensively in foreign countries.  He resided in India ten years and was United States vice consul at Bombay from 1894 to 1896, consul at Bombay from 1896 to 1898, and United States vice and deputy consul general at Calcutta from 1900 to 1903.   Major COMFORT was a member of the Union League Club of New York, the Army and Navy Club of New York, the military order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the Grand Army of the Republic and other clubs and societies in the United States, and in foreign countries.  He accumulated a comfortable fortune and retired from active business in 1904.  On October 16, 1866, he married Elizabeth Jenks BARNSLEY, daughter of John and Mary (HOUGH) BARNSLEY, of Newtown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, a second cousin of General U. S. Grant.  One child was born of this marriage, Emma Walraven COMFORT, who was educated at Vassar College and married Harry M. CROOKSHANK, Pacha, a British official temporarily residing in Cairo, Egypt.

Test taken from page 204-206 of:

Davis, William W. H., A.M., History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III

Transcribed May 2001 by Joan Lollis of IN. as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html