Emma Hamilton Dancing

John F. Shuford was born in 1882 in North Carolina and was a graduate of Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina. He was owner and operator of the National Welding Company in New Haven, which did work for the city of New Haven and for companies including GE, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and Lincoln-Webster Engineering Company. The company was organized in 1916 by Shuford, Joseph Kurzweil, and Minnie Spanutius. In the 1930 census, he is listed as married to Sara V. Shuford. In the 1940 census, he is listed as married to Esther M. Shuford. Some sources indicate that Shuford attended or graduated from an engineering program at Yale; the dates and program he attended have not yet been confirmed in Yale records.