Ephraim Fitch    

EPHRAIM FITCH, farmer and lumberer, P. O. Port Allegany, is a son of Ephraim and Athalia (Smith) Fitch, and was born at Ellicottsville, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y., in 1817, and was the first white child born in that town. His father was a native of Oxford, Chenango County, N.Y., and his mother of Butternut, same county. They located in Cattaraugus county in 1816, and reared a family of ten children: Ephraim, Caroline (the late Mrs. Burlingame), James L., Ophelia (the late Mrs. Smith), Hannah (the late Mrs. Chamberlain), John O., O. B., Mrs. Lydia Diltz, Charles D. (who died in the army) and Mrs. Harriet Laten. Ephraim remained with his parents in Cattaraugus county until 1836, when he removed to Port Allegany, and was employed by Harry Bryan, a lumberman, in the erection of a mill. In 1839 he married Cornelia A., daughter of Daniel Wright, and located in Liberty township, where he purchased a farm, and has since been engaged in business as farmer and lumberman. For thirty-seven years Mr. Fitch rafted down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, but, there being no railroads in the earlier days, he was compelled to find his way back from Pittsburgh on foot, the round trip occupying about two weeks. From 1836 to 1845 there was but one road in Liberty township, in which Mr. Fitch now resides, and up to 1840 groceries and provisions were very high, as well as scarce, although wild game was quite plentiful, Mr. Fitch having killed hundreds of deer and bears and any amount of small game. Sartwell & Arnold, the lumbermen of Port Allegany at that day, were in the habit of sending a four-ox team to Jersey Shore every year for a load of corn, which, on reaching the home market, was worth $2 per bushel, the distance traveled being over one hundred miles, and the time consumed in making the trip from ten to twelve days. Mr. and Mrs. Fitch, who have now been married over fifty years, and are still in good health, have had six children: Albert, A. M., Ophelia (Mrs. W. C. Medbury), George B., Ellen A. (Mrs. Nelson Cole), and Frank A. Willie (the last named deceased). Mr. Fitch affiliates with the Democratic party, and has held all the township offices. He has been for twenty-five years justice of the peace.

History of the counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania with biographical selections, including their early settlement and development, a description of the historic and interesting localities, sketches of their cities, towns and villages, portraits of prominent men, biographies of representative citizens, outline history of Pennsylvania, statistics.. Chicago. J.H. Beers & Co.. 1890, pages 521-522  Read this book on line - Free Trial  Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.