Edwin Ferris, son of Samuel and Mary Kelly Ferris, was born in Blakely, Luzerne Co., Pa., April 16, 1827, and died in San Diego, Calif., July 1, 1916, aged 89 years, 2 months and 14 days.
Mr. Ferris, who has long been familiarly known as “Uncle Ed,” was the last survivor of a family of ten brothers and sisters – which seems strange for the reason that his health as a child was very frail and did not give promise of his robust manhood, and the almost exhaustless energy and industry which seemed a part of him until he became less active on account of disease and age.
In the early ‘50s he came west and worked in the logging and lumber camps of Wisconsin and rafted lumber down the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers. Later he bought a fine farm of virgin soil near Kewanee, which he improved. Afterwards he became actively engaged in furnishing fruit trees to the south and brought Osage plants and seeds north and it was he who helped the farmer with a fence which proved a boon at that time.
He was securing a considerable fortune when the war broke out in 1861, and swept it and the business away, and he had to start again, anew. But he was undiscouraged and started to purchase and improved his farm south east of Bradford, where his niece, Miss Mary Searl, helped to make a splendid home for him. The hospitality of that home is still remembered, as well as the wonderful beauty of its lawn and flower gardens. Mr. Ferris was an ardent lover of order and beauty, and both here and at his home at San Diego, where he spent most of his last years. He gave much of his time to trees and flowers.
Edwin Ferris, son of Samuel and Mary Kelly Ferris, was born in Blakely, Luzerne Co., Pa., April 16, 1827, and died in San Diego, Calif., July 1, 1916, aged 89 years, 2 months and 14 days.
Mr. Ferris, who has long been familiarly known as “Uncle Ed,” was the last survivor of a family of ten brothers and sisters – which seems strange for the reason that his health as a child was very frail and did not give promise of his robust manhood, and the almost exhaustless energy and industry which seemed a part of him until he became less active on account of disease and age.
In the early ‘50s he came west and worked in the logging and lumber camps of Wisconsin and rafted lumber down the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers. Later he bought a fine farm of virgin soil near Kewanee, which he improved. Afterwards he became actively engaged in furnishing fruit trees to the south and brought Osage plants and seeds north and it was he who helped the farmer with a fence which proved a boon at that time.
He was securing a considerable fortune when the war broke out in 1861, and swept it and the business away, and he had to start again, anew. But he was undiscouraged and started to purchase and improved his farm south east of Bradford, where his niece, Miss Mary Searl, helped to make a splendid home for him. The hospitality of that home is still remembered, as well as the wonderful beauty of its lawn and flower gardens. Mr. Ferris was an ardent lover of order and beauty, and both here and at his home at San Diego, where he spent most of his last years. He gave much of his time to trees and flowers.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement