"Philo, the fourth and youngest son of Dr. Thomas and Sally Atwood Orton, was born September 9, 1778. He was but two years old when his father died and therefore grew up in the Jackson [Giles Jackson 1733-1810]homestead without knowing any other home. He seems to have been regarded with peculiar affection by all the children of that large and composite household. He lived for a little time in Augusta, New York, and then found his way to Chautauqua County among the earliest settlers. He made the earliest entry of land in the town of Pomfret, viz., in 1806, selecting a farm in one of the most fertile and beautiful tracts of the county, on the old Buffalo and Erie road, about four miles west of Fredonia. Here he lived a long and honored life. He was the first supervisor of the town and held the office continuously from 1810 to 1819. He was a surveyor, and thus made wide acquaintance in the county. In 1811 he was appointed a judge of the county court by Governor DeWitt Clinton. He represented Chautauqua County in the New York legislature in 1819 and was named as an elector on the general ticket of the State in 1832 and 1840. In the latter year the Whig ticket was successful and he cast his vote for General W. H. Harrison. He was universally esteemed and honored by the citizens of his county.
He married Irene Hurd in 1802. After her death, he married Clarissa Sage in 1818. By his first wife he had three sons, viz., Thomas, born 1803; Abiram, 1805-1820; Charles Jackson, 1808-1866. There was no issue from the second marriage."
(Taken from "The Orton Genealogy, An Account of the Descendants of Thomas Orton of Windsor, CT 1641" by Edward Orton LLD, Professor of Genealogy at Ohio State University, 1896)

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Kathy Ripke
FAG #47406663