BENJAMIN FARABEE. Foremost among the successful farmers of Morris township, Washington county, stands our subject. He is a self-made man in every particular, having acquired the wealth he now possesses by industry and strict integrity. Benjamin Farabee is a son of Thomas Farabee, whose parents emigrated to this country from England in the early part of 1700, settling in Bucks county, Penn. Thomas Farabee had five brothers and one sister. Their names were as follows: Joseph, John, Samuel, George, Benjamin and Jane. The last named brother and sister settled in South Carolina, where they died. Thomas Farabee married, in Bucks county, Jane Coffey, a native of that county. He, being attracted with the fertile hills and valleys of Washington county, emigrated thither with his four brothers, at about the same time (being about the year 1800), each purchasing land, Thomas owning what now forms a part of the immense tract of our subject. The wife of Thomas Farabee died in 1836 at the age of fifty-six, and Thomas Farabee died in 1849, aged seventy-six years. To their union were born the following children: Jane (Mrs. Stephen Craft), Mary (Mrs. Charles Bogue), Sarah (Mrs. Daniel Robison), William (who died in Athens county, Ohio), Stacy D. (in Washington county, Penn.), Samuel D. (in Missouri), Thomas D. (in Washington county, Penn.), Nancy (Mrs. Dr. Doddridge), and Benjamin, the only member of the family now living. Mrs. Bogue had three children; Mrs. Robison nine; William eight; and two of the latter's sons Spencer and Thomas are practicing physicians in Ohio; Stacy D. had three children, as had also Mrs. Doddridge; Samuel D. had three children, one son Harvey who was a valiant soldier and officer in the Civil war, serving as captain and major, returning home at the close of the struggle. Benjamin Farabee was born in 1822, and was first married to Phoebe Day in 1842, who died in 1849 without issue. In 1856 he married Margaret McKerrihan (Bane), a good Christian woman and an earnest church worker, who died March 10, 1889, aged fifty-eight years. Mr. Farabee afterward married, on March 18, 1891, his present wife, an estimable and refined Christian lady, Miss Mary E. Imlay, daughter of John F. Imlay, of East Pike Run township, Washington county.
Mr. Farabee has been variously connected in church relations, having been a class-leader, and teacher in the Sunday-school for more than twenty-eight years, and superintendent a part of that time, and is at the present time teacher of a Bible class, also holding the office of steward and trustee. The Mount Zion M. E. Church has the liberal support of Mr. Farabee in the way of contribution to all its various demands. He is a true and loyal friend to the Church of his choice, and is appreciated as a useful, intelligent and pious citizen in the community in which he lives. His health has been somewhat impaired by an attack of la grippe a few years ago, which necessitates his comparative retirement from active farm work. Politically he has been a lifelong Republican.
Text taken from page 1038 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).Transcribed March 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project.
Published March 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.[ [Back to Beers Table of Contents] [Back to Beers Project Page]