Benjamin Franklin Ferris - 1838 to 1846
Gathered nuts and berries in the pine woods on Pidgeon Hill just a country
kidd. Being fleet of foot and of hardy frame I was sent to school at the Mill
schoolhouse at the age of 5 or possably a little younger, a distance of 3/4
mile through heavy pine and birch timber. On returning home from school one
summer evening J.C. proposed that I follow a blind woodroad and see which of us
could get home first. The road I took proved to be a wood road that soon faded
and left me alone and lost.
J.C. - John Charles Ferris, who was Ben's older brother and my great-
grandfather. (EHM 3)
The trees were verry tall, verry large and verry close together. I
remember of coming to two differant bodies of water, with dense brush on their
borders and plenty of brush and logs in the water.
To skirt the banks was about impossable on account of brush, so by the aid
of fallen logs, which I mounted as I would a horse, I crossed them both. Once I
fell off in deep water, but managed to regain my mount, as wet as any kidd ever
was and bare headed for I has lost my "school cap" a verry pretty one my mother
had made for me and of which I was verry proud. I reached and cried for it, but
I might have well reached and cried for the moon, for it kept well out of my
reach, so I proceeded.
I soon came to a channel without a friendly log acrost so I proceeded to
wade through. I soon found that the bottom and surface were so far from each
other that I was in danger of drowning. I distinctly remember seeing the air
bubbles caused by my breath assend to the surface. I got out, but I dont know
how. I remember being verry nearly exhausted and ready to give it up, but night
was coming and fear of remaining all night in the dark woods made me brave to
keep trying. To cross this deep channel where I so nearly lost my life was out
of the question so I turned back and regained the shore I had just left and Joy
of Joys I had rescued my pretty cap. In my wanderings I found a dim wagon road
and by following it I arrived about dark at Jones sawmill, about 1/2 mile from
the school house and about a mile from my home. I soon saw men and horses and
they looked wonderfully good to me.
I saw a man with a pair of horses hitched to a wagon without a box headed
my way as I thought and I asked him if I could ride. He replied are you the boy
that is lost, I said yes and he took me to the school house where I found
perhaps half a hundred people that had been on the boy hunt. They shouted, rang
bells and fired guns to let others know that the lost was found. My sister took
me in her arms and cried like a --- lady. I was never of so much importance
before and seldom have been since.
1843 to 1846
When I was seven years old father sold the Pidgeon Hill farm - where I
with my four brothers and two sisters had gathered chestnuts, wild berries and
sweet birch bark, where we had plowed and hoed among the stones and where we
had plaid poleticks and religion, etc, etc. and we moved into a house on the
banks of the canal at Shenango Forks on the Shenango River. The wagon road
leading to town from the East comes down a steep hill for about 1/2 mile.
This made an ideal place for costing. At the foot of the hill was piles of
lumber and other wood ready for shipment. The road passed all this and in
costing we had made a track onto the canal ice. It was great sport for the
young folks. We little ones would go up a few rods, larger ones further up and
the big boys would go to the top of the hill and turn their sleds loose and
come down dangerously fast.
While we lived there Mort Collins (an old neighborhood boy) came to stay
over with us and he brot his big hand sled. He and John and Henry concluded to
go to the verry top of the hill and I followed. I was put in front because I
was smallest, John next, Henry next and Mort last.
Henry and Mort were expected to steer that is guide the sled by putting
their heals out into the snow and ice, but when we reached the foot of the hill
we seemed to be going two miles a minute and in spite of heroic efforts we
struck a pile of boards. When I awoke anxious faces were all about me and I saw
and smelled medecine. After a few days I was able to be out, but I wore patches
and smelled of plaster a long time.
We had rented rooms in a big freight house that, for convienience, was
built on the bank of the Chenango canal, with a back porch and platform where
we plaid, fished and bathed.
While playing alone on this platform one day I fell in. The water was
about ten ft deep and I thot I was lost, but some children on the oposit side
of the canal saw me and their shouts attracted the attention of a laborer who
fished me out dead.
I went to the bottom two or three times, but had strength and sense enough
to spring and reach the serface and get a breath of air. When I saw the man
coming dependence on myself ceased and I knew no more untill I awoke with more
anxious faces and more smells of medecine around me.
Father had sold our hill farm that had been hewed from the forest, but was
still stuffed with stones and after paying debts had entrusted a nice balance
to a supposed friend for safe keeping. He kept it safe yet and consequently we
arrived at Chicago in the fall of 1845 in verry straightened circumstances to
put it mild.
The family consisted of Father, Mother, Grandmother, seven kids and the
dog Watch. My oldest sister Finette, was about 18 years old and Mary was about
6 months old as I remember and they were the two extremes.
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Ben Franklin Ferris - Introduction
Ben Franklin Ferris - 1838-1846
Ben Franklin Ferris - 1846-1857
Ben Franklin Ferris - The Early Years
Ben Franklin Ferris - Civil War
Ben Franklin Ferris - After the War
Ben Franklin Ferris - Mexican Civil War
Ben Franklin Ferris - On to Montana
Ben Franklin Ferris - Last Words
Ben Franklin Ferris - Epilogue
Battle of Apache Canyon and Pigeon's Ranch
Fort Union National Monument
Bibliography
Preface to These Documents. (Brief)
Family History
Ben Franklin Ferris - Memoir
Edna Clair Ferris - Diary.
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