Ira Church

IRA CHURCH, farmer, P. O. East Hickory, was born in Genesee county, N. Y., March 31, 1818, and is a son of John and Laura (Corss) Church, who settled in what is now Harmony township, this county, in 1820. The father was a farmer, and for a time operated a still-house; later he removed to New York State, where he died in 1835. Ira Church was reared in what is now Forest county, and in 1842 settled at Church Hill, Hickory township, where he cleared and improved the farm now owned by the Little Hickory Oil Company. With the exception of a three years residence in Iowa, he has lived in Hickory township ever since, and has occupied his present farm since 1870. He married twice, his first wife being Philema, daughter of Luther and Polly (Copeland) Barnes of Harmony township, by whom he has eight children living: Charlotte (Mrs. John H. Wentworth), Mary (Mrs. Jacob Shaffer), Laura (Mrs. John Range), Sarah (Mrs. William Foreman), Lucetta (Mrs. Joshua Hall), Luther H., James L. and John C. His second wife was Matilda, daughter of Samuel Dempsey, of Hickory township, and by her he has one son, Samuel. Mr. Church is a prominent farmer, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in politics is an independent Republican.

Source: Page(s) 943-944, Chapter 15 Biographical Sketches - Tionesta Township and Borough of Tionesta
Hickory and Harmony Townships
History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania.
Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed December 2005 by Nathan Zipfel for the Forest County Genealogy Project
Published 2005 by the Forest County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project

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