Union County, Ohio Biographies Project - Lewis Jolliff
LEWIS JOLLIFF
Lewis Jolliff, a farmer, was born in Pennsylvania February 12, 1812:
his parents were William and Catherine (Yager) Jolliff, natives of
Ohio, the former of English and the latter of German descent.
They emigrated to Ohio in an ox cart in 1817, and settled in Wayne
County, afterward moving to Stark County, where both died. They
had fifteen children, twelve of whom grew up, married and raised
families. Our subject, who was the fifth child, grew up on the
farm, inured to the hardships of all kinds and accustomed to hard and
incessant labor. He had no educational advantages whatever, and
knows but little about the English language, though perfectly familiar
with German. He has spent his life in agricultural pursuits and
has arisen step by step from a poor farm boy and renter to a well-to-do
freeholder. He came to this county in 1836, purchased land and
set to work clearing it for cultivation ; he now owns 180 acres of good
land, in the best order and well improved, in addition to his town
property. In 1834, he married Catharine Swartz, by whom he had
five children, viz.: Washington, who enlisted in the army in 1861, was
wounded, returned home and died ; Eli, deceased ; John, whose sketch
appears in this work; Isaac, and Barbara, deceased. Mrs. Jolliff
was a member of the Methodist Protestant Church ; she died in 1855, and
on December 10, 1856, Mr. Jolliff married Hannah Pennypacker, a
daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Scofield) Pennypacker, the latter still
surviving, aged eighty-four years. Mr. and Mrs. Jolliff are
members the Methodist Protestant Church at Richwood. Though Mr.
Jolliff has survived the allotted time of man, he has full possession
of all his faculties and is remarkably hale for one of his years.
He tells many interesting anecdotes of early Ohio, and of life in a new
country; of adventures with wild animals and escapes from other
dangers; and of being lost in the woods when hunting his cows.
Many pages of reminiscences could be called from the memory of this old
pioneer, had we space for their production.<>