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             J. Ferree Anderson 

" A Civil War veteran who had lived in the hope of reaching his 100th birthday died just eight days short of it."

 

- Charleroi Mail Newspaper

"Aged Civil War Veteran Answers Last Roll Call" - Charleroi Mail

 

"J. Ferree Anderson Passes To Great Beyond" - Charleroi Mail

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  • Died December 3, 1939

  • Charleroi, Pennsylvania

Important Fact: 

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  • Born December 11, 1840

  • Near Elizabeth, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

  • Parents John Sharp Anderson & Sarah Ferree

  • Named after grandfather, Jeremiah Ferree

  • Fought for the Union in the Civil War

  • Married 65 years to Rebecca Brawdy

A native of the Monongahela Valley, Jeremiah Ferree Anderson was born into the earliest prominent pioneering families in western Pennsylvania. These families also had a background of military service. Two grandfathers, William Sharp, and George Anderson, both fought in the Revolutionary War. His maternal grandfather, Jeremiah Ferree, for whom he was named, fought in the War of 1812. His father, John Sharp Anderson, fought in the Mexican War.

 

In search of adventure, Ferree Ander son left home at an early age. When the Civil War broke out he was 21 years old and living in Kentucky. Wanting to serve, he went to Missouri and joined the Unionists. He did not like the Missouri way of fighting "bushwhack" skirmishes divided between Union and Confederate sentiment so he returned to Kentucky. Family tradition says from there he walked to Davenport, Iowa, where a new Union division was being formed and in September 1863, enlisted in Company F, Ninth Iowa Cavalry with the rank of Corporal. During his service he used the alias, Orlando Bouer. He served four years with the army and was wounded twice. He mustered out at Little Rock, Arkansas, in February 1866, and went home to Pennsylvania which was a great surprise to his mother who believed him dead.

 

For a while after the war he made his home in Des Moines, Iowa, where he worked as a carpenter. He later returned again to Pennsylvania, married, and had a son, William. In 1870 they were living in Brownsville and he was working as a carpenter. His wife, Mary V., died April 15, 1871, and is buried in the James Chapel Cemetery, Union Township, Pennsylvania.

 

Ferree Anderson married a second time to Rebecca Anne Brawdy on August 28, 1873, at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Monongahela, Washington County, Pennsylvania. Their marriage lasted over 65 years. They had four children, George, Ora, Nora, and Romola. In 1904 they located to Charleroi in Washington County where they lived the rest of their lives. After several years working for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company and superintendent of various coal mines, he retired and took up a hobby of growing flowers. Residents in the area would pass the Anderson home just to view and admire the prize winning rose bushes in their flower garden. Local patriotic events were usually attended by Ferree Anderson and he was considered an honored and distinguished guest. Both he and Rebecca enjoyed good health, were active in the community, and over time were known as the oldest married couple in the district. The following newspaper article appeared in the Charleroi Mail on August 30, 1938.

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Rebecca Anderson died on June 17, 1939, at the age of 83. She is buried in the Monongahela Cemetery. Jeremiah Ferree Anderson died on December 3, 1939, just eight days short of his 100th birthday

Robert C. Denlinger

The bond that links your true family is not of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life."

                      -Richard Bach

The Descendants of Marie Ferree organization lost a dear friend with the passing of Bob Denlinger on August 15, 2007. He was an integral member of our Reunion Planning Committee and because of his assistance and commitment to our organization he became an honorary member of the Ferree family. Many will remember him as the moderator for our Ferree Family Reunion tours of Paradise. His knowledge of the area and in particular the stories of history of the homesteads and historic sites connected with the Ferree family made the tours memorable. Many of the Ferree family are also familiar with him as editor of "Paradise: Our Heritage, Our Home". He was admired and respected by all who knew him.

 

Robert C. Denlinger was born in Kinzer, PA, in 1926, the son of Walter S. and Nora Armer Denlinger. He attended Belmont Elementary School and Paradise Township High School where he was editor of the newspaper and an associate editor of the yearbook. He served with the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. In 1950 he earned his B.S. in Education from Marshall College and later, in 1962, his Master of Education from Temple University. His teaching career began in 1952, and for over twenty nine years his career included serving as a teacher, an administrator of federal programs, a member of the P.S.E.A., and as a commissioner's assistant for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. He retired in 1989, but remained very active in many aspects of community service. Bob and his wife, Betty Shirk Denlinger, were parents of four children: Beth, Barbara, Bonita, and Robert, Jr.

 

He was a member of the Leacock Presbyterian Church in Paradise, Paradise Township Lions Club, Christiana Masonic Lodge, and the Paradise Township Citizens Committee.

 

In 1994, when the Paradise Township Citizens Committee discussed reprinting "250 Years in Paradise", it was decided to upgrade the information, develop, and publish a new book. Bob Denlinger was named editor and "Paradise: Our Heritage, Our Home" was published. The following was written about him in the opening pages of that book.

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Community service on the part of Bob and his wife, Betty, Denlinger, is a primary strand in their life style. They have met the family responsibilities that were part of rearing their four children and still have found time to be part of the projects of benefit to their fellow men. - Sam Stoltzfus

Below are just a few of many tributes that have been paid in honor of his memory.

I will always remember Bob Denlinger and how my sisters and I contacted him when we had the idea for the first reunion in Paradise. If it were not for Bob, we would not have been able to organize and found The Descendants of Marie Ferree association. That first year, Bob connected us with people in Paradise. He set up and led the first tours we had of the Ferree Homesteads at that first reunion. He recruited other tour guides for us since we had four bus trips that first year - two in the morning and two in the afternoon. Bob sat at the table at the Community Center most of the weekend and sold any books on Paradise he could find where we could make a small profit, including his own "Paradise: Our Heritage, Our Home". He continued to help us each year we have had a reunion. Bob and his wife, Betty, became good friends with my sisters and I. The more I got to know him the more I realized that he was a wealth of information on the founding of his birthplace and our heritage in Paradise. Bob will be greatly missed by many, many people. - Nancy Kosman

I had the privilege of knowing Bob Denlinger and working with him on our Ferree Family Reunion Planning Committee. As plans for 2007 reunion were being finalized we had opportunity to correspond and speak on the phone organizing the Paradise Homestead Tour. He was so knowledgeable of the area and caring about the community. I recall during a phone conversation his expressing concern over what was happening to some of the historic sites. Bob became ill soon after that and was not able to complete plans for the tour or to attend the reunion. Although he was not there in person, we knew he was there in spirit. - Nancy Johnson

Though I never met him in person, I had talked with him when I was looking for a copy of his Paradise book to send to my sister. Speaking for myself, his work on the Ferree history helped me link with cousins I never knew I had. He will be missed by all Ferrees and many others. - Chris Ferree

                Benjamin Franklin Ferree

"Remember that we, too, are the ancestors of those yet unborn and we should seek to leave for them a heritage of which they can be proud as we are of that which our forebears bequeathed to us."-Unknown

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  • Born: 1839

  • Died: October 12, 1912

  • Parents: George Ferree & Mary Linn

  • Married: Martha Kennedy

  • Six Children

  • Sixth Generation Ferree Descendant on Daniel Ferree&Anna Maria Leninger Line

  • Civil War Veteran

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1839, on the Ferree estate that his father, George, had inherited from his father. Benjamin attended the public schools in Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Academy, later learning the carpentry trade. He combined this with contracting business and also engaged in farming. In August 1862, he enlisted as a Private in the Civil War Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Company G, 136th Regiment, saw action in the Virginia campaign, and mustered out May 29, 1863. 

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Camp near Bell Plains, VA         December 30th/62

 

 

Received of Franklin B. Ferree of my company one purse containing sixteen dollars belonging to Thomas A. Parvess who was killed in the battle of Fredericksburg also one (?) of a young lady.

 

Capt. Corwndy(?) Per Earle Strahley (?

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Benjamin Franklin Ferree married Martha Kennedy in 1871. They became the parents of six children: Lizzie Leone (1873), Mona Elizabeth (1875), McDonough J. (1877), Edna G. (1879), Delmont K. ((1888), Melvin C. (1893). He passed away on October 12, 1912, just four days before the death of his only brother.

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Sources: "A Century and A Half of Pittsburgh and Her People Vol. IV" by John Newton Boucher ; "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion Compiled and Arranged from Official Records of the Federal and Confederate Armies" by Frederick H. Dyer; "History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers 1861-1865" by Samuel P. Bates; "NARA Civil War Pension Index:General Index to Pension Files 1861-1934"; National Park Service "U.S. Civil War Soldiers 1861-1865"; U.S. Census Records; Personal files of Ed Rech

Frank Ellis Ferree

The man is the nearest thing to a holy man that we've seen in these parts for a long, time."-A Harlingen, Texas, Businessman

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Birth: August 6, 1894 in Nebraska

 

Death: March 10, 1983 in Texas

 

Parents: Josiah Benjamin Ferree & Isabelle E. Kenyon Ferree

 

-Never Married

 

-Descended from Daniel & Marie Ferree through their son, Daniel, Jr. and Anna Marie Leininger.

 

-Devoted his life to helping the poor, the homeless, and the sick for 42 years.

 

-A man poor in money, but rich in what he did with his life.

Born on the prairie in Nebraska, Frank Ferree, with only an eighth grade education, struggled across the United States from Nebraska to Colorado, California, and Wisconsin looking for a satisfying destiny. That destiny was to be found in the outskirts of Harlingen in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. From the area of that great state that borders on Mexico, comes a strange and beautiful story of a man who has been compared with Albert Schweitzer, given the highest medal of achievement by the Mexican government, and who has been a guest of honor at a White House dinner.

 

Frank Ferree was known as "Border Angel", "Gringo Messiah", "Saintly Scavenger", "El Amigo" "Holy Man of Harlingen", "Holy Man of the Rio Grande", and "Albert Schweitzer of the Rio Grande Valley". In 1979, a book was written about the life of Frank Ferree entitled "Border Angel".

 

The author of that book was Bill Starr, an award winning free lance writer, newspaperman, and friend of Frank Ferree. In the preface of that book, Bill Starr wrote the following.

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He looks and dresses like a bum, but don't let that bother you. You've never dealt with anybody quite like Frank Ferree, a completely humble man, easily approached, and at 83, he's still going strong. He is a personal friend with the last four Mexican presidents, and of two past U.S. presidents. He's the only man known who can simply walk into the presidential offices in Mexico City, sit down, and talk with the chief executive. He is equally at ease with the most degenerate criminals in rat infested cesspools called prisons along the Border.

 

Dozens of medals, citations and parchments have come Frank's way from Freedom Foundation, the governor of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, the mayors of Texas and Mexican cities, school administrations, service clubs, Mexican welfare agencies, and a recommendation for Mexico's Aztec Eagle Medal, the highest honor which that nation can award to a citizen of another country.

 

Frank Ferree has, I think, lit a candle, rather than curse the darkness.

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Early Life

  • Born August 6, 1894, in a small village on the Platte River near Omaha, Nebraska.

  • When he was fifteen the family moved to northwestern Nebraska to homestead. In the eighth grade at that time, the move ended his formal schooling.

  • Loved the pioneer life in Nebraska, the open spaces of the plains, and being close to nature.

  • At age twenty-one he left home. After a year he returned and later described this excursion away from home as the darkest days of his entire life.

  • Filed his own homestead claim but soon tired of the hard labor of making a home in the rough country of Nebraska.

  • Joined the army in 1918 and served in France.

  • Got a job with the postal service as a rural mail carrier and for ten years delivered mail on horseback, carrying letters in a saddlebag strapped behind his saddle. Later bought a Model T Ford and hired his brother, Fred, to help.

  • After the death of his father, he and his mother loaded the Model T with their belongings and headed west settling near Central City, Colorado, on an eighty acres homestead. Over time increased his holdings to three thousand acres.

  • Began developing an interest in faith healing and studied the science of numerology.

  • Mother died in 1937. Grief stricken, he traded the three thousand acres in Colorado for eight hundred acres of Wisconsin lakefront timberland sight unseen.

  • Without ever seeing his Wisconsin land, he headed for Hollywood, California, where he worked for a while as a caretaker of a mansion.

  • Deciding to check out his timberland, he traveled to Wisconsin. Sold the trees for lumber and the lakefront property to a developer.

  • From a man in Denver, he bought twenty-three acres of land just outside of Harlingen, Texas, and headed south.

                   George W. Ferree

                      Charles Heister 

Issues of Concern 

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