My Genealogy Hound

ORANGE A. FARGO for many years was a leading farmer of Poland town, this county, and stood foremost in the ranks of the breeders of high grade stock. Strict attention to the details of his business enabled him to accumulate a competency, and for some years past he has been retired from active work and is living opulently at Kennedy. Orange A. Fargo is a son of Samuel and Elizabeth B. (Ambler) Fargo and he began life in the village of Attica, Genesee county, New York on the eighth day of May, 1827. His blood is a diffusion of French and Cymric, the father’s ancestors having been natives of Wales. Both grandfathers, Fargo and Ambler, were born, reared and died in the State of Vermont, where Samuel Fargo, subject’s father, was born. Samuel Fargo came to Chautauqua county about 1829. He was brought up on a farm but received an excellent education, through the assistance of his parents, coupled with his own exertions, and after leaving school as a student, he taught for some time, studying theoretical medicine and qualifying himself for a physician at the same time. He practiced in Genesee county and then came to this county, Gerry town, and made his home and practiced in the “Vermont settlement.” He followed the profession until a few years before his death, when advancing age compelled him to relinquish its arduous duties. He married Elizabeth B. Ambler and had ten children, six of them are living: Ariel W. is a farmer in the town of Westfield; Eveline married Leonard Barton and lives at Elko, Cattaraugus county; Clarissa is the wife of John Helmick; Maria A. lives with her husband, David Ostrander at Gerry; Mary T. married Henry Starr, and lives at Gerry; and Orange A. Samuel Fargo was originally a democrat but when the slavery question disturbed the country and divided households with its bitter intensity, he joined his sympathies with the republicans and became an ultra-abolitionist.

During his whole life his energies were bent toward bettering the common schools of his locality and for a long time he held the office of school trustee. It is safe to say that never before or since has the office been occupied by a more zealous incumbent or one more anxious to elevate the standard of his charge. He had a firm belief in the existence of a Supreme Ruler of the universe, an adherent of the sect devoted to the study of scientific morals, but was not connected with any church. His integrity was never questioned and his honor never imputed. Mr. Fargo was a widely read man and a devoted student of the Bible. He died when fifty-eight years of age.

Orange A. Fargo came with his parents to Gerry town when only two years of age and spent his childhood and youth on the farm. Having secured a good education, he began lumbering and followed it for many years, but in 1860 he entered agriculture and began to breed fine stock. The best strains of blood were secured for his stud, although he bred for results rather than pedigree. Much of the fine stock now scattered throughout Chautauqua county were originally from his stables, and to Mr. Fargo is much credit due for the improvement.

He married Mary L. Tucker, a daughter of David Tucker, of the town of Poland, July 24, 1847. They reared a family of eight children, all of whom, excepting two that have died, are well-to-do, educated and representative people of the localities in which they live. Leroy is an agriculturist in Cattaraugus county; Addison A. tills the soil in the town of Ellington; Fred A. farms in Poland; Irwin, same residence and occupation; Victor H. farms in Cattaraugus county; and Elmer E. resides in Brocton, New York.

Orange A. Fargo is a republican of a most pronounced character, is a great reader and keeps himself informed upon public matters. Having been successful in business and laid by a snug fortune, he can lay back and contemplate the outside world with complacency.