Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 362 - 363 

EDWARD E. PITCHER is one of the pioneers of Eagle Township, and owns and manages a good farm on section 26, which he took up in 1870 under the homestead act. He immediately set about its improvement, and now has it under the highest cultivation, and from its rich, fertile soil gains a good income. He has it well stocked with cattle of the most improved grades, owning a fine herd of about thirty head. He formerly took a great interest in raising swine, but of late years has ceased to raise them. 

            Mr. Pitcher is a native of the northern part of Somersetshire, England, where he was born Sept. 27, 1837, being a son of Edward and Mary (Eastment) Pitcher, both natives of England. His mother died in her native land, in the year 1840, at the age of forty years. She was a true Christian woman, and a worthy member of the Church of England. The father came to the United States when our subject was about two years of age, first locating in Medina County, Ohio, and there labored as a farmer for about five years. The following three years he rented land until his removal to Grundy County, Ill., where he actively engaged in farming the succeeding seventeen years. For about ten years prior to his decease in that county he lived in honorable retirement from the active duties of life. At one time during his residence in Illinois he was seriously ill of typhoid fever, and was unable to do anything for four months. He was a stanch member of the Republican party, was a representative man of his county, and highly respected by all who knew him. He was the father of eight children, four boys and four girls, as follows: Edward, Susan, Caroline, Mary, Thomas, Prudence, Edward and Heber. 

            Our subject began life for himself when he was twelve years old, continuing, however, to make his home with his father until he was twenty-one. In 1862 he enlisted in the 127th Illinois Infantry, and did loyal service on the battle-fields of the South until the close of the war, receiving his discharge in July, 1865, at Washington, D.C. In one of the hard-fought engagements in which he took an active part he received a serious wound in the hip, which laid him up in a hospital for two months, and obliged him to go on crutches; he is now entitled to a pension. He fought in the battle of Arkansas Post, and was present at the siege of Vicksburg, which lasted six weeks. 

            After Mr. Pitcher was mustered out of the army he returned to Illinois and engaged in farming the three succeeding years. He was united in marriage to Miss Delia Ragon, a daughter of Horace and Sally (Adams) Ragon, natives respectively of New York and Ohio. Her parents were married in Portage County, Ohio, in 1843, and moved to Grundy County, Ill., in the spring of 1851. They are now both deceased, the father dying in the spring of 1870, aged fifty-three. When a young man he learned the carpenter's trade, and followed it to some extent in after years in connection with farming. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and his wife of the Baptist Church. They had five children, namely: Delia, Horace Orlando, Ann, Ella and Milton. Horace died at the age of three months. Mrs. Pitcher was born in Portage County, Ohio, Oct. 24, 1846. To her and her husband have been born three children, of whom Ella, born Sept. 17, 1873, is the only survivor: Sherman Ulrick was born Dec. 29, 1869, and died in July, 1879, at the age of ten years; Horace Edward, born in May, 1875, died in August of the same year. 

            In 1870 Mr. Pitcher decided that he would try farming in Sedgwick County, Kan., which was then attracting general notice for its wonderful agricultural facilities, and he had been well impressed with what he had heard of its climate and situation. Since coming here he has industriously engaged in general farming with marked success, as before noted, and with the cheerful assistance of his helpmeet, has built up a cozy home, where they can enjoy the comforts of life in the peaceful consciousness that by their faithfulness in the performance of life's duties they have well earned the respect which is accorded to them by all. 

            In religion Mr. Pitcher and his family are faithful members of the society of the Seventh-Day Adventists. In politics he is a firm believer in the principles of the Republican party.

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