Abraham Kitchen

As printed in 1881

ABRAHAM KITCHEN, retired farmer. Few men are better known or more universal respected by the community in which they reside than the old pioneer whose name stands at the head of this sketch. He was born in Warren Co., Ohio, Nov. 19, 1808, and was the son of Stephen and Annie (Bercau) Kitchen. His mother dying when he was but 4 years old, he was cast among strangers to care and provide for him. In a country where means were limited, his lot was a hard one, and his early life full of vicissitudes and privations. He, however, had the good fortune to attend school in early boyhood, where he obtained fragments of an elementary education. In 1818, he came with his father to Clark Co., and they settled on the farm where he now lives, where they remained about two years, when, the household being again broken up, Abraham’s lot was again cast among strangers. At the age of 16, he went to learn the blacksmith trade, at which he worked two years, when, finding the business uncongenial with his tastes, he abandoned it for the life of a farmer. During this time he attended school thirteen days at a subscription school—those places of instruction being presided over by broken business men of intemperate habits from the East—when he quit the school-room in disgust and relied upon observation and the experience of life to fit him for its duties. In 1829, he located on his present farm, and on the 19th day of November, in the same year, he was united in marriage, by the Rev. Thomas J. Price, to Miss Matilda Jones, daughter of Erasmus Jones, of Greene Co., Ohio. Mrs. Kitchen was born in Ross Co., Ohio, June 21, 1809, and about 1818 her parents moved to Greene Co., Ohio, where they resided until death, both living to a good old age, her mother being 79 and her father 84 when they died. Mrs. Kitchen has had the following children: Margaret Ann, the wife of John McCullough, of Green Township; Jonathan S., one of the County Commissioners, residing in Springfield; I. N., a leading farmer of Green Township; E. J. and M. J. (twins), the former a farmer of Green Township and the latter the wife of John Rife, of Greene Co., Ohio; Sarah, the deceased wife of George Elder, of Green Township; Jane V. and Stephen H. (deceased). In 1838 Mr. Kitchen joined the Harmony Township Free-Will Baptist Church, and, the organization afterward removing its location to his neighborhood, he donated a lot on which a church was built, and which stands as a monument of his zeal in the good cause. His wife united with the church about the same time, and both have ever since remained true and consistent members of the Free-Will Baptist organization. As to works of benevolence, temperance and reform, he is positive and aggressive, and prices himself on the position he held and advocated long before the war on the question of freeing the slaves, and in being one of the operators on the “ Underground Railroad.” Politically, Mr. Kitchen was a Whig, and afterward one of the first Free-boilers of his township, and, this finally merging into the Republican party, he has since voted and worked with that organization, and was always a dyed-in-the-wool Abolitionist, sending one of his sons (E. J. Kitchen) to fight in defense of freedom. He has given his children a good education, and has helped them liberally with his means; and, although beginning in life a poor man, he has, by determined energy, succeeded far beyond his most sanguine expectations; and besides the help given his children, has yet the old homestead of 250 acres of land, and a handsome bank account—all the legitimate result of industry and true economy. Mr. and Mrs. Kitchen have been man and wife for fifty-two years, and have always lived on the home farm. On the 28th day of November, 1879, they celebrated their golden jubilee—an event seldom occurring in the annals of married life, and on that happy day were each presented by their children with a handsome gold watch as a mark of love and reverence. Mr. Kitchen is honest and upright in all the relations of life, and is trusted and respected throughout the county.

As printed in The History of Clark County Ohio, (1881). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.