My Genealogy Hound

ELISHA H. FAY, of the town of Portland, who has been actively and successfully engaged for some years in fruit and grape culture, is a son of Lincoln and Sophrona (Peck) Fay, and was born on the farm on which he now resides, in the town of Portland, Chautauqua county, New York, June 27th, 1844. Among the early settled families of Portland were five Fay families, four of whom were founded by Elijah, Elisha, Nathaniel and Hollis Fay, sons of Nathaniel Fay, Sr., who never came to Chautauqua county. Elisha Fay, the second son and grandfather of Elisha H. Fay, who was born at Farmingham, Massachusetts, June 2d, 1783, came in June, 1806, to Portland, where he purchased lot 25 from the Holland Land Company. He served in the war of 1812, was at Buffalo and Black Rock while out, and died in 1881, aged ninety-eight years and nine months. He was an early member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and at the time of his death was the oldest settler in the town of Portland. In 1806 he married Sophia Nichols, of Massachusetts, who died in 1850. Their children were Lincoln, Eddie, Charles and Otis N. The eldest son, Lincoln, (father) was born in 1807 and died in May, 1881. He followed farming and fruit growing. He was one of the pioneer fruit-growers of Chautauqua county, and, with a Mr. Moss, of Fredonia, New York, purchased a dozen of Concord grape-vines, from which have originated thousands of acres of vines, in the town of Portland and Chautauqua County. Lincoln Fay was the originator of “Fay’s Prolific Currant,” which is now well and favorably known all over the United States and Canada, and many parts of Europe. He was one of the first abolitionists in the county, had served for many years as a trustee and class-leader in the Methodist Episcopal church, and owned one hundred and forty acres of well-improved land. He married Sophrona Peck, daughter of Ashel Peck, a native of Connecticut and an early resident of Portland, where he was an industrious farmer and an active local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Fay is a Methodist, resides on the home farm, and is now in the seventy -fifth year of her age.

Elisha H. Fay was reared in his native town, received his education in the common schools, and has always followed farming. He now owns the old Fay homestead that was purchased from the Holland Land Company, and has one hundred and thirty-three acres of land in the edge of the village of Portland, where he is engaged in farming and fruit-growing. At the present time he is planting out a large vineyard on his Portland farm, where his neat and tasteful residence is heated by steam, supplied with hot and cold water, provided throughout with telephone connections and lighted by natural gas from wells on his land. He is a republican in politics, has served as supervisor (two years) and assessor (one year) of his town, and is a pleasant and courteous gentleman. Mr. Fay has been general manager of the Chautauqua Grape Growers’ Association, and is a member of a natural gas company, which is now engaged in drilling wells at Brocton.

May 5th, 1868, Mr. Fay married Ada Dodge, daughter of Walter Dodge, of this county. Mr. and Mrs. Fay have two children: M. Birdina and Maxwell L.