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Elijah Chorpenning
Elijah, eldest son of John (2) and Magdalena Chorpenning, was born in Brothers Valley township, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, January 12, 1825, died November 20, 1900. He attended the common school, and grew to manhood in his native county, taught school for a time, but later became a farmer, owning his own farm in that county for a short time only, as he served in the civil war and later removed from the county.
He enlisted in the Eighty-fifth regiment Pennsylvania 85th Regiment, Volunteer Cavalry, and served three years during the war between the states.
He then returned to Somerset county, remaining until 1870, when with his second wife and family he moved just across the line to Fayette county, where he purchased a fine farm in Salt Lick township. There he remained a year, then removing to Donegal township, Westmoreland county, where he remained until 1880. He then lived on a rented farm in Salt Lick township, Fayette county for a few years, then purchased a farm on which he lived until death.
In early life he was a Republican, then became a Democrat. He served as constable in Donegal, and in Salt Lick township was school director and assessor.
He was a member of the Lutheran church; his wife was a German Baptist (Dunkard). He married (first) about 1855, Theresa Fritz, who died about 1865; one child survives of this marriage, Mrs. Henrietta Bowman, living near Salisbury, Pennsylvania. He married in 1868 (second) Christianna Barron, born at Lavansville, Somerset township, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, in June, 1849; she survives him, now a resident of Bakersville, Pennsylvania; she is a daughter of Joseph and Eve (Friedline) Barron, both born in Somerset county, and both of German descent, neither speaking English, but retaining the "Pennsylvania Dutch" language of their parents.
Source: Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County, John W. Jordan, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1912.