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- In 1824 he was living in Panton, Vermont. John Harvey sold his farm in Panton in March, 1836 and moved Canton, New York, where he settled on a farm. On this trip westward, his family7, consisting of his wife and four children, and his household goods, were loaded on a long sleigh drawn by two horses, while he rode a third horse. Years later his son, Walter C., then six years old, told of the journey down the Vermont shore, crossing Lake Champlain on the ice somewhere in the vicinity of Rouses Point, and proceeding through Champlain and Chateaugay to Canton.
About 1860, he again sold his farm, and moved to Norfolk, New york, where he purchased a farm located agbout four miles northeast of Norfolk, on the Lost Nation Road. Unfortunately, the old homestead burned down, so that only the stone foundation remains to mark the spot, but the double row of maple trees which he planted, and which extend a quarter of a mile in each direction from the house, still stand, as do the two old barns which are directly across the road from the house.
By 1870 he had sold the farm near Norfolk, and purchased a house in Hewittville, New York, on the high bank of the Raquette River. this became his home, and his children's home, for many years. His wife died there.
It is to be regretted that several years later his daughter, Eliza Ann, had the old markers showing the dates of their deaths, together with the markers of three children, replaced by a plain but well- proportioned brown stone monument with only the name BRANCH inscribed on it. In front of this monument, stretching the width of the lot, are the small markers with the following names--but no dates:
Georgie Harvey Pamelia William Mother Father Eliza A.
In addition to being a very successful farmer, John Harvey Branch was a wheelwright and a casket-maker.
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