This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/BUB.2ACI/6028 Message Board Post: ANOTHER PIONEER GONE TO HIS REST ______________________ Elijah Bliss Dead in 88th year. Moved Here 80 years Ago. In the death of Elijah BLISS, which occurred on the morning of November 29th, the community lost another man of the rugged, pioneer type that endured hardships and labored unceasingly to subdue the wilderness and fit the land for cultivation. Born in Otsego, Otsego county, on the fifth of December, 1820, he had nearly completed his eighty-eighth year, when stricken with the first serious illness he had ever experienced, and passed away after a week's suffering. Eighty years ago, Mr. BLISS, then a lad of seven years, moved with his parents, Eleazer and Polly BLISS, from Otsego to Pike. The journey was made with ox teams, Elijah being the driver for the team following his father's and although it took more than two weeks to make the trip, only one accident occurred to the boy's load of goods and that was caused by his oxen breaking away from his control and running under a shed which was so low that the tall spinning wheel was caught and demolished, a most serious loss to the family of the pioneer. After remaining at Pike about a year, the farm now owned by Miles WELLS was purchased where the deceased grew to manhood. In 1848 he was married to Polly MILLER of Bliss, and immediately began housekeeping on the farm where he spent the remainder of his life. Of the three children born to Mr. and Mrs. BLISS, only one, the only son, Mark BLISS, survives. One daughter, Damaris, died in 1876 and the other daughter, Sadie, in 1885. Mrs. BLISS passed away in 1898. Rev. Geo. COOPER of Fillmore, whose childhood was spent in the same neighborhood as that of Mrs. BLISS, officiated at the funeral services of each one of the deceased, the funeral of Mr. BLISS being held at the old homestead on Tuesday, Dec. 1st. Burial at Pine Grove cemetery. He was the last of his generation and represented a type of men and women, few of whom survived to greet the twentieth century. By self denial, frugality and hard work he had secured a competency which he managed most successfully to the close of his life." [Northern Allegany Observer obituary, transcribed by Louise Y. Mills, 2003, from Cora Lahr's scrapbooks, Fillmore, NY]