Gen. Lee with 75,000 Confederates launched his second invasion of the North, heading into Pennsylvania in a campaign that will soon lead to Gettysburg on June 3, 1863. Twelve days later on June 15, Robert James Ferris was born to Thomas and Sarah Ferris. Thomas, who arrived in the United States in 1849 at the age of nineteen from Galway Ireland, lived on 32 Harding Street in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts in a home he owned from his work as a fruit and vegetable peddler. Thomas lived with Sarah in Cambridgeport since at least 1855 when records show his first son, William Thomas Ferris was born June 22. The next official record of Thomas is the Federal Census Records of 1860 enumerated on the sixteenth day in June of that same year. In 1870 Federal Census records enumerate that Robert at the age of seven attended school whileliving on Harding Street with his parents and brothers William 15, Edward, 12, and Charles, 3, and sisters Sarah, 10, and Esther, 1. His 28 year old father was listed as a laborer for occupation and his 26 year old mother as a home maker. A city directory of 1875 listed Thomas as a peddler living on Harding near Jefferson. As Thomas Edison patented the electric incandescent lamp, the Ninth Census of the United States in 1880 counted Robert and his family on July ninth and found them living at Harding Street. His father, now 38, owned real estate worth $4000 from his occupation as a huckster. His mother Sarah, age 35, kept the home raising Edward, 21, who worked with Robert, age 17, in a glass factory while Charles, only 12, attended school. Robert’s sisters Annie was 19 and working at a rubbery factory while Esther, age 9, attended school and Mary, only 6, stayed home with mother. A City Directory of 1883 still had Thomas living at Harding Street and since Robert is still yet unmarried we may assume Robert was still at home. In March 29 of 1883, Robert’s sister Sarah, who was called Annie, married. She wed a Richard M Porteus who immigrated from Drumholm Parish, Mullancross, and County Donegal, Ireland. Richard, born October 7, 1883 left his father’s dairy farm and was working in Cambridgeport at a glass factory, perhaps the same one Robert and his brother Edward worked at. Richard Porteus had a sister named Sarah Mae who was said to be at a finishing school in England when she came to visit her brother Richard in America in 1881. Sarah stayed in the United States finding work as a domestic and on July 12, 0f 1886 she married Robert James Ferris, making her father very angry, according to family stories. Shortly after the wedding date the first major earthquake recorded in eastern US at Charleston SC occurs, killing 110.

On July 1, 1887, the same year that Thomas A Edison patented the Kinetoscope, (produces moving pictures), Robert’s father, Thomas passed away from pneumonia and left the house and property to wife, Sarah and the children. Thomas had purchased two grave sites at the Cambridge Cemetery; one at 245 Myrtle Path and the other at Range 76. Thomas joined his two sons both named George who passed away before him after only a short life. They are all buried in the Myrtle Path plot.

Because fire destroyed most of the 1890 Federal Census, we don’t have official record of Robert and his family during that decade. One thing we know happened outside the census was that on May 7, 1894, Robert’s mother Sarah, now 59, remarried, taking a 63 year old Irish laborer named William McLean as a husband. It was William’s third marriage. We find Robert at the turn of the century, as the 4th Boston Marathon is won by Jim Caffrey of Canada , enumerated in the 1900 Federal Census living at 17 Park Street in Somerville, Massachusetts. Robert worked as a horse dealer, an occupation that he would continue for most of his life. Robert, now 37, and Sarah had been busy since their marriage and now have six children. The oldest and named most likely after her mother is Sarah M who is 13. Thomas, most likely named for his grandfather, was 11. Robert James Jr, 9, Edith Lawrence, 8, Laura,5, and finally Ethyl, 2, rounded out the big family. That next year of 1901 found Robert still horse dealing from 17 Park Street in a Somerville City Directory. That same City Directory kept Robert living at Park Street from 1902 through 1906. In 1907 Robert, according to that Same City Directory from Somerville, moved to 17 Farragut Avenue, off Broadway. He was still listed as a horse dealer, and his son Thomas, now 20, was working as a clerk and still lived with his father and mother. In the next decade, while Cy Young registered his 500th career victory, Robert and family moved to 36 Hamlet Street, Somerville as recorded in the 1910 Federal Census. Robert, now 46, still supported his family as a horse dealer. Wife Sarah still stayed at home keeping house and bringing up the children. Sadie is now 22 and worked as a clerk at 61 Union Sq. Thomas, age 21, still at home, was a chauffeur. Robert Jr, 20, worked as a confectioner. That left Edith, 18, Laura, 13, Ethyl, 11, George, 9, and Beatrice, 8, still living at home. All this same information was confirmed again in 1912 in the Somerville City Directory. While that same directory was nearly the same in 1914, a few changes had taken place. Robert’s son Thomas married Mary Catherine Maloney, an accountant from Charlestown, on December 27, 1911. Thomas was now living on 7 Chester Ave with his wife Mary and worked as a chauffeur. Sarah was not listed in the directory but still was believed to live at home. In January 5, 1920, during the enumeration of the fourteenth Federal Census, Robert’s family were listed on Hamlet Street. Wife Sarah, listed as 55, continued to reside there with daughters Laura, 33, Ethyl, 22, and Beatrice, 18. George age, 29, and Robert Jr., 36,. The family story of Robert leaving is not happy but the details will be kept private. Robert never returned to live with Sarah, who had given up her family in Ireland to stay in the United States and make a home with him. Robert died. on April 2, 1934 and he was buried in a plot in Woodlawn Cemetery, Everett, Massachusetts. The next decade found wife Sarah, age 66, living in Medford, Massachusetts with her daughter Laura, now 34, and Laura’s husband Harry, who was a commercial salesman. This was in the 1930 Federal census records. A Mrs. Sarah Ferris showed up in the Somerville Directory of 1940 living on Highland Ave, but it is believed that Sarah stayed in Medford for the remainder of her life. She would have been 76 then. Sarah finally passed away in her eighties in Medford on December 16, 1950. Sadly she was put to rest in Woodlawn Cemetery next to her husband Robert, thus ending that generation of Ferris. The torch of this generation extinguished was now in the hands of Thomas Ferris 2 and his wife Mary (Maloney) Ferris. Robert James Ferris was the great-grand-father of the author of this Biography and Web Site. Robert’s son Thomas now firmly established in Somerville, MA has changed his father’s livery business into a garage. Read Thomas Ferris 2 biography next.