from Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Fayette County by Gresham and Wiley, 1889, pg 315.
JOHN P BLYTHE, who prospected for gold on the Pacific Slope ere an iron pathway crossed the Rocky Mountains, is now a successful farmer of Washington township, Fayette county, Penna, where he was born January 18, 1817, and is a son of John Blythe and Ellen Fullerton Blythe.
John Blythe (his father) emigrated from Ireland to Washington county in 1790 at the age of twenty three years. From Washington county he removed to Washington township, Fayette county, and purchased a farm. He married Ellen, daughter of David Fullerton, a Scotchman and an early settler in Eastern Pennsylvania. John Blythe reared a family of eleven children.
John P Blythe received his education in the old subscription schools. He was engaged in farming until 1851. In the same year he went by water to California, where he spent four years in digging and prospecting for gold dust. He passed through the "Starving Time," when flour sold for $500 per barrel. He passed through many perils and after enduring much suffering he left the gold fields in 1855. He returned home via South America, where he remained several weeks and visited several of the principal
South American cities.
On December 17, 1857, he married Miss Margaret, daughter of John Bortner and Mary Shearer Bortner of Redstone township. The Bortners were of German descent and were early settlers in Maryland. Mr and Mrs John P Blythe have seven children:
Anna V. Blythe, born December 20, 1858, married Harmer Denny, June 30, 1885, and has one child; Humphrey F. Blythe, born August 23, 1860, married Mary C Armel, July 13, 1886, and has one child;
John Franklin Blythe, born September 6, 1862;
George R. McClellan Blythe, born August 19, 1864, married Maggie Wells, February 7, 1889;
Mary E. Blythe, born September 19, 1866, married Charles M Ford, and has two children:
James B. Blythe, born August 4, 1868, and
Ellen Blythe, born June 23, 1871.
After his marriage, Mr Blythe removed in 1863 to Lynn county, Iowa, and from there to Missouri, where he remained seven years. In 1874 he removed from Missouri to his present farm and began farming at which he is still engaged. His farm consists of one hundred and twenty acres of choice and well improved land. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian church. Politically he is a democrat and is one of the leading farmers of Washington township.