Edward was born on the Atlantic Ocean. His parents left Germany for the United States in the early spring of 1833 and were "on the ocean about six months,” before arriving in a new country with their new baby. Edward was baptized by the pioneer priest, Rev. Demetrius Gallitzin, of St. Michael's Parish, Loretto, Pa.
Census records from 1850-1900 establish that Edward lived as a farmer in Allegheny Township, Cambria Co., Pa. In 1864, Edward was drafted for the Civil War, among 60 drawn from a name wheel of 151. However, he paid $300 in order to have a substitute serve. In the same year, Edward and his wife acquired a plot on Carroll Street in Carrolltown, which had 2 two story frame house.
Edward also acquired the upper half of his father's hilltop farm in Allegheny Township near Bradley Junction, Pa., and occupied his father's home.
In 1867, Edward placed an ad in the local newspaper, The Cambria Freeman, offering a 6 cents reward for the return of an indentured servant, Patrick Connelly, who ran away from his residence in Allegheny Township. In the same year, he pledged $1.00 for the construction of the Catholic church in Ebensburg.
His family fell victim to a diphtheria epidemic in 1877, and The Cambria Freeman reported that seven members were afflicted. Despite family stories to the contrary, all of the children survived the ordeal except Margaret.
In April of 1885, it was reported that someone either intentially or maliciously started a fire on the road leading from Carrolltown to Hopper Valley, on the farm belonging to Edward Farabaugh about a mile and a half from Carrolltown. Before it was discovered and brought under control it destroyed a lot of Edward’s fencing and that of his neighbor, Peter Ellig. The fire ran in the high grass and was only abated by plowing furrows in the fields.
Edward was also a butcher by trade, and sold meat from a wagon before opening a retail meat market in 1870, in Carrolltown. He moved the family there in 1888. In 1895, it was reported that any interest he had in Allegheny and Carroll Township land was subject to a Sheriff’s sale. In January of 1897 it was reported that his assignee sold interests to his son-in-law Henry Swope for $3,480.
The 1900 Census shows that the family in Carrolltown included Mary Hartman, the unmarried sister to Edward’s first wife Catherine. Mary’s occupation had been listed as “idiot” in the 1880 Census and her mother’s Will indicated she was non compos mentis. In that same year, 1900, Edward closed the meat market, retired, and then removed to Reading, Pa. He died of Bright's Disease at the age of 73.

Catharine died of typhoid fever.

In the 1860 Census, Amanda “Hiteman” appears as a 15 year servant for John and Catharine Borkey in Carrolltown, Pa. John and Catherine were the grandparents of Edward Farabaugh’s first wife Catharine.

By 1870, she married and started a family with farmer Peter Ibig/Ebig, in Carroll Township. A few years after Peter’s death, she then became Edward Farabaugh’s second wife. Her 1910 Will bequeathed $75 to the Benedictine Fathers of Carrolltown for Masses offered for the repose of her soul and that of her husband Edward Farabaugh; her gold watch to Eleonora Litzinger; clothing to be divided among three daughters; coal rights to 117 acres under the James and Edward Farabaugh farms to be sold and distributed in equal shares to her five Ebig children; $200 to Mrs. William Wetzel; $100 to Sylvester Farabaugh; and the residue in equal parts to her five children. Son Francis Ebig was nominated executor.