Jim Farabaugh was a well-known farmer in Loretto, Pa. He was president of the Cambria County Farm Bureau, active in the Cambria Co. Pomona Grange and Loretto Volunteer Fire Co., and was elected as Director of the Poor in Cambria County.
Census records show that Jim was raised in Allegheny Township, and that he was a butcher in Jackson Township until at least 1905.
The 1910 Census indicates that Jim was situated as a farmer back in Allegheny Township with his wife Jane and four children. This parcel was known as the lower half of the original Farabaugh homestead, near Bradley Junction. In 1915, a local newspaper reported that a large corn shucking party took place at the farm. Jim soon acquired the upper half, which been owned and farmed by his uncle Edward, and was purchased from Edward’s widow, Amanda. The lower half had belonged to his father, Erhard, and Jim thus restored the entire homestead to one ownership, with the lower tract being his principal farm and residence. Jim further extended the farmland by leasing back portions that had been sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The 1920 Census shows his ownership of the entire homestead.
Jim subsequently sold the upper portion to his brother Ed, and after many years of farming sold the lower half to his grandson, James Kirsch. They were still living in Allegheny Township in 1940. Jim moved to Loretto in 1944.