Catherine, aka Kate, was raised in Carroll Township, Cambria County, Pa., and settled there with E. P. Bender.

E.P. acquired his father’s farm in 1891 in the area of Carrolltown, Pa., and became locally well-known and successful. He added fruit trees in 1902 and in 1907 erected a large barn. E.P. promoted it as the “Bender Pioneer Stock & Fruit Farm,” and had a large number of horses. In 1920, he sold the farm to his son Dennis, and the moved with his wife and the other four children to Texas, where he began a new stock operation and sawmill. However, the family returned to Carrolltown a year later and the E.P. kept a journal of the trip. The family tradition holds that a E.P. had a railroad car full of lumber delivered from the former sawmill. The family then took up residence at a large brick house that was built on land that had been acquired from the John Flick estae. His obituary four years later indicated that he was an “old tim Republican and took an active aprt in the doctrines of his party.” E.P. died of endocarditis.