Eliphalet Blanchard
The Blanchards are of French extraction; they came to America early in the seventeenth century and settled in Andover, Mass. We would be glad to trace this family in a chronological manner down to the present, but we are compelled to skip several generations and come down to the eighteenth century, to the person of’ Stephen Blanchard, the grandfather of the Shelby County Blanchards. The date of his birth we cannot learn, but we know that he was at the battle of Bunker Hill. He was married to Lucy Adams. They had a son Stephen, who was the father of Eliphalet. He was born in New Hampshire in the year 1784. He married Christiana Penny in 1801 (whose father also was at the battle of Bunker Hill). She was born in the State of Maine in 1788. They emigrated to Ohio in 1818 and located in Butler County. where they remained until 1823, when they moved to Warren County, lived there until 1832, when they came to Shelby County and located in Loramie Township, remaining there until 1837, when he bought some wild land in Cynthian Township and moved on to it. The family at this time consisted of Christian, Eliphalet, Lucy, Sarah, Rachel, and John. Two of the older children (Abigail and Stephen) had married and left home. Mr. Blanchard died Nov. 1856. His wife died Feb. 1873. Eliphalet, the third son, was born in Butler County in 1821; came with his parents to Shelby County in 1832. He was reared on the farm and educated in the primitive schools of his day. He was the main help of his father in clearing his farm, and did not have the advantage of schools that the children of the present day have. In 1846 he married Miss Mary J. Penrod, a daughter of Samuel and Rachel (Chambers) Penrod. By this union they had born to them four children, viz., Almira, born Jan. 25, 1847; Rachel, born Nov. 16, 1855; Ira, born April 8, 1859, and John, born Oct. 10, 1862. Mr. Blanchard is now the owner of the old homestead, beside other lands he has since purchased, making in all some 280 acres in section 33. He is one of the most theoretical as well as practical farmers in the county. He makes agriculture a study, and believes that whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well; as a result, success has crowned his efforts.
From History of Shelby County, Ohio; R. Sutton & Co, Philadelphia PA, 1883