If a list could be made of all the old settlers of Walworth county it would be found that most of them came here from the state of New York. This has been a fortunate thing for southern Wisconsin, because these people have not been soldiers of fortune and adventures, but home seekers and builders of empire. They knew well for what purpose they came here, and they began working with a will to develop the country, and in due course of time had established good homes and also started and carried successfully onward the moral and civic upbuilding of the country, and as soon as they could take up the work, school houses and churches, court houses and other evidences of advanced civilization could be seen on every hand.
One of the worthy gentlemen who came from the old Empire state and assisted in this commendable work is Benjamin Franklin Skiff, for many years a leading farmer of Lafayette township, now living in retirement in Elkhorn. Mr. Skiff was born in 1836 in Cattaraugus county, New York. He is the son of Stephen and Mehitabel (Fisk) Skiff, both natives of New York. There they grew to maturity and were married and continued to reside until 1850, when they brought their family to Walworth county, Wisconsin, locating at Lyons, where the father followed farming and continued to live until his death, in 1863. In his early life he was a Democrat, but when the Republican party was organized he espoused- its principles. He was reared in the Presbyterian faith. His family consisted of eleven children. His father and his wife’s father both served through the Revolutionary war.
B. F. Skiff grew to manhood on the home farm and received his education in the district schools, and when a young man took U]) farming, which he has always followed. In March, 1860, he was united in marriage with Martha Gillett, daughter of Rinaldo and Abigail (Boughton) Gillett, natives of the state of New York. Mr. Skiff was very successful as a farmer. In 1850 his father purchased one hundred and fifty acres, for which he paid eleven dollars per acre, and in 1885, B. F. Skiff, who had succeeded to the land, sold it for sixty dollars per acre, which was considered a high price for land here in those days. He then moved to Elkhorn and purchased a fine farm one mile south of that city, containing one hundred and eighty-seven acres, for which he paid fifty dollars per acre, and here he continued to reside for twelve years, then sold out for seventy dollars per acre, and bought a farm in Lafayette township, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres, which he still owns and which he keeps rented. He lives now in the city of Elkhorn.
In 1904 Mr. Skiff was united in marriage with Iris Emeline Stowe, daughter of Cyrus C. and Iris W. (Arnold) Stowe, both from the state of New York. Mr. Stowe came to Walworth county, Wisconsin, in 1848 and settled in Elkhorn where he followed his trade as carpenter, spending the rest of his life here, dying in 1895. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Skiff, one of whom died in infancy; a son died when thirty-two years old; three daughters are still living.
B F. Skiff was a Republican until the Prohibition party was organized, since which time he has been a supporter of the same. He has been assessor of his township for three terms, and he was a member of the school board while at Lyons for a period of seventeen years. He is a member of all the local temperance societies. He is a Universalist in belief and active in the work, although there is no church of this denomination at Elkhorn.
From: Beckwith, A.C. (1912). History of Walworth County Wisconsin