Lewis Stoughton

Working a farm requires great amounts of sweat and sacrifice. The days are long, sometimes relentless.

Farming is difficult and challenging. But rewarding. It strengthens one’s connections to people and family.

No one knows that better than Lewis Stoughton of Chicora, who forged a special bond with his dad, the late Harold “Red” Stoughton, the epitome of the family farmer.

“My father was a great man who instilled in me his work ethic,” Stoughton said. “The whole time I was growing up he awoke before daylight and made his own breakfast, and then worked till dark.

“More importantly, he taught me how to treat people fairly.”

Stoughton’s magisterial district encompasses the boroughs of Bruin, Cherry Valley, Chicora, East Butler, Fairview, Petrolia, West Sunbury, Karns City and Eau Claire and the townships of Cherry, Allegheny, Center, Clay, Clearfield, Concord, Donegal, Fairview, Marion, Oakland, Parker, Summit, Venango and Washington.

Stoughton recalled one example of the good will extended by his father, who died in 2008 at 86.

“Years ago my father bought a gas well on our neighbor’s property,” he said. “The gas lease called for a once-a-year nominal payment and no free gas.

“When the neighbor asked my father for free gas he gladly consented. My father also gave him the pipe to hook the well to his house.”

When Stoughton inquired why give free gas to the landowner when the lease didn’t call for it, his father offered a moral: “If you want to have a good neighbor, then you must be a good neighbor.”