Valentine Ficus was the emigrant progenitor of his family in America. He was born about 1709 in the Palatinate region of Germany. At the age of twenty years, Valentine traveled from his home in Germany on board the ship, Mortonhouse. He arrived in Philadelphia on 19 August 1729 and took up residence in Huntington Township, York County. Valentine Ficus married a lady by the name of Elizabeth at some time prior to 1744, when the couple's first child was born. Although he would have been about thirty-five years of age at his marriage, Elizabeth was only twenty three, having been born in 1721. The couple gave birth to eight children between 1744 and 1759. Valentine Ficus made a living as a farmer. In 1778, Valentine Ficus served as a private in Captain William Dodds' Company, the 1st Company of the 1st Battalion of the York County Militia. He also served in Captain John O'Blainiss' Company, the 8th Company of the 1st Battalion of the York County Militia. Two of Valentine's sons, Valentine Junior and Isaac, also served in the York County Militia. Valentine would have been sixty-nine years of age when he served. Valentine Ficus died on 23 March 1782 at the age of seventy-three. Elizabeth would live another twenty-two years before dying in September 1794. They were both buried in the Bermudian Lutheran Cemetery in Latimore Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania.
