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Through his vigorous and successful operations in connection with
agriculture and live stock industry Mr. Farmer has
given consistent justification to the patronymic which he bears,
as he is the owner of one of the finely improved farms of
Lodomillo township, besides which he has secure place in popular
esteem in the county which became his home when he was an infant.
Mr. Farmer, who was born in Wheeling, West
Virginia, on the 8th of June, 1854, is a son of John and Mary Ann
(Barr) Farmer, both of whom were born and reared in the north of
Ireland. The parents received their education in their native
land and about 1845 came to the United States, where their
marriage was solemnized and they established their residence at
Wheeling, West Virginia. In 1856 they came to Clayton county,
Iowa, and the father became a pioneer farmer in Lodomillo
township, where he and his wife passed the residue of their
lives, he having followed in earlier years the trade of a
blacksmith. Both were of the Protestant faith in religion, and in
the same they reared their children. Henry, the subject of this
review, is the elder and only survivor, his brother, John, Jr.,
having died when forty-three years of age. Henry Farmer gained
his early education in the pioneer schools of Clayton county, and
he continued his active association with the work of the home
farm until his marriage.
On the 20th of January, 1876, Mr. Henry Farmer wedded
Miss Margaret O'Brien, who was born in Rochester, New York, and
who is a daughter of James and Anna (Kalnan) O'Brien, the father
being a native of Ireland, while the wife Anna was of French
origin. James O'Brien was a soldier of the Union in the Civil
war, serving as a member of the Michigan cavalry, their home at
that time being at Mackinac Island. He died while in active
service at Memphis, Tennessee. His widow, who survived him by
many years, spent the remainder of her life with her three
children at Mackinac Island and Chicago. The two surviving of
this family being Mrs. Farmer, who is the younger, and her sister
Rebecca, wife of O. E. Huene of Manchester, Iowa.
Mr. and Mrs. Farmer became the parents of four
children: Nellie Irene, the eldest, in 1898 became the wife of C.
J. Rulon, who is a merchant of Wood, Iowa, and a son of K. Rulon
of Clayton county. To them was born one son, Burdette, in 1904.
James Willard, who resides upon and manages his father's farm in
Delaware county, in 1904 married Nettie Hockaday, daughter of
William Hockaday of Manchester, Iowa. In 1906 and 1913 their two
sons were born, Wayne James and Henry Bertram respectively. Floy
Lucille, who in 1906 became the wife of Dr. A. L. Breed of Rock
Elm, Wisconsin, died at her home in Wisconsin at the age of
twenty-six years. And Zelda Vivian, who has since 1913 been a
teacher in the Elkader schools.
After Mr. Farmer's marriage he lived on a part of his
father's farm in Clayton county until 1879, when he, with his
family, moved to Kansas, where he purchased a one hundred and
sixty acre farm. Becoming tired of the West, they returned in
1882, then making their home in Delaware county. About 1890 he
purchased a farm of one hundred and fifty acres in Delaware
county. On this place, which he still owns, he continued his
operations as an enterprising agriculturist and stock raiser for
a period of about fifteen years, at the expiration of which time
he returned to the old homestead in Clayton county which he had
inherited from his parents and which is situated in Section 28, Lodomillo township. He has since continued as one of the
representative farmers of this part of Clayton county and gives
also a general supervision to his farm in Delaware county, a
property that is now in the active charge of his only son.
He is a Republican in his political proclivities and is
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias.
~ source: History
of Clayton County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to the Present;
by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; page 115-117
~ contributed by
Sharyl Ferrall,
http://iagenweb.org/clayton/
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