December 2025-January 2026

The following is an email from Vanessa Herring:

Mr. Farr, I have been working on Ebenezer Farr b. 1806 d. 1877. He had been confused with Ebenezer Berry, who had the same birth and death years. Berry's death record in Lynn, MA showed he was born in Moultonborough, NH. I was able to confirm this. So Berry was a different person. The correct Ebenezer Farr enlisted in the army at age 23 in 1829 from Rochester [prob. NH?] and was born in Grafton [Co.] NH, according to his army record. The 1830 census of his father's household confirms he was not still living with his parents then. He served as a musician in the Black Hawk War, which took him to Illinois. He was discharged at the end of his 5 year service in 1834. He married Maria Unknown. I have not found a marriage for them. Their son Norman's entry in the 1880 US Census shows both parents born in NH, but it could have been in IL, too. They had 3 sons, two born in IL, and one later, in MI. I did find one court record in Jackson, MI where an Ebenezer Farr gave a deposition in a probate court case close to the birth year of the last son (John).

Son John died 7 months after his early discharge from his Civil War unit. His brother Norman served in the same unit, and reenlisted when his 3 years were up. He lived until 1902. I have not been able to reliably identify what happened to the eldest son, George W Farr after 1850.

Ebenezer's wife Maria died sometime between 1850 and 1864, when he remarried, to Catherine Quick. She had been married twice before him. As best I can tell, Ebenezer died in Decatur, Macon Co., IL, where he is found in the 1870 US Census. I could not confirm the year 1877 for his death. Death records there began in 1878. It may be that Catherine's obituary was the source for the date. The library there has a local history room, and an obituary database, but the search function does not seem to work.

Vanessa

I researched this after I got it and was able to add 41 people to our tree. And a number of ordinances were submitted. These Farrs descend from Samuel Farr the son of Stephen Farr Sr.

The following is another email from Vanessa Herring:

Mr. Farr,
I've got some additional information on the sale of 100 acres of land from Samuel Farr 1st to Ephraim Farr for 20 shillings. This was a full lot of land, Lot 11 in the 13th Range. The sale was on 17 April 1786.
Samuel had bought this lot along with Lot 9 in the 13th Range from Josiah Willard in 1764. He bought the two lots, 200 acres in all, for 25 pounds in 1764.

In Cheshire Co. NH unrecorded deeds, there was a sale of land on 22 April 1786, just 5 days later, from Samuel Farr 1st to his son Samuel Farr Jr.. He sold 34 acres, about 1/3 of his remaining lot, to Samuel Jr. for 80 pounds.

That helps to put into context how great a price Ephraim was getting for his 100 acres of land.
If Ephraim Farr was indeed a son of Samuel Farr and Rebecca, he would have been a child when Jonathan Cobleigh was working for the Farr family in Stow. Ephraim later married Jonathan Cobleigh's daughter Elizabeth.

I wounder if there might be a clue in Ephraim being the name of Samuel and Rebecca's first son that might indicate who Rebecca's father was?

Vanessa (Continued)

I Forwarded this to Price Genealogy because this is a problem that we gave them to work on.
I just finished cleaning up the downlines of Jacob Farr Sr. and am shifting to working on the downlines of Winslow Farr Sr.

I was cleaning up places in a place list in RootMagic and found that "Short Creek" was in my file. My ward is in Short Creek/Colorado City. So I looked at who the location was connected to and it was the same name as a member of our ward but probably his great grandfather. The last name is Bistline. He was married to Lula Amanda Farr, a grandaughter of Winslow Farr Jr. and his wife Susan Melvina Bingham. Sixteen days after marriage she died and the husband married her first cousin who was a Johnson. We also have Johnsons in our ward who just came out of polygamy.

I Found that Wilbur Jacob Farr married his adopted sister Edith Ann Keeler Powers. Edith shows as adopted in the 1900 and 1920 US census'.

I added her to the Jacob Wesley Farr family but didn't add the children because they are already there with Wilbur as the father.

I can't find any proof that Pattie A, Farr was a daughter of Jacob Wesley Farr and so I deleted her. She might be the same person as Jettie A Farr in the same family.

I was contacted a few weeks ago by a new DNA participant that descends from our Stephen Farr through his son Samuel Farr. Downline from Samuel we had a George A Farr Jr. with no known wife. This participant descends from George A Farr and with their contact, I was able to determine that George A Farr Jr. isn't really Jr. I found that his son, George Alton Farr is the one that should be called Jr.
Four children were added to George Farr's family and a wife named Pearl Ellen Manley. In all, 18 people were added to the chart.

Since working on this part of the chart, a long time ago, someone has posted some of the new information on FS that wasn't there before.

I’m currently working on downlines of Winslow Farr Sr. please check your lines from you to Winslow at www.dustyhills.net and see if you need to have me add or fix anything. Send changes to [email protected] .
I have submitted 80 ordinances for work to be done. 31 are in my file and the rest shared with the Temple system.

Tim Farr