Richard Farwell on right with son and grandson
Richard came to Oregon in 1852.
RICHARD FARWELL ----ADVENTURER
Red-haired Richard Farwell’s history is only partially documented, but available accounts indicate he was a most adventurous young man. He was born in 1822 in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, and moved with his family to Mercer County, Illinois, when he was seventeen.Richard Farwell’s name appears as a member of the Oregon- bound wagon train led in 1845 by Solomon Tethrow, Farwell was with the Samuel Barlow, Joel Palmer and William Rector party when they decided to leave the train to try to find a route around Mount Hood rather than go down the Columbia River in late fall. The group included women and children and barely escaped starvation before making their way to Oregon City along what was soon to become the famous Barlow Road.Farwell returned to Illinois to farm, where he married, in 1848 Esther Paugh, who had moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois with her parents in 1839.Lured by the 1849 Gold Rush, Farwell, accompanied by his dog, left his pregnant wife and relatives to make his fortune in California. An 1878 atlas biography indicates that Farwell accumulated about $4,000 in gold before returning to Illinois in 1851.The Farewell family enjoys the story of Richards’s journey home from California. He first took a boat from San Francisco to the Isthmus of Panama, where he crossed overland to catch another boat then home to Illinois by various other conveyances. Anxious to greet his wife and yet unseen child , Farwell was surprised when he also was welcomed home by his dog, who had beat him back from San Francisco.The Richard Farwell family set our for Oregon from Illinois in 1852 accompanied by a Mercer County neighbor, Solon Shedd, brother of Captain Frank Shedd, Upon arrival in Linn County, the Farwell’s located a claim upon what later became part of the New Boston town site.Edward one of the Farwell’s children, who was born on the claim in 1861 and spent most of his life in that location, said his father paid $17.20 in taxes on the 320 acres in 1860, the year before his birth, The year before Edward Farwell became 95, he said taxes of $450.51 were paid on half, or 160 acres, of the original Farwell claim.
Richard came to Oregon in 1852.
RICHARD FARWELL ----ADVENTURER
Red-haired Richard Farwell’s history is only partially documented, but available accounts indicate he was a most adventurous young man. He was born in 1822 in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, and moved with his family to Mercer County, Illinois, when he was seventeen.Richard Farwell’s name appears as a member of the Oregon- bound wagon train led in 1845 by Solomon Tethrow, Farwell was with the Samuel Barlow, Joel Palmer and William Rector party when they decided to leave the train to try to find a route around Mount Hood rather than go down the Columbia River in late fall. The group included women and children and barely escaped starvation before making their way to Oregon City along what was soon to become the famous Barlow Road.Farwell returned to Illinois to farm, where he married, in 1848 Esther Paugh, who had moved from Pennsylvania to Illinois with her parents in 1839.Lured by the 1849 Gold Rush, Farwell, accompanied by his dog, left his pregnant wife and relatives to make his fortune in California. An 1878 atlas biography indicates that Farwell accumulated about $4,000 in gold before returning to Illinois in 1851.The Farewell family enjoys the story of Richards’s journey home from California. He first took a boat from San Francisco to the Isthmus of Panama, where he crossed overland to catch another boat then home to Illinois by various other conveyances. Anxious to greet his wife and yet unseen child , Farwell was surprised when he also was welcomed home by his dog, who had beat him back from San Francisco.The Richard Farwell family set our for Oregon from Illinois in 1852 accompanied by a Mercer County neighbor, Solon Shedd, brother of Captain Frank Shedd, Upon arrival in Linn County, the Farwell’s located a claim upon what later became part of the New Boston town site.Edward one of the Farwell’s children, who was born on the claim in 1861 and spent most of his life in that location, said his father paid $17.20 in taxes on the 320 acres in 1860, the year before his birth, The year before Edward Farwell became 95, he said taxes of $450.51 were paid on half, or 160 acres, of the original Farwell claim.
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ReplyDeleteHow can I contact wirenut privately? Would like permission to use his article in an antique car club newsletter in Salem, Oregon to help celebrate Oregon 150.
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