BIOGRAPHY - HENRY FARRIS
Henry
Farris is a farmer of Ford county owning and cultivating a tract of two
hundred acres of rich land in Drummer township. His parents were Christopher
and J. (Stauffer) Farris. The father, a native of Hanover, Germany,
emigrated with his family to America when his son Henry was but a small boy.
As his financial resources were limited he rented a farm for a few years, or
until he was able to purchase property, when he became the owner of eighty
acres, which he afterward sold at a good profit. In 1887 he bought two
hundred acres, constituting the old family homestead, and as the years
passed, brought this under a high state of cultivation.
Henry Farris was reared to farm life, early becoming familiar with all the duties and labors incident to the cultivation of the fields. He attended the public schools, his time being divided between the acquirement of an education and the assistance which he rendered his father, with whom he remained until his marriage. He was, however, absent in the south during the period of the Civil war, having enlisted on the 6th of August, 1861, as a member of Company F, Seventy-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He participated in a number of important engagements, and the hardships and rigors of war so undermined his health that he was obliged to return home before the cessation of hostilities.
In 1872 Mr. Farris was united in marriage to Miss Bertha Bonnen, a daughter of B. Bonnen, the wedding being celebrated in Paxton. They had six living children: Elizabeth, the wife of August Rosenan, of Iowa, and the mother of three children; Bennett, who lives in Minnesota; Margaret, Richard, John and Katherine, all at home. The wife and mother died December 22, 1907.
The family residence stands in the midst of a good farm of two hundred acres on section 32, Drummer township, which Mr. Farris now owns. He devotes his land to the cultivation of corn, oats and other cereals best adapted to the soil and climate and now has a well developed property, having brought his fields under a high state of cultivation. Besides his property in this county he owns a quarter section of land near Storm Lake, Iowa, where his daughter resides. In politics Mr. Farris is independent, voting for men and measures rather than party. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church and his belief guides his life and shapes his conduct in his relations to his fellowmen.
Extracted 16 Oct 2016 by Norma Hass from History of Ford County, Illinois, From Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, author E. A. Gardner, Volume 2, pages 512-515.
