Aaron F. Farr - updated 16 August 2016

Aaron F. Farr was born around 1832, in Niagara, Ontario, Canada, probably the son of Canadians John (1805) and Mary (1804).

In 1851 Aaron was working as a sawyer, probably for his father who was a lumberman, and living with his family in Houghton, Norfolk County, Ontario. He eventually left Canada and moved to western Michigan. By 1860 he was probably working as a mill laborer and living with the Adams family in Tallmadge, Ottawa County.

Aaron stood 5’6” with blue eyes, light hair and a light complexion, and was 25 years old and possibly living in Tallmadge, Ottawa County when he enlisted in Company B on May 13, 1861. He was present for duty from January of 1862 through April, and absent sick at the hospital in Yorktown, Virginia on April 1, 1862 suffering from “piles” (hemorrhoids). He was eventually treated at Judiciary Square hospital in Washington, DC, and reported absent sick in the hospital at the corner of 6th and D Streets and in the 8th Street hospital in Washington, DC, from June 3, 1862, through July and August. According to one source, he was wounded at the Battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia, on May 31, 1862, and put aboard the Elm City at White House Landing, Virginia, and transferred to the hospital in Washington, DC, where he arrived on June 5 or 6.

Aaron was dropped from the company rolls on September 21, 1862, in compliance with G.O. no. 92 (regarding deserters), for having allegedly deserted on September 21, 1862, at Upton’s Hill, Virginia. Although he was probably in the hospital in September, his military service record notes that the “charge of desertion not to be removed and [that he be given] no honorable discharge.” Apparently there was no record of his having been absent sick or wounded at the time he was reported as a deserter. Of course, he may have deserted from the hospital, although there is no record confirming one way or the other.

After his discharge from the army Aaron probably returned to Ontario, Canada.

In June of 1888 he was apparently back in Michigan living in Waters, Otsego County when he applied for a pension (application no. 660,904). His application was rejected, however, “on the grounds that the claimant deserted and never returned to his command and for the reason that an application for removal of charge of desertion and for an honorable discharge in the case has been denied.”

Two months later, in August of 1888, Aaron was back in Houghton, Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada, suffering, he claimed in a letter to the pension commissioner, from piles so bad that he had had to quit work as a laborer and leave Otsego.

Aaron died of kidney and bladder disease on September 15, 1889 in Norfolk, Ontario, Canada.