Vincent W. Farr - updated January 21, 2013

Vincent W. Farr was born in January 28, 1840, in Carthage, Wilna Township, Jefferson County, New York, the son of Charles and Catherine.

According to family historian Kenn Farr, Vincent’s parents died on the same day in 1844 and he went to live with his Uncle John Jr. Farr (b. 1818), Charles’ younger brother, and his wife Clarissa (b. 1817), probably in Wilna, New York, where they were all still living in 1850. Sometime between 1850 and 1860 the family left New York and moved to Michigan and it quite likely that Vincent accompanied them. By 1860 Vincent was working for and/or living with the Lewis Phillips family on a farm in Nelson, Kent County; John and Clarissa and their children were also living in Nelson in 1860 as well. 

Vincent stood 5’11” with brown eyes and hair and a dark complexion, and was 22 or 32 years old and working as a lumberman when he enlisted in Company F on May 13, 1861. In August of 1862 he was reported absent sick in the hospital, and indeed he remained hospitalized until he was discharged for consumption and “complete aphonia,” on November 18, 1862, at Fort Lyon, Virginia.

It is not known if Vincent ever returned to Michigan after he left the army; we do know that he eventually returned to his former home in Carthage, New York.

Vincent married New York native Julia Butts (1843-1903) on January 9, 1863, in Carthage, New York, and they had at least four children: Harriet (b. 1865), George W. (1867-1877), Elizabeth “Libby” (b. 1870-1877) and Franklin Adam (b. 1881).

Vincent and his family were living in New York in 1865. (John and Clarissa and their children were still living in Nelson, Michigan in 1870.) By 1880 Vincent was working as a farmer and living with his wife and daughter Harriet in Wilna Township, Jefferson County, New York, and Vincent was still living in Wilna with his wife and their son Franklin Adam in 1900. His wife died in Wilna in 1903. By July of 1915 Vincent was living in Brownville, Jefferson County, New York.

He applied for and received a pension (no. 391269).

Vincent was a widower when died in 1920, presumably in Wilna and was buried alongside his wife Julia and two of their children, George and Elizabeth, in Pierce Cemetery in Wilna.