My Genealogy Hound

Hartwell B. Farmer is a son of Capt. John Farmer, of North Carolina, and Nancy Farmer, of the same State, who moved to Tennessee in the year 1829, and settled on a farm in Williamson County, where Hartwell was born on December 20, 1830. The father was a carpenter and wheel wright, but also cultivated the soil. In the latter years of his life he moved to the State of Kentucky, and located in Graves County, where he died about 1862. He was a captain of militia, and a survivor of some of this country’s earlier wars before his death. Hartwell B. remained with his father until his eighteenth year, but being fired with the ambition to make his own way in life, he started out with that worthy object in view, and located at Haywood County, in the western portion of Tennessee, where he learned the blacksmithing trade. By close application to his duty he soon became an expert, and thereafter followed that occupation for several years. In 1860 he moved to Lawrence County, Ark., and bought a tract of land, the same upon which he now resides. It comprises 120 acres of rich bottom land, and is situated two miles from Portia. He has cleared about sixty acres upon which stands a good double log-house, also an orchard of 200 peach, apple, plum and pear trees, besides smaller fruits. Mr. Farmer enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1862, becoming a member of Col. Shaver’s regiment of infantry, and served until his capture, on December 25, 1863, when he was taken prisoner to Rock Island, and held until near the close of the war. He was paroled June 5, 1865, at Jacksonport, Ark. Mr. Farmer was first married, in 1852, to Miss Martha King, and has one daughter by this wife, Margaret Ann, wife of Hiram Corkins. He was married again, in Tennessee, to Miss Sallie Cook, and has two children by this marriage. Their names are Napoleon P. and Lee Thomas. Afterward he was married a third time to Miss Martha Ogden, a native of Lawrence County, and has had six children by this wife: Delilah P., Jennie B., Blunt H., Sarah E. L., Milton H. and Simon Cleveland. Mr. Farmer and his wife are both members of the Missionary Baptist Church, of which the former is a deacon, and also a member of the Masonic order since 1852. He is a Master Mason, and together with his wife is a member of the Eastern Star, a degree in Masonry. Mr. Farmer also served his county as justice of the peace for ten years, filling that office with a dignity that won for him the highest respect.