Farwell-Myers Family Papers

The Farwell family originated from Essex County, Massachusetts in the 1730s. John Farwell, patriarch of this family collection, was the son of Foster Farwell (1771-1866), the grandson of John Farwell, born 1739, and Mary Pickett, born 1743, and the great-grandson of Samuel Farwell and Mary Foster. John was born August 16, 1800, in New Hampshire and in early youth traveled west to Ohio and settled in Coshocton County, Ohio. There, on August 2, 1832, he married Elizabeth Thompson, born February 7, 1806, in Maryland, daughter of James Thompson (1774-1826) and Margaret Geary (1779-1831). The Thompson family had come to Coshocton County from either Maryland or Virginia before the outbreak of the War of 1812. James and Margaret Thompson had a family of ten children: Elizabeth (1806-1894), who married to John Farwell; Cornelius, born 1808; Lanier (1810-1898), who married James Durbin in 1833; James (1812-1878), who married Martha Dunlap in 1835; Owen (1814-1909), who married Arabella A. Hopper in 1840; Naomi (1816-1826); Samuel, born 1818, who married Elizabeth Avery in 1842; William, born 1820, who married Elizabeth Drake in 1843; Rhoda (1822-1922), who married Elisha Conner in 1848 and Hannah (1824-1917), who married George Neely in 1843.

John and Elizabeth Farwell were the parents of six children all born in Coshocton County: Nancy Farwell (1826-1898), who never married; Rheua Ann Farwell Myers (1834-1917), who married George W. Myers (1831-1911) in 1860; Orville Gurler Farwell (1837-1841); Priscilla Griffin Farwell Taber (1840-1905), who married Orrin Taber (1834-1904) in 1861; Adelphia L. Farwell (1842-1917), who never married and James Orville Farwell (1846-1865) and who died while in the service of the Union Army during the Civil War. John Farwell and family moved to York Township, Fulton County, Ohio, in 1851. John worked as a farmer his entire life and died September 6, 1877, in York Township, Fulton County. His wife died seventeen years later on December 31, 1894, in York Township.

Rheua Ann Farwell married George W. Myers on December 31, 1860, in Napoleon, Henry County, Ohio. George was born at Massillon, Stark County, Ohio, on April 30, 1831. His parents were Henry Myers, born in 1800 in Pennsylvania and who died August 19, 1854, in York Township, Fulton County, and Elizabeth Rogers, born April 30, 1804, in Pennsylvania and who died April 14, 1868, in York Township, Fulton County. George bought a 115 acre farm after his marriage, which was completely covered in timber. He set to work clearing the land and constructed a ten room brick house on the property; hauling the bricks from Napoleon. George served in Company A, 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War and afterwards served as a justice of the peace in York Township. George and Rheua had three children: Estella B, who died at the age of four; Nettie B. (1866-1943), who married Charles A. Fields (1863-1948) and May (1871-1948), who married Fred E. Skeels (1870-1959). George died on February 17, 1911, and Rheua died on December 18, 1917.

Lorenzo John Myers (1847-1928) was the grandson of Henry and Elizabeth Rogers Myers. He was born January 30, 1847, near Custer, Wood County, Ohio. His parents died shortly after he was born and Lorenzo lived with his grandparents and later with his uncle George Myers. He enlisted June 3, 1862, in Hoffman's Battalion, later Company A, 128th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and guarded Confederate prisoners at Johnson's Island throughout the Civil War. He was promoted to a Corporal on June 15, 1865, and was mustered out of service on July 13, 1865. After the war he worked in the oil fields in Wood County, for six years and owned and operated a drug store in Cygnet, Wood County, before relocating to Gladwin County, Michigan. Lorenzo married Laura Beatty on October 29, 1875, and raised two daughters into maturity Helen Shaffer Wentworth and Anna Leona Disel.