Benjamin O’Fallon Farrar, 1825–1878

Benjamin O’Fallon Farrar was born on 1 November 1825 in St. Louis, the second son of Dr. Bernard Gaines Farrar and Ann Clark Thruston. He graduated from St. Louis University in 1844 and then studied constitutional law at St. Louis University. Benjamin was a lawyer and was the U.S. sub-treasurer in St. Louis for eight years under the Lincoln administration.

Benjamin and Ann Caroline Kennett were married on 24 December 1849 in St. Louis. Ann, daughter of Luther Martin Kennett and Martha Ann Eliza Boyce, was born on 16 August 1833 in Farmington, St. Francois County, Missouri. Benjamin and Ann Farrar lived at 4021 Washington Boulevard in what is now the Central West End. She died on 9 August 1912 at the age of seventy-eight in Arcadia, Iron County, Missouri. She too left a will, leaving the bulk of her estate to her four living children. Her daughter, Agnes (Kennett) Potter, was to occupy their St. Louis home until she was thirty, and then it was to be sold. She also left an annuity of $300 to her servant, Beecher, “because of his faithful attention to duty.”

Benjamin died in St. Louis from the heat on 14 July 1878 at the age of fifty-two. He was out taking a walk on Chestnut Street when he was stricken by heat stroke and died. Benjamin left a will, dated 24 June 1878, in which he left his entire estate to his wife, Anna Kennett Farrar, “knowing full well that she will provide with equal justice for all my children.” His estate was probated on 22 July 1878 with his wife, Anna, and Samuel Simmons, a friend, as executors. He “was a financial agent for Eastern capitalists, and handled large sums of money.”

Benjamin O’Fallon Farrar and Ann Caroline Kennett had the following children: Lucy Ann Devon (who died as an infant), Lucy Ann, Bernard Gaines “B. G.” II, Luther Kennett, Martha Sweringen “Minnie,” John Royal, Agnes Kennett, Franklin Dick, Coburn Kennett, and Col. Henry Blow Farrar.

Written by Ted Steele
February 2021

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Last Modified: 02-Nov-2021 16:01