Clarence E. Farnsworth

CLARENCE E. FARNSWORTH, a well known merchant and business man of Hoisington, is a native of Butler County, Kansas, and though the family did not become identified with this state until about thirty years ago, his father saw active service with one of the noted Kansas regiments during the Civil war.

His father was the late George W. Farnsworth, who was born in Ohio in 1836. When he was a child his parents moved to Appanoose County, Iowa, where he grew up on a farm and where he received a liberal education. As a young man he taught school in Iowa. During the early '60s he was in Kansas, and here enlisted in the Sixth Kansas Cavalry. With that regiment he saw much of the border warfare and his individual record is largely a part of the regimental record which is given on other pages of this publication. He was in Lawrence a few hours after it was burned by Quantrill's guerrillas August 21, 1863. At the close of the war he received his honorable discharge as a non-commissioned officer of Captain Harvey's Company. He was never wounded or captured, but his life was shortened by pleurisy contracted during his service.

After the war he went back to Iowa, but subsequently became a merchant in Missouri. On moving to Kansas in the early '80s he settled eight miles east of Douglas in the old Numa postoffice locality. He became a farmer there and worked his land quietly and industriously until his death in 1903. He was a democrat in politics and later joined the people's party. He was an active member of the Christian Church. After the war George W. Farnsworth married in Appanoose County, Iowa, Miss Martha E. Fisher. She was also born in Ohio, and was a well qualified and competent teacher in Iowa for several years. She is still living at Douglas, Kansas, at the age of seventy-six. Her children were as follows: Lena, wife of M. P. Babb, of Wichita, Kansas; Grace, widow of George Clark, of Douglas, Kansas; David, a baker and confectioner of Douglas; Howard, in the street railway service at Rochester, New York; Elizabeth, of Douglas; Lucy, widow of Rufus Goley, of Douglas; Lottie, wife of Homer Bare, a farmer near Douglas; Oscar, a grocery merchant at Douglas; and Clarence E.

Clarence E. Farnsworth was born on his father's farm near Douglas, Kansas, January 26, 1886. He remained on the farm to the age of sixteen, and in that time acquired a common school education. He left the Douglas High School after his father's death and started life on his own account. For eighteen months he was clerk in P. E. Holmes' drug store at Douglas, and spent another two years in the drug business of Roy Bertholf at Cherokee, Kansas. During this time he acquired much practical knowledge of the drug business and pharmacy, and to qualify for that profession he entered Highland Park College at Des Moines, Iowa. After finishing his course he was examined and granted a license by the State Board of Pharmacy in Kansas, and was first employed as a pharmacist by Rath & Baimbridge at Dodge City, Kansas.

Mr. Farnsworth first became connected with the Hoisington locality in January, 1907, as manager for Joseph Bailey and Doctor Koch, the business being known as the Farnsworth Drug Company. After a little more than four years Mr. Farnsworth left Hoisington and went to the Pacific Coast. At that time he had become somewhat dissatisfied with pharmacy and was seeking opportunities in other lines. Finally he became convinced that his old profession and business had more promise in it for him than anything else. Returning to Kansas, he remained a brief time at Independence, then spent a year at Parsons as pharmacist for Holmes & Son, and then returned to Hoisington to resume his old place with the Farnsworth Drug Company, and in a few months bought the interests of Mr. Bailey in that concern.

While his business is an exacting one that requires nearly all his time, Mr. Farnsworth has served as a member of the Board of Education in Hoisington one term, and for one term was secretary of the Commercial Club. He is unmarried. He is past master of his Masonic Lodge and has represented it in the Grand Lodge several times, is affiliated with Wichita Consistory No. 2 of the Scottish Rite, with Una Chapter of the Eastern Star at Hoisington, and with Isis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Salina. He is also a member of the Elks at Great Bend. Mr. Farnsworth is a democrat in national politics but independent locally, and is a member of the Christian Church.

Pages 2363-2364.