Solano County CA Archives Biographies.....Farmer, John W. 1820 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 31, 2007, 7:53 pm

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891)

JOHN W. FARMER, the pioneer of the cheese-making interest in California, has
been a resident of this State since June, 1855. Born in Cayuga County, New York,
near the city of Syracuse in 1820, he early engaged in the dairy business as
well as in buying butter and cheese for the New York and Boston markets, and
continued in that vocation until he came West. On his arrival here there was but
one dairy ranch in Solano County, and there butter was the only product.
Purchasing a ranch of 800 acres three miles from Vallejo, he began to establish
a dairy for the purpose of making cheese also. Soon afterward he sold 450 acres,
at the price he gave for it, $13 an acre, and finally the remainder of the land
became so valuable that it was sold, also at $100 an acre. He then bought
another ranch, 550 acres, about six miles from Vallejo, then in Solano County,
but now in Napa County, and on that place he followed dairying until about a
year ago, devoting his attention principally to the manufacture of a fine grade
of cheese; he had the reputation of making the finest cheese in California.
While other cheese was selling at twelve and a half cents a pound he received no
less than twenty-five cents a pound. For a number of years he also managed the
ranches and dairies of General Frisbie, and later of the Vallejo Land and
Improvement Company, but for the last few years he has been retired from active
business. He has been a member of the Masonic order for the past forty-eight
years, being now the oldest Freemason in Solano County, a member of Naval Lodge,
No. 87, of Vallejo, also of the Eastern Star Chapter. He has a charming home and
family circle, and is now enjoying the rest which he has so well earned in his
long life of labor and enterprise.

  His parents were Josiah and Nancy (Eldridge) Farmer, and as a boy he was
raised in the same part of New York State where the great leaders of Mormonisn
[sic] were brought up. He was a play-mate of Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, Mr.
Clausen and Mr. Hooper. Mr. Farmer's cousin, H. S. Eldridge, was one of the most
prominent of them and was in charge of the co-operative store at Salt Lake City,
and was also president of the Salt Lake City and Ogden banks; he owned a third
of the co-operative store and was also its manager.

  In 1837 Mr. Farmer married Miss Phoebe Farmer, and they had five children, of
whom three are now living, in California, namely: Winfield Scott, now engaged in
the cattle business in Solano County; Hiram Milo, now an engineer for the
Southern Pacific Railroad Company; and Emma, now the wife of J. C. Rounds, of
Vallejo. One son, Coburn, died in 1880, and a daughter, Mrs. Ella Rounds, died
in 1873. Mrs. Farmer died in 1884, and in 1886 Mr. Farmer married Mrs. Mary
Ballard, a native of Pennsylvania.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.


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