Duval County FlArchives Biographies.....Farris, Ion L. September 14, 1878 - 
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Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 October 23, 2015, 1:33 am

Source: Vol. II  pg.109  The Lewis Publishing Co. 1923
Author: History of Florida, Past and Present

        Hon. ION L. FARRIS. A prominent practitioner of the Jacksonville bar
for many years, Hon. ION L. FARRIS has been a leading figure in public life
during a large portion of that time, and has served for long period as a
legislature in both branches of the State Legislature. His public service has
been of great practical value to his district, his constituents and his state,
and his conscientious fidelity to his duties, together with his proven ability
as a legist and executive, make him a figure of much importance in his
community.
	Senator Farris was born at Savannah, Georgia, September 14, 1878, and 
is a son of OSCAR H. and MARY (DETGENS) FARRIS, natives of Charleston, South 
Carolina. OSCAR H. FARRIS was born in 1847, and during the period of the war 
between the states learned the trade of boiler-making, which he followed for 
some years in his youth. Later he engaged in the general merchandise business 
at Savannah, Georgia, and in 1884 came to Florida and located at Jacksonville. 
One year later he went to Marion County, this state, where he opened a general 
merchandise store and also followed boiler-making, continuing in these lines
until his retirement three years before his death, which occurred in 1912. He
was a democrat in politics and a member of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows. Mrs. Farris, who was born in 1859, died in 1914. In their family there
were three sons and seven daughters, of whom one son died in infancy, the
others still surviving.
	The second in order of birth of his parents’ children, ION L. FARRIS 
received his early education in the public schools of Marion County, Florida, 
and, having decided upon a professional career, read law in the offices of 
HERBERT ANDERSON and W. K. ZEWADSKI. In 1901 he took the examination and was 
admitted to the bar by Judge MINOR S. JONES, immediately thereafter entering 
upon the practice of his calling at Jacksonville, where he now has a large and 
important clientele. He has been on one side or another in many of the most 
important cases that have come recently before the local, state and federal 
courts, and is accounted a valuable associate and formidable opponent, being 
thoroughly at home in all branches of his calling. Senator Farris is a member 
of the Duval County Bar Association, the Florida State Bar Association and the 
American Bar Association, and is a close and careful student. Fraternally he is 
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias,
the Woodmen of the World, the Improved Order of Red Men, and Jacksonville
Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. With his family he belongs to
the First Methodist Episcopal Church.
	A stanch democrat since the attainment of his majority, Senator Farris 
has long been prominent and active in political affairs and public life. He was 
elected representative to the State Legislature from Duval County in 1907, was 
reelected in 1910, in which session he was speaker of the House, and was again 
sent to that body in 1913, when he was again speaker. He was sent to the State 
Senate from the Eighteenth District in 1915, and spent four years in that body. 
Senator Farris was the author of the law that made impossible Negro councilman 
in Jacksonville. For ten years he led the fight, against determined opposition, 
for a new city charter, and for the popular election of city officials, which 
was finally crowned with success in the passage of the present charter, which 
he introduced and had passed through the Senate. As a member of the Senate he 
passed the bill providing for the building of the St. Johns River Bridge. He 
was author of the “Farris Municipal Freedom Act,” enabling municipalities to 
change their forms of government at home. He took an active part in shaping and 
passing all important legislation for ten years for the upbuilding of the 
public school system and institutions of higher learning. He championed good 
roads legislation and worked for the abolition of the convict lease system, 
also actively supported purifying election laws and was the author of the free 
school book bill for poor children. Among the measures for which he voted were: 
Woman’s suffrage, mothers’ pensions, increased compensation for school
teachers, the budget system, lower taxes and more equal distribution of the tax
burden and numerous other beneficial laws. His record is a clean and
constructive one that invites examination and comparison.
	On January 30, 1901, Senator Farris married ALLIE LIDDELL, who was born 
near Memphis, Tennessee, and they have three children: ION L., Jr., JAMES 
LIDDELL and LAWRENCE BRYAN.

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