Henry Newton Pharr, Iberia Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Henry Newton Pharr. The Pharrs are a Louisiana family chiefly distinguished perhaps because of their ability in both business and public affairs. In politics their experience and interests have made them members of a minority party, yet they have played a prominent part in influencing legislation and economic development. Henry Newton Pharr, of this family, is a sugar planter and refiner, proprietor of the Orange Grove plantation at Olivier in Iberia Parish. He was born at New Iberia, July 19, 1872. The Pharrs are of Scotch Irish ancestry, and were Colonial settlers in Pennsylvania. Their name in Scotland was spelled Farr. A scholarly member of the family who had considerable knowledge in the Greek language substituted the Greek letter equivalent for the initial F, and thus this branch of the family has for sonic generations, spelled their name Pharr. Mr. Henry Newton Pharr and also his son, John N., are members of the Sons of the American Revolution. His grandfather, Elias Pharr, was a native of North Carolina, and spent the greater part of his active life in Mecklenburg County of that state. He finally moved to Raleigh, Tennessee, where he died. In 1827 he married for his second wife Martha Orr, a native of North Carolina who died in Mecklenburg County. The late John N. Pharr, father of Henry N. Pharr. had a conspicuous part and place in the affairs of Louisiana. He was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, March 19, 1829, and spent a portion of his youth in Mississippi. In 1850, when about twenty years of age, he came to Louisiana and assisted in cultivating and managing for several years the Judge Baker plantation named Fairfax. In the meantime he acquired some timber land and engaged in steam-boating from Morgan City to St. Martin, and had a contract with the government to carry the mail to his steamboat and he also handled practically all the freight on the Teche. His steam-boating interests were continued until the '80s. In the meantime his holdings of swamp lands and timber were increasing, and for several years he was a member of the sawmilling firm of Gall and Pharr at New Iberia. In 1878 he bought the Fairview plantation near Berwick. Louisiana, operating it and also purchasing adjoining properties. At the time of his death he was one of the largest individual land owners in the state. He and F. B. Williams organized the firm of Pharr and Williams Operating lumber mills with headquarters at Patterson. In 1891 he sold his interests to F. B. Williams. As a sugar planter and refiner he had large holdings on Bayou Boeuf, near Morgan City, owned the Sorrel plantation near Jeanerette, and the Orange Grove plantation Olivier. With the assistance of his three sons he operated all these plantations until his death, which occurred at Fairview plantation in November, 1903. The political principle that appealed most to him was that of the protection of American industries. This made him a member of the whig party, but after the Civil war he affiliated with the democrats until the Cleveland administration of 1892-96, when with the majority of other sugar planters of Louisiana he organized what was known as the "Lilly White" republican party in the state. In 1896, as the republican populist candidate for governor, he was given a majority of the popular vote, but was counted out at Baton Rouge. Immediately following this he was a candidate of the republican party for the office of United States senator, but gave his support to the Citizen's League candidate, who came within one vote of election. John N. Pharr served as a soldier of the Confederacy during the war, was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was a Royal Arch Mason. John N. Pharr married Miss Henrietta Clara Andrus, who was born in St. Landry Parish in 1834, and died on the Fairview plantation in January, 1908. The three living sons are: John A., a prominent Louisiana citizen and planter, with home near Berwick; Henry Newton, with home near New Iberia; and Eugene A., with home near Morgan City, all three members of J. N. Pharr & Sons, Ltd. Three other children, Mary Lewis, Martha and Walter Orr, died in infancy. Henry Newton Pharr made good use of the opportunities afforded a son of well to do and highly connected parents, and was educated under private tutors, graduated with the B. A. degree from Centenary College at Jackson, Louisiana, in 1892. and then attended Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, where he received his B. E. degree in 1896. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. His technical education has proved invaluable to him in the management of his business as a planter. He is a member of the southern branch of the Kappa Alpha Greek letter fraternity. After leaving Vanderbilt University he was associated with his father in business, and for two years had charge of the dredge boats digging canals and building drainage plants, this being the initial work on what is known as the Avoca reclamation project, as developed chiefly by his brother E. A. Pharr. During the twenty years since his father's death Mr. Pharr has been vice president of J. N. Pharr and Sons, Ltd. In 1900 he removed to the Orange Grove plantation at Olivier, remodeling the sugar house, and has given much of his personal attention to this property. The plantation when he took charge consisted of 2,500 acres. but since then he has sold to cane growers and tenants about one thousand acres, leaving fifteen hundred acres in this individual plantation. Mr. Pharr for a number of years was a director of the State National Bank of New Iberia, and is former president of the Louisiana-Rio Grande Sugar Company and the Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Company, which at one time owned eight thousand acres and in 1910 on this land built the town of Pharr, Texas. The land has since been subdivided and colonized. Mr. Pharr still has some interests in that vicinity. He - served as president of the Pharr Townsite Company. Mr. Pharr is president of the Loisel Sugar Company of Jeannerette, Louisiana, formerly known as the Pharr and Bussey firm; is president of the Loreauville Sugar Company, organized in 1923. Mr. Pharr is personally interested in the operation of three different sugar houses in Iberia Parish. Mr. Pharr from early manhood has been normally identified with the republican party in its economic attitude, though more recently he has decided to support the democratic party ticket in local and state matters. In 1904 he was candidate for Congress and in 1908 candidate for governor on the republican ticket. He is a member of the Iberia Parish School Board, is president of the Board of Stewards of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and superintendent of the Sunday School, and fraternally is affiliated with Aurora Lodge No. 193, Free and Accepted Masons, Girard Hope Chapter No. 33, Royal Arch Masons, and Calvary Commandery No. 15, Knights Templar, all of New Iberia, having held next to the highest office in the Commandery at the time it received its charter. He has also taken fourteen degrees in Scottish Rite Masonry. As a prominent business man and citizen he rendered many services during the World war period, serving on Red Cross and Liberty Loan committees, as a member of the Board of Fuel administration of Iberia Parish, and in other ways. Mr. Pharr married at Jackson, Louisiana, January 26, 1898, Miss Anna J. Smith, daughter of Courtland B. and Mary E. (Smith) Smith, Her father was sheriff of West Feliciana Parish at the time of his death. Mrs. Pharr is a graduate of West Feliciana Institute of Jackson. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Pharr are John N. and Anna Jane, the latter a student in the New Iberia High School. John N. graduated with the Bachelor of Science degree from Yale University in 1923. During the World war he enlisted in the Aviation Corps, was trained at Princeton University at Fortress Monroe, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, at Carlstrom Fields and at Arcadia, Florida, being in the service one year and commissioned second lieutenant. Since leaving the University he has been his father's assistant in the sugar business. NOTE: The referenced source contains a black and white photograph of the subject with his/her autograph. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 15-16, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.