1883 Obituary of Judge William Wood Farmer, a native of Union Parish Louisiana Captain of the "Confederate Warriors", Company H, 31st Regiment Louisiana Infantry Submitted for the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by T. D. Hudson, 8/2001 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ ================================================================================== ================================================================================= Judge William Wood Farmer, a native of Union Parish Louisiana ================================================================================== ================================================================================== Brief Biography of William Wood Farmer: William Wood Farmer was the son of Lt. Governor William Wood Farmer, who died in October 1854, and grandson of Mills Farmer. The Farmer family settled in what is now southern Union Parish, near Downsville, in 1811 or 1812. They were all well-educated, and many went into public service for their careers. Judge Farmer was born "Williams Mills Farmer" on 29 March 1840 in Union Parish. His father died in 1854 while serving as the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. To honor his father's memory, the younger man changed his name to "William Wood Farmer" in 1861. Farmer graduated from college in 1858 and thereafter studied law in Monroe. By 1860, his occupation was listed as "Law Student", but on 14 May 1862, Farmer called himself "Attorney at Law." He joined the Confederate Army in April 1861 at New Orleans, and served through February 1862. With his original unit disbanded, Farmer returned home and enlisted in the "Confederate Warriors", a military unit formed in Union Parish. This unit became Company H, 31st Regiment Louisiana Infantry, and the men elected Wood as their captain at the young age of only twenty-two years. He served throughout the war, present at all times for which we have records. He was paroled at Vicksburg, rejoined his command, and then was paroled at the end of the war on 12 June 1865. ================================================================================== ================================================================================== ================================================================================== ================================================================================== The Monroe Bulletin Wednesday, 18 Apr 1883, page 3, column 1 ================================================================================== ================================================================================== "Judge Farmer's funeral took place Sunday evening at 4 o'clock from Grace Episcopal Church to the Monroe Cemetery. The church was filled with friends. Rev. Mr. Prosser officiated. The pall bearers were L.D. McLain, Dr. T.O. Brewer, W.G. Kennedy, Dr. T.Y. Aby, F.Y. Dabney, W.T. Atkins. The floral tribute was beautiful and plentiful." ================================================================================== ================================================================================== The Monroe Bulletin Wednesday, 18 April 1883, page 3, column 2 ================================================================================== ================================================================================== "JUDGE W. W. FARMER. Judge William Wood Farmer died at his residence in Monroe, at 3 o'clock a.m., last Saturday, the 14th of April. Life's fitful fever is over at the early age of 43 years and 15 days. Judge Farmer was the only son of ex-Gov. Farmer, and was born in Union parish on the 29th of March, 1840. He graduated at Centenary College in 1858 with first honors. He read law with Morrison & Purvis and was licensed by the Law College of New Orleans in 1861. The war found him an ardent sympathizer with the South, and he joined Dreux's battalion and served the first term of his enlistment as a private. In 1862 he was chosen captain of a company that became a part of Morrison's regiment. He was engaged in all the battles preceding the investment of Vicksburg and was among the prisoners of that memorable surrender. He formed a law partnership with Col. C.H. Morrison in 1865 and continued it with great success until Morrison died and his health failed in 1875. He was a member of (t)he lower House of the State Legislature in 1880 and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. He was chosen by that assembly Judge of the Second Circuit and resigned. In 1881 he gave up the judgeship and resumed the practice of the law. Judge Farmer's mind was large, his perception quick and his reasoning bordered upon intuition. There was no plodding - a case stated was covered by an opinion. His reading was extensive, his memory tenacious and the collation of the authorities was all that was necessary to confirm his conclusion. He was honest and had a supreme contempt for Quirk, Gammon & Snap practice. Whenever a client had a case to make he found in Farmer a lawyer unremitting in his exertions to secure his rights. He never made an effort to mislead a court by suppressing evidence, garbling authorities or toadying his views to judges in private. He rested upon the law and the evidence as they were written and his urged them with a force that every adversary dreaded. As Judge of the Second Circuit he was laborious beyond his strength. He heard argument patiently, examined evidence closely, read authorities carefully and decided conscientiously. We have it from him that he made no law while in the ermine; that he was merely its interpreter, no matter at times of its distastefulness. Judge Farmer never married, and a name that will ever be remembered in Louisiana with honor is now extinct. His nearest relation is Farmer Morrison, a nephew and an orphan, a lad of eight years. "Gone forever! Such men always die too young; but their example lives after them, and so molds and shapes coming events that the order of affairs is tending ever to a higher and a more just public control, is carving a pathway through the darkness of the past to a brighter, more hopeful and peaceful future. In losing him the State has lost an able defender, and good men an admirer, and ourself one of the best of friends and the safest of advisers." ================================================================================== ================================================================================== #######################################################################