Biography of C. J. Farmer

	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1898. Page 301.

	Scan and OCR by Joy Fisher, 1997. This file may be copied for non-profit 
	purposes. All other rights reserved. 




C. J. FARMER, junior member of the law firm of Farmer & Farmer, of 
Howard, is one of Miner county's best known and most successful 
attorneys. Mr. Farmer, who was born July 29, 1864, at Ashtabula, Ohio, 
is a son of Judge John Q. Farmer, of Spring Valley, Minnesota, one of 
the noted men of that state. Judge Farmer was born in Vermont, August 8, 
1823. He educated himself, and commenced practicing law at Ashtabula, 
Ohio. In 1865 he settled in Minnesota, and afterward became one of its 
most prominent men, having served in both houses of the legislature and 
for thirteen years was judge of the tenth judicial district of 
Minnesota. Our subject's mother, whose maiden name was Maria N. 
Carpenter, was a native of Ohio. She died at Spring Valley, Minnesota, 
in 1866. There were three children in the family, George, Carrie who 
died in Ohio, and our subject. The surviving children accompanied their 
parents to Minnesota in 1 865, settling in Spring Valley, where our 
subject attended the high school, from which he graduated in 1885. He 
afterwards entered the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, taking the 
law course. He was graduated in the class of 1887 and was admitted to 
practice in the supreme court of Wisconsin, the United States courts, 
and a short time later to the courts of Minnesota; In the spring of 1 
888 he located at Howard, South Dakota, forming a law partnership with 
his brother, George R., under the firm name of Farmer & Farmer, the 
latter having located here in 1 88 i and platted the town of Howard. Two 
offices are now maintained, one at Madison, in Lake county, South 
Dakota, and the other at Howard, Miner county, South Dakota. George 
manages the Madison office and the Howard office is under the charge of 
C. J. The firm has prospered greatly in the last few years, and now 
controls probably as large a law business as any firm in either Lake or 
Miner county. Our subject is local attorney for the Chicago & St. Paul 
Railroad, besides representing many other large outside interests. Mr. 
Farmer is also the proprietor of a creamery at Howard, having three 
skimming stations and separator plants and producing from four hundred 
to eleven hundred pounds of butter daily. He established the first 
separator creamery in Miner county, and has expended a great deal of 
time and money in building up the dairy business and interesting farmers 
in stock raising in this community. The creamery referred to is supplied 
with all the latest improvements known to the buttermaking trade. Among 
Mr. Farmer's other properties are several farms. He is also a member of 
the firm of Farmer, Radcliff & Seney, lumber merchants, lately 
established at Howard, and a member of the firm of Radcliff & Farmer, 
abstractors, which firm has a complete set of abstracts of Miner county 
Ñ as fine a set of abstracts as there are in the state. Politically Mr. 
- Farmer is a Republican, a stout sound money man, and a fervid 
protectionist, and in 1894  he was elected state's attorney of Miner 
county on this platform, serving two years. Mr. Farmer is a member of 
the following fraternal orders: A. F. & A. M., blue lodge, at Howard; K. 
of P.; Modern Woodmen of America; and the A. O. U. W. On the 30th of 
May, 1888, he married Miss Nellie M. Brass, a native of Spring Valley, 
Minnesota, and a daughter of Norman and Ellen Brass. Her father, who is 
now dead, was one of the pioneers of Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Farmer are 
the parents of three children, Charles Frederick, Howard Norman and 
Paul.