Background
Ferdinand Farmer was the son of a Swabian family by the name of Steinmeyer. He adopted the name of Farmer after coming to the United States.
Ferdinand Farmer was the son of a Swabian family by the name of Steinmeyer. He adopted the name of Farmer after coming to the United States.
His family lived in comfortable circumstances, and his studious habits as a boy early marked him for one of the learned professions. His first inclination was toward medicine and he had given three years to courses in the science of healing when, in 1743, the urge to heal souls as well as bodies caused him to enroll himself among the followers of Loyola at Landsberg.
He arrived at Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1752 and served the mission there for six years. He was then transferred to the German parish of St. Joseph in Philadelphia. That his duties were not those of an assistant in the city church of to-day may be comprehended when it is borne in mind that at this time the whole city of New York was part of St. Joseph’s parish in Philadelphia. While first Father Theodore Schneider, the founder of the original German-Catholic congregation in Philadelphia, and later Father Robert Harding attended to the spiritual needs of the Catholics in and near that city, Father Farmer was “on the road” almost continuously. In 1778, after the capture of Philadelphia, an effort was made by the British to create a regiment of Roman-Catholic volunteers, and much was hoped for the project in Philadelphia if Father Farmer could be induced to become the chaplain. He steadily refused to accept the position and in a letter to a priest in London declared that the offer had embarrassed him on account of his age “and for several other reasons. ” Five years later his name led all those attached to an address presented to Washington by “the Clergy, Gentlemen of the Law and Physicians of the city of Philadelphia. ” He seems to have borne the rigors of his missionary journeys extremely well and was seldom sick. He was one of the first trustees of the University of the State of Pennsylvania, when it was chartered in 1779, a member of the American Philosophical Society, and an astronomer and mathematician who made time to correspond with various learned societies in Europe. He was popular with all classes; his funeral was attended by all the Protestant clergymen of Philadelphia as well as by the trustees of the University and delegations from a number of public bodies.
He was eager for foreign missionary service and hoped to be sent to China, but need of a Germanspeaking priest among the widely scattered Catholic settlers of Pennsylvania and New Jersey caused his superiors to send him to America.
He was one of the first trustees of the University of the State of Pennsylvania and a member of the American Philosophical Society.
“He was, ” says an old pamphlet of the times, “of a slender form, having a countenance mild, gentle and bearing an expression almost seraphic” (Researches, July 1890).