John Farmer was born in Halfmoon, Saratoga County, New York, the son of John and Catharine Jacokes (Stoutcnburgh) Farmer.
While employed by a surveyor named Risdon in connection with a map of Michigan, Farmer took out for himself, and as soon as he was old enough assisted his father both on the farm and in the lumber business.
Education
He received his education in schools in and about Albany, New York, and for a time taught in a Lancastrian school in Albany. After his father’s death, in the fall of 1837, he went to Andover, Massachusetts, entered the famous preparatory school there, and two years later was admitted to the freshman class of Dartmouth College. Here he made rapid progress and was a diligent student, and to augment his limited finances did considerable teaching of piano. This crowding of activities was more than his constitution could stand and he became seriously ill with typhoid fever which left him in such a delicate condition that he was compelled to give up his college work before its completion.
Career
By invitation of Governor Cass and the trustees of the University of Michigan, Farmer went to Detroit from Albany in 1821 to take charge of one of the university schools; but about two years later he resigned his position and went to Ohio. Returning to Detroit in 1825, he engaged in surveying and map making. His first map was of the United States government road which had recently been built from Detroit to the Maumee River. While employed by a surveyor named Risdon in connection with a map of Michigan, Farmer took out for himself, and as soon as he was old enough assisted his father both on the farm and in the lumber business.
About the only thing available in the way of work for him, in view of his physical condition, was schoolteaching. While waiting for possible positions in this field, he spent part of the year of 1842 in the office of a civil engineer in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but in the succeeding winter became assistant in a private school in that city. After completing the winter term there, he next accepted the preceptorship of Eliot Academy, Eliot, Maine, and went there in the spring of 1843. In 1844 he became the principal of the Belknap School for Girls, in Dover, New Hampshire, and later, of another school in the same city. Besides teaching, he tuned pianos, played the church organ, and was deeply interested in mathematics. As a result of his meeting with a window shade manufacturer of Dover, Farmer, presumably to satisfy his own ideas, devised a machine on which to print shades made of paper as a substitute for linen. Since paper shades could be sold at one- fourth the price of linen, this venture was successful, and in 1845 over 40, 000 shades were printed and sold. At about this time Morse and Vail were bringing electricity to the attention of the world through the electro-magnetic telegraph. Farmer was one of those especially attracted to the study of the new power; in fact, he became so enthusiastic that both school-teaching and curtain manufacture lost their charm for hint. He began delving into the subject in 1845 and undertook as his first experiment nothing less than an electric railroad. With money earned from curtain manufacture and with the help of his brother, John, he constructed a miniature in August 1825, three copyrights covering maps of Michigan on scales of eight, eighteen, and thirty miles to the inch. The first of these, which was the only one of the group to be published, appeared in 1826 and was followed within the next ten years by several other maps of the territory. Of the latter, the map of 1830, which was accompanied by a small gazetteer, was especially notable, while that of 1835 was the first map which Farmer engraved with his own hand. All of these maps had a wide sale throughout the East and were greatly influential in promoting the extensive immigration into Michigan that took place between 1823 and 1840. In addition to the maps just described Farmer published several editions of a map of Wisconsin and in 1831 drew for Congress a map of Detroit which was later published in the American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. VI, and even to-day is regarded as the only legal authority and guide to surveys in the older portions of the city. In January r83S he issued the first map of Detroit on which the size and correct outline of the several lots were shown. Shortly after the publication of this last work Farmer sold his copyrights to a New York map house and entered upon a period of public service during which he held the positions of county surveyor and city treasurer as well as numerous minor offices. In 1844, he again actively engaged in map making, producing a new map of Michigan. This was followed by other maps of this same state, of Wisconsin, Lake Superior, and the Mineral Region. but the crowning achievement of his career was a large map of Michigan and Wisconsin, size 68 x 72 inches, which appeared in 1859. The hard work attendant upon the drawing and engraving of this map brought on a nervous disease from which he never recovered, his death occurring on March 24, 1859.
Achievements
Interests
From the time he left college and started teaching, Farmer had shown in a variety of ways his innate ingenuity and an intense interest in mechanics and natural philosophy. Besides teaching, he tuned pianos, played the church organ, and was deeply interested in mathematics.
Connections
He was survived by his wife, Roxana Hamilton, whom he had married on April 5, 1826, and by three children.