Some Recollections of John V. Farwell: A Brief Description of His Early Life and Business Reminiscences
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John Villiers Farwell, Sr. was an American merchant and philanthropist from New York City.
Background
John V. Farwell, Sr. was born on July 29, 1825, in Mead's Creek, New York, the son of Henry Farwell and Nancy Jackson. Later the family moved to a farm near Big Flats in Chemung County, and when John was thirteen years old, they emigrated in a covered wagon to a squatter’s homestead about a hundred miles southwest of Chicago, in Ogle County, Illinois.
Education
Farwell, Sr. attended Mount Morris Seminary and graduated in 1844.
Career
Then Farwell, Sr. determined to go to Chicago to follow a commercial life. He worked his way into town on a load of wheat, with $3. 45 in his pocket. He had acquired the elements of bookkeeping at the seminary but his first employment was in the office of his uncle, the county clerk. Besides his duties as clerk, for which he received twelve dollars a month, he reported the proceedings of the City Council for a weekly newspaper. These reports seem to have been altogether too literal, with resulting embarrassment to the council. As one chronicler put it, "what was fun to the town was mortification to the Councilmen. "
Farwell, Sr. next took employment as salesman and bookkeeper with a dry-goods firm at eight dollars a month, remaining in this position one year, then became a clerk for Hamlin & Day, a similar firm, at $250 a year.
After four years without increase of salary, he transferred his services in 1849 to Wadsworth & Phelps, a wholesale dry-goods house, at a yearly stipend of $600. This was the beginning of success ; he remained with the firm as salesman and partner until, by a succession of changes in personnel, it became John V. Farwell & Company.
In 1851 Farwell, Sr. was admitted to partnership in the firm, which had become Cooley, Wadsworth & Company. Wadsworth retired in 1862 and the firm was reorganized as Cooley, Farwell & Company, the "company" being young Marshall Field, who had come to Chicago in 1856 and had been employed as a clerk by Cooley, Wadsworth & Company. When Cooley retired in 1864, the name of the organization became Farwell, Field & Company, and Levi Z. Leiter and S. N. Kellogg were admitted to partnership. This arrangement had continued but a single year when opportunity knocked at the door of Field and Leiter in the form of an offer from Potter Palmer to take over his retail dry-goods business in Chicago.
With their departure from the firm, Farwell, Sr. brought in his two brothers W. D. and Charles B. Farwell, in 1865, to form the firm of John V. Farwell & Company, of which he remained president until his death.
Farwell, Sr. had foreseen the commercial destiny of Chicago and had boldly expanded his business in anticipation of an enlarged market.
In 1851 the firm had sales of $100, 000 a year; by 1868 sales were ten millions. The new store was burned in 1870 and no sooner was it rebuilt than it was again destroyed by the Great Fire of 1871, but Farwell, Sr. rebuilt on a yet larger scale, with unwavering. faith in the future growth of the city. This faith was rewarded by the amassing of a very considerable fortune. John V. Farwell & Company remained the leading wholesale drygoods firm in Chicago until displaced from that position by Marshall Field & Company.
Farwell, Sr. also was a leader in several Christian philanthropic efforts including the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), the United States Christian Commission during the American Civil War, and was a believer and supporter of the evangelical works of Dwight L. Moody. Later, he served as an Indian agent and had large land holdings in Texas. John Farwell, Sr. died on August 20, 1908, at his home in Lake Forest, Illinois, following a six-month illness.
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Politics
John V. Farwell, Sr. participated but slightly in the political life of his community. As presidential elector, he cast his vote for Lincoln, and under Grant’s administration he served as Indian commissioner.
Membership
During the Civil War John Farwell, Sr. was president of the Chicago Branch of the United States Christian Commission, organized to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of the officers and men of the army and navy.
Farwell, Sr. was an early leader in the history of the YMCA, rising to become president of the Chicago chapter.
John Farwell, Sr. was also a member of the Chicago Historical Society and the Union League Club.
Personality
Typical of the pioneer of New England stock, John Farwell, Sr. was enterprising, industrious, and shrewd in business affairs, but dominated in his inner life by a puritanical moral code and a religious fervor.
Connections
In the spring of 1849, John Farwell, Sr. married Abigail Gates Taylor, a former schoolmate, who died in May 1851.
In 1854, Farwell, Sr. married Emeret Cooley, a sister of his partner.