Harriet Sarah Wildey and Archibald Farr

Harriet Sarah2 Wildey (Thomas1 Wildey) was born in Faversham, Kent, England on 19 August 1831 and was baptized in the Church of England on 9 September at St. Mary's. [1]

Harriet married Archibald Farr in 1850, according to her obituary. [2] The marriage must have occurred later in the year, for on 26 August she was enumerated as Harriet S. Wildey with her father's household in Rome, Oneida Co. [3] Archibald was born 4 April 1831 in Rome, the son of Jason Farr and Elizabeth Whaley. [4]

Harriet and her husband resided with the Wildey family for many years. Harriet, Archibald (employed as a boatman), and their daughter Charlotte were living at the Wildey home in 1855. [5] They were still there in 1860, joined by a son, Archibald. Archibald senior continued to work on the canals as a boatman. [6]

The 1860 census, in fact, holds the only reference found to young Archibald. The 1865 NY census for Rome is no longer extant, and he does not appear with the Farr family in the 1870 census, indicating that he had likely died by then. [7] The death of their only son may be the reason Harriet and Archibald chose to adopt her brother Edward Wildey's son Frank after Edward's wife Victoria died in 1865. The Farrs did not adopt any of Edward's four daughters, however. In Archibald's will, drafted on 11 January 1869, he leaves "to my adopted son Francis Edward Farr, son of Edward Wildey, five hundred dollars, to be paid to him by the executrix of this will when he becomes of the age of twenty-one years." [8] Archibald made no mention of his daughter Charlotte, presumably assured that Harriet would see to her welfare. He made certain, however, that his adopted son would have a generous sum of money with which to start life after his father's death. It was common in those days to take in orphaned relatives; it was not as common to adopt them as one's own. Little Frank, at most a year old when adopted by the Farrs, may well have filled a great gulf in Archibald's heart created by the death of his little namesake.

He later ran a mill and grocery four miles north of Rome on the Black River Canal. [9] The 1870 census gave his occupation as miller. He seems to have prospered, as he held real estate valued at $2100 and personal property worth $1100. [10] He worked at this occupation for 18 years, and in 1881 made another occupational switch, purchasing the Mansion House on E. Whitesboro in Rome. The Mansion House was a hotel located near the Erie and Black River Canals, and the New York Central Railroad ran nearby as well. This prime location made it a popular stop for people travelling on the canal. He ran the hotel for 11 years, leasing it out c. 1891 and moving to a farm, where he died three years later. [11] He was 63 at the time of his death from valvular disease of the heart and was buried in Rome Cemetery. [12]

Harriet lived another 18 years, dying of myocarditis at the age of 80 years on 29 July 1912. She had been in failing health for several years and was living with their daughter Charlotte at the Mansion House, where Lottie's husband was now proprietor. She too was buried in Rome Cemetery. She was a parishioner at Zion Episcopal Church and was described in her obituary as "a woman of many excellent traits of character." [13]

Harriet S. Wildey and Archibald Farr had the following children:

16 i. Charlotte Amelia Farr was born on 24 May 1852 in Rome, Oneida Co. NY. [14]
17 ii. Archibald Farr was born c. 1858 in Rome, Oneida Co. NY. He does not appear in the 1870 census. [15]
+ 9 v. Francis Edward Farr (formerly Wildey) was born 26 October 1864 in Rome, Oneida Co. NY. [16]

Return to Once Wildey: A Farr Genealogy


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