Preston W. Farrar

Preston W. Farrar
17th Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives
Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives
In office
1847 – March 7, 1850
Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives
In office
1847 – March 7, 1850
Member of the Mississippi Senate
from the Wilkinson County district
In office
1836–1837
Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives
from the Wilkinson County district
In office
1838–1841
Personal details
BornPreston Withers Farrar
1805 or 1806
Lexington, Kentucky, US
Died (aged 44)
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US
RelationsAbram M. Scott (father-in-law)
Alma materTransylvania University

Preston Withers Farrar[1] (1805 or 1806 – March 7, 1850) was an American lawyer and politician. A Whig, he was the Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1848 to his death in 1850.[2][3][4] He also served in both houses of the Mississippi Legislature.[5]

Biography

Farrar was born in 1805 or 1806, in Lexington, Kentucky.[3][6][7] He had a brother, Daniel Foster Farrar (died 1841).[8] He graduated from Transylvania University.[3][7] Farrar moved to the state of Mississippi in 1827, where he began practicing law in Woodville.[3][7] In March 1833, he married Eliza Scott, the only daughter of Mississippi Governor Abram M. Scott.[7][9] In 1837, following Abram's death, he and Eliza took control over half of his plantation and enslaved people in Rapides Parish, Louisiana.[9] In 1838, they mortgaged the property and 43 enslaved people to obtain a loan of $29,000, which Farrar then used to pay off a $24,443 debt he owed to a New Orleans firm.[9] When the Farrars could not repay a majority of the $29,000 loan the bank threatened to foreclose on the plantation property.[9]

Farrar was a member of the Whig Party.[2] In the 1836 and 1837 sessions, Farrar represented Wilkinson County in the Mississippi House of Representatives.[5] He represented the same county in the Mississippi State Senate from 1838 to 1841.[10] In 1839, Farrar experienced bank losses and moved to New Orleans, Louisiana.[7]

In 1847, Farrar served on the first board of the University of Louisiana.[11] In 1847, he served as Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives.[2][12] He was again elected Speaker for the 1848 session, and the 1850 session,[2] during the latter of which the state capital moved from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.[12]

Farrar died on March 7, 1850, aged 44, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.[13][14]

References

  1. ↑ Stafford, George Mason Graham (1943). General Leroy Augustus Stafford: His Forebears and Descendants. Pelican Publishing Company. pp. 437–438.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Goodspeed, Weston Arthur (June 7, 1904). "Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Indian territory". Weston historical association – via Google Books.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Stryker's American Register and Magazine. W.M. Morrison. 1850. p. 452.
  4. ↑ Shields, Joseph Dunbar (June 7, 1883). "The Life and Times of Seargent Smith Prentiss". J.B. Lippincott – via Google Books.
  5. 1 2 Lowry, Robert; McCardle, William H. (June 7, 1891). A History of Mississippi: From the Discovery of the Great River by Hernando DeSoto, Including the Earliest Settlement Made by the French Under Iberville, to the Death of Jefferson Davis. AMS Press. ISBN 9780404046101 – via Google Books. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  6. ↑ Society, Kentucky Historical (1943). Register of Kentucky State Historical Society. Kentucky State Historical Society. p. 149.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Farrar, Preston Wither, Obituary, New Orleans Weekly; March 11, 1850". New Orleans Weekly Delta. March 11, 1850. p. 5. Retrieved June 17, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Daniel Foster Farra, Brother of Preston W Farrar Dies in KY". The Times-Picayune. September 25, 1841. p. 2. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Ann, Sharon (April 5, 2023). Banking on Slavery: Financing Southern Expansion in the Antebellum United States. University of Chicago Press. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-226-82460-4.
  10. ↑ Rowland, Dunbar (1904). The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi. Department of Archives and History. p. 162.
  11. ↑ Education, United States Office of (June 7, 1898). "Contributions to American Educational History" – via Google Books.
  12. 1 2 Fortier, Alcée (June 7, 1914). "Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form". Century Historical Association – via Google Books.
  13. ↑ Senate, Louisiana Legislature (June 7, 1876). "Official Journal of the Proceedings of the Senate of the State of Louisiana, ..." – via Google Books.
  14. ↑ Hough, Franklin Benjamin (1875). American Biographical Notes: Being Short Notices of Deceased Persons, Chiefly Those Not Included in Allen's Or in Drake's Biographical Dictionaries. J. Munsell. p. 136.
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