Charles B. Farwell

American politician

Charles Benjamin Farwell (July 1, 1823 – September 23, 1903) His younger siblings included John Villiers Farwell, Simeon Farwell, and Louise Farwell (mother in law of Katherine Philips Edson and grandmother of Charles Farwell Edson, Jr.). He attended Elmira Academy before moving to Illinois in 1838. That he was able to amass a sizeable fortune can be proven by the fact that he owned a mansion on Chicago's North Side.

Elected to the U. S. House of Representatives four times beginning in 1870, winning his first election to the House by a healthy margin over Chicago's "Long" John Wentworth (by some 5700 votes). Farwell went on to serve in the House of Representatives in the 42nd, 43rd, 44th and 47th Congresses. In 1876, the Democrat controlled Congress accepted John V. Le Moyne's challenge to Farwell's election and removed Farwell from office; Farwell declined to run again at the time of the general election later on in 1876. In 1880, he was elected to another term in Congress (the 47th Congress). Upon the death of John A. Logan in 1887, Farwell was elected to serve out Logan's term in the U. S. Senate, but refused to run for re election to a full term. Significantly, in Farwell's first term as Senator, he supported the introduction of an amendment to the U. S. Constitution that would have granted women's suffrage rights (the right to vote) simultaneously a landmark achievement of and a setback in the long struggle for voting rights for women that would not be overcome until the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920.

In 1852, Farwell was married to Mary Eveline Smith, a New Englander who received a private education. Together, they were the parents of nine children, only four of whom lived to adulthood:

Charles Farwell (1853–1853), who died young. Mary N. Farwell (1854–1861), who died young. Henry Farwell (1856–1861), who died young. Edward Farwell (1858–1864), who died young. Anna Farwell (1860–1953), who married composer Reginald de Koven. Walter C. Farwell (1863–1943), who married Mildred Mary Williams, a daughter of Gen. Robert Williams. Grace Farwell (1868–1949), who married Dudley Winston, a son of U. S. Minister Frederick Hampden Winston in 1888. After his death, she married Robert Greaves McGann (1867–1953) in 1906. Robert Farwell (1870–1872), who died young. Rose Farwell (1870–1918), who married author Hobart Chatfield Taylor. Rose founded the Onwentsia Club one her father's estate. After a long illness, Farwell died in Lake Forest, Illinois on September 23, 1903. He was buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago. His daughter Rose inherited his estate, Fairlawn, at 965 E. Deerpath in Lake Forest. Upon her death in 1918, his other daughter Grace inherited the mansion, and when it burned in 1920, the McGanns hired New York architects Delano and Aldrich to rebuild it in a Federal style with neo Palladian brick and was finished in 1923 with original landscape was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

Through his daughter Anna, he was a grandfather of Ethel Leroy De Koven (1885–1943), who married broker Hans Kierstede Hudson. Through his daughter Grace, he was a grandfather of Grace Farwell McGann (1907–1949), who married James H. Douglas Jr., the Secretary of the Air Force and the Deputy Secretary of Defense (his father helped found the Quaker Oats Company). Through his youngest daughter Rose, he was a grandfather of four: Adelaide Chatfield Taylor (1891–1982), who was awarded a Croix de Guerre for her work running a canteen in Boston during World War II, (grandmother of politician and businesswoman Meg Whitman); Wayne Chatfield Taylor (1893–1967), who served as Under Secretary of Commerce and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt; and Otis Chatfield Taylor (1899–1948), a writer, playwright, editor, theatrical producer; and Robert Farwell Chatfield Taylor (1908–1980).

In 1876, at his wife's urging, Farwell underwrote the construction of College Hall, North Hall and a gymnasium at Lake Forest College. Part of their philanthropy was to ensure a co ed liberal arts college near home for their daughter, Anna, who graduated from Lake Forest College in 1880. Anna later married the composer Reginald de Koven, and became a successful socialite, novelist and amateur historian. His daughter Rose was married to Hobart Chatfield Taylor.