University of Virginia Library

Thomas Farrar, or, as he was usually
styled, Tom Farrar, was free born and at the
time I knew him I should judge that he was
some sixty years old. He was a well digger
by trade and very skillful and reliable
in this business. The blood of his African
ancestors was in an insignificant minority
in his system. He was very arbitrary in
his own family — exacting the most implicit
obedience from every member, being known
even to have inflicted corporeal punishment
upon his married daughters upon occasions
when they had presumed to act in open
opposition to his wishes. He never had
a doubt that to "spare the rod" meant to
"spoil the child." and I am quite sure
that if any of his offspring failed to walk
in the paths of righteousness, it was not
because the rod had been allowed to rust
in idleness. He was very religious according
to his idea of religion, sure in his own
mind that the King James version of

the Bible was handed directly down from
Heaven neatly bound and printed as it
came from the bookstore. To doubt any
statement found between the two covers
was to his mind the rankest blasphemy,
consequently he was very scrupulous as to
the letter of the text but somewhat hazy
in regard to its spirit. He stood ready
to demolish every scientific advance
the world had made with thunderbolts
in the shape of Scripture quotations

Soon after our school had been organized and
properly graded, the Society in Boston sent
us among other necessary articles for our school
work a nice magnetic globe with all the
various images of men houses, beasts trees etc
to illustrate the power of gravitation and
every arrangement for explaining the
movements of the earth in its relations
to the sun and other celestial bodies
Farrar, who believed that the sun travelled
around the earth once in twenty four

hours (did he not have the evidence of his
own eyes to prove it?) was interested when
he heard of the new instrument and
and came up to see it one Saturday
afternoon. I placed an object at a little
distance to represent the sun, and put
the figures of men, animals, ships etc on
the globe in the positions where they would
naturally belong, and turned the sphere
about, answering his questions and
explaining everything to him as clearly
as I could for about half an hour. When
I had finished he sat and looked at it
thoughtfully for a few minutes, and then
said. "That is the best explanation I have
heard about the earth's movements, but
if that is true how could Joshua command
the sun to stand still for hours?" This was
a poser, for I was wholly unable to explain
how Joshua could arrest the motion of the
earth, so he went away with his old faith
unshaken. In all matters that concerned
his religious belief, what he thought he knew
he was sure of, so his creed was a very simple
one. He believed in God and Tom Farrar, and
he was reverent enough to put his belief in
God first, which was certainly modest in him

Farrar had accumulated quite a little
property by hard work and close saving.
He told us that his father was a drinking
man, and when the craving for liquor
was on him, he would take the small
earnings of his children to get the means
to satisfy his appetite, so Tom made a
box for himself in which he kept various
articles he called his own. This box was made
with a double bottom, one part of which
was removable and in the secret compartment
thus provided Tom concealed such odd bits of
money as he managed to earn without his
fathers knowledge. When the old mans
drunken fit was on him, he would search
through the box and finding no money
would throw it out doors, or kick it about in

his anger, Tom would let it lie where it
was thrown until his fathers condition was
again normal, when he would quietly
restore it to its former condition. All
the time the bits of money accumulated
in this queer bank, and when he was grown
to man's estate he had quite a little nest
egg to help him start in life. He soon
acquired enough to purchase himself a
comfortable little home and I think when
I knew him he had enough to supply the
modest needs of himself and his wife in
their old age. Notwithstanding his saving,
economical ideas he would be very liberal
at times. He gave to his church, of course,
for that was "treasure laid up in Heaven"
and he expected a return in celestial
dividends sometime: and he would readily
put his hand in his pocket for the needs of
the school. Neither was he heedless of the
suffering of the very poor. One day he met a
friend who told him a pitiful story of the
poverty of a poor widow whom they both
knew, and how badly he felt in view
of her distressing circumstances. "How
much do you feel for her?" said Farrar.
"I feel about five dollars worth. How much
do you feel?" Whether the friend felt
bad to the same amount as Farrar, I do
not know. I hope he did and that the
widow benefitted accordingly.

Although Farrars views of life were
sometimes sadly distorted, yet he was
a shrewd observer of men and things, and
something of a philosopher in his way,
and it can truly be said of him that
he dutifully lived up to the light that had
been given him.