The 1860 US Census of Evergreen, Appomattox Co., VA enumerated the household of 40 Y/O George Thomas Farrar, a farmer, and his 47 Y/O wife, Mary Jordan (Fore) Farrar. Note: Mary Jordan Fore was the widow of Overton Evans prior to marrying Charles Farrar. Also living in the household were their children: 12 Y/O Virginia Ann Farrar; 10 Y/O Elizabeth Baker Farrar and 9 Y/O Charles Thomas Farrar.

The 1870 US Census of Evergreen, Appomattox Co., VA enumerated the household of 51 Y/O George Thomas Farrar, a farmer, and his 57 Y/O wife, Mary Jordan (Fore) Farrar. Living in the household were their children: 20 Y/O Virginia Ann Farrar; 19 Y/O Elizabeth Baker Farrar, a seamstress. and 17 Y/O Charles Thomas Farrar, a farm hand. Interestingly, George Thomas Farrar's net worth in 1860 was $4500.00. His net worth in 1870, post Civil War, was $10,000. This is astounding.

Charles Thomas Farrar learned the lumber business as a young man working for the W. B. Farrar Lumber Company of Appomattox Co., VA. This company was owned by his first cousin, William Baker Farrar, who during the Civil War worked for the Confederacy in Alabama and Georgia supplying lumber materials including railroad crossties. (see Find A Grave Memorial #8212896). After the Civil War, as a single man looking for work, Charles T. Farrar migrated to Graysville, GA and found employment with the same first cousin, William Baker Farrar. He worked in William Baker Farrar's sawmill there in the 1870s and 1880s where he also met and later married Rosalind Virginia Dawn on 03 Jul 1873.

The 17 Jun 1880 US Census of Graysville, Catoosa Co., GA enumerated the household of 26 Y/O Charles Thomas Farrar, a sawyer in a local saw mill who was born in Evergreen, VA, and his 23 Y/O wife, Rosalind Virginia (Dawn) Farrar, born in TN. Also living in the household as a "boarder" was 45 year old William Baker Farrar, " local lumber dealer". He was Charles' first cousin from Evergreen, VA and the owner of the lumber saw mill where Charles was employed. Also living in the household were their children: 6 Y/O Maye Hardwick Farrar born in Dawnville, Whitfield Co., GA; 2 Y/O Thomas Bennett Farrar (b. 29 Oct 1877 Cleveland, Bradley Co., TN [Reference: Farrar Family Bible] - d. 19 Apr 1888 Woodlawn, Jefferson Co., AL [Reference: Farrar Family Bible]) and 10 months old William Charles Farrar, my grandfather.

Interestingly, the 07 Jun 1880 US Census of Dalton, Whitfield Co., GA also enumerated the household of the permanent home of lumber dealer and sawmill owner, 44 Y/O William Baker Farrar. Obviously, when William Baker Farrar was working at his sawmill in Graysville which at the time was probably a 25-30 mile trip from Dalton, he boarded with his cousin, Charles Thomas Farrar. Also living in William Baker Farrar's Dalton 1880 home were his 38 Y/O second wife, Mollie Agnes (Fleshman) Farrar and their children: 14 Y/O William Rosser Farrar (by his first wife, Louisa Rosser (Dawson) Farrar; 12 Y/O Nannie S. Farrar; 11 Y/O Ezekiel Buford Farrar; 8 Y/O James Kirkpatrick Farrar; 6 Y/O Henry Baker Farrar and 2 Y/O Floyd Felton Farrar.

Between 04 Jun 1881, the birth date of their son, Ogden Shelby Farrar, in Dalton, Whitfield Co., GA, and 16 Jan 1884, the birth date of their son, Stephen Baker Farrar, in Cedartown, Polk Co., GA, Charles Thomas Farrar and his family began to migrate further southward with stops in Cedartown, Polk Co., GA where as noted above their son, Stephen Baker Farrar, was born on 16 Jan 1884. Their next stop was Tallapoosa, Haralson Co., GA where sadly their 1 Y/O son, Stephen Baker Farrar, died on 30 Jun 1885 and where their daughter, Jimmie Oden Farrar, was born on 05 Nov 1885. Charles and his family continued their migration and arrived in Woodlawn, Jefferson Co., AL (later to become part of Birmingham) about 1888 as their son, Thomas Bennett Farrar died there on 19 Apr 1888 and their son, Sam Cross Farrar, was born there on 15 May 1888. (NOTE: All birth and death dates confirmed by the Farrar Family Bible). Charles Thomas Farrar's first recorded employment in the Birmingham area was at the Sloss Furnace repair shop in 1888 (The Sloss Furnace is a National Historic Landmark in Birmingham, Alabama that operated as a pig iron-producing blast furnace from 1882 to 1971). By 1889, Charles went into the familiar business of lumber dealing and was the foreman of Hughes Lumber Yard in Birmingham but gravitated to the more lucrative job of working for the railroads. In 1890 he was a "locomotive fireman" for the "Georgia Pacific Railroad" By 1896 he was a "locomotive engineer" for the renamed "Southern Railway" and continued to work for the railroads most of his remaining life.

The 1896 Birmingham City Directory records Charles Thomas Farrar, a Southern Railroad engineer, and his family living in Avondale at the address, “2d ave A’dale” (Avondale). Avondale, at the time, was the site of a very large cotton mill and its accompanying company owned community and store. Avondale was located closely to the Sloss Furnace repair shop where Charles Thomas Farrar worked in 1888.

I have not been able to locate the Charles Thomas Farrar family in 1900 US Census.

The 1900 Birmingham City Directory recorded Chas T. Farrar as an “engineer Southern Railroad” and his residence was listed as “2d ave A’dale” (Avondale). He had remained a “railroad engineer” but “Southern Railroad” was operating “Georgia Pacific Railroad" after 1894.

The 1910 US Census of Birmingham, AL enumerated the household of 59 Y/O Charles Thomas Farrar, a railroad engineer born in VA, and his 53 Y/O wife, Rosalind Virginia (Dawn) Farrar, born in Tennessee. Also living in their household were their children: 20 Y/O Dawn Franklin Farrar, a pressman (printing); 16 Y/O Sybley John Farrar; 14 Y/O Enoree Yvonne Farrar and 12 Y/O Edward Larson Farrar.

The 1920 US Census of Birmingham, AL enumerated the household of 69 Y/O retired Charles Thomas Farrar. Inexplicably, his 63 Y/O wife, Rosalind Virginia (Dawn) Farrar, is not enumerated in the 1920 household. Their children living in the household were: 30 Y/O Dawn Franklin Farrar, a printer; 21 Y/O Edward Larston Farrar; 27 Y/O Sybley John Farrar, a railroad pipefitter; 25 Y/O Willie (Schwend) Farrar, wife of Sybley John Farrar and 5 Y/O Elizabeth Farrar, daughter of Sybley and Willie Farrar.

Extant letters from Charles T. Farrar to his relatives indicate he spent some time in the early 1920s visiting his son, Ogden Shelby Farrar, in Concord, N. C. where the son owned a grocery store.

The 1930 US Census of Birmingham, AL enumerated the household of 79 Y/O retired railroad engineer, Charles Thomas Farrar, and his 72 Y/O wife, Rosalind Virginia (Dawn) Farrar. Also living in the household were their two sons: 40 Y/O Dawn Franklin Farrar, an automobile salesman; and 37 Y/O Sybley John Farrar, a pipefitter for a Steel and Iron Company and Sybley's 36 Y/O wife, Willie (Schwend) Farrar, and their two children: 15 Y/O Elizabeth Farrar and 8 Y/O Virginia Farrar.

Charles Thomas Farrar died on 18 Feb 1933, four days following his beloved wife's death.

Besides the children listed below, there is one mentioned in the Farrar Family Bible whose Cedartown, GA grave site cannot be located: Stephen B. Farrar, b. 16 Jan 1884 Cedartown, GA., d. 30 Jun 1885 Cedartown, GA. I searched for it in 1988 to no avail.

Sources:
1) Farrar Family Bible
2) Birmingham, Jefferson Co., Alabama, City Directories 1888-1933
3) "The Farrars" by William B. and Ethel Farrar, 1964, pp87-89

Bio by Gresham Farrar.