John R. Farr

John Richard Farr (July 18, 1857 – December 11, 1933) was an American politician. He served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

Biography

Farr was born on July 18, 1857, in Hyde Park, Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Edward and Elizabeth Farr. He attended Scranton's School of the Lackawanna and Phillips Academy, then studied at Lafayette College, though never graduated. He worked as a newsboy, journalist, as well as in the real estate business.

For four years, Farr served on the Scranton School Board. A Republican, he was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1891, 1893, 1895, 1897, and 1899, serving as speaker of the 1899 session. As a state legislator, he introduced bills to provide free textbooks to public schools and to make public education compulsory; both measures passed, in 1893 and 1895, respectively.

A candidate from Pennsylvania's 10th congressional district, Farr was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1908, but was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-second and to the three succeeding Congresses. He successfully contested the election of Patrick McLane to the Sixty-sixth Congress, though his success came almost at the end of McLane's term. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1920, 1930, and 1932.

Farr resumed the real estate business in Scranton. He was married with four children. He died on December 11, 1933, aged 76, in Scranton, from a heart attack. The heart attack hospitalized him at West Side Hospital, which he had helped establish in the 1890s. He was buried on December 12, at Shady Lane Cemetery, in Chinchilla.

See also

• Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives