Farr was born on October 10, 1820, in
Waterford, Vermont. He attended the common schools and then taught school to raise money to enter Dartmouth College. He graduated from the medical department of
Dartmouth College in 1846 and commenced practice as a doctor and surgeon in
St. Johnsbury, Vermont. He moved to
Peacham, Vermont, in 1847, where he married Martha Jackson Wheeler and where his father died in 1852. He then moved to
Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1854, with his wife and son. In addition to his work in medicine, he served on the Kenosha school board and was president of the school board from 1871 to 1874. He was elected to his first one-year term as Mayor in 1859, then again in 1864, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1877, and 1878. Farr was a member of the Assembly in 1873 and represented the
8th district of the Senate (at the time
Kenosha and
Walworth counties) from 1876 to 1877. Politically, he was a Democrat until the outbreak of the
American Civil War. At that time, he became a
Republican and remained with that party for the rest of his life. ==Personal life and family==