Information on the Farmers and the Grays:

I decided I needed to have a section on Kathleen's family, so at present what I have here is mostly stuff that was in Kathleen's story that was about her family rather than about her.  So it's disjointed chunks of information, some of it duplications of what's in Kathleen's story.  I'll do a better narrative later.

William James Farmer was born in 1853. and Ann Gray Farmer, known as Annie, was born in 1850.  William James was called Will or Willie, but I call him WJ to distinguish him from his son-in-law Will Stokey.  They had three children: Ruth, Cecil, and Kathleen.  

The family was Christian Scientist, which is interesting because Christian Science was officially founded in the US in 1879, and didn’t come to England until 1896, when WJ and Annie were in their 40s.  The whole family adopted it, whole-heartedly.  What was the attraction?  I don’t know.  It doesn’t appear that any of WJ’s or Annie’s siblings converted.  It was just this one nuclear family.

Some information about WJ from a letter from Ruth after he died:

I have nothing but blessed memories of my dear father, he was always my special one, + no one ever had a kinder friend.  It was his way of silently doing kind things that makes his life one with a halo to me.  For 70 years he worked + earned a living, from the time he was left an orphan at 10, the oldest of 4 boys, until his 80th birthday, when it had to be laid down.  He always had information, no matter what the subject + he had acquired it all by his own efforts.  In a quiet unostentatious way his was a wonderful life of attention to duty above any personal consideration.  He never had help from anyone, yet he helped many a one.

I was thinking today of how, when Jesus went, there were only his clothes as a personal possession, + it was identically almost the same with our dear one.  Except for his watch + suits, there was nothing to give, for he never spent anything whatever on himself, but oh how he loved to give, how his face lit up at the thought.

In the early 1900s, WJ moved for his work from England to Savannah, Georgia, in the US.  He wasn’t leaving the family; Annie and the kids stayed behind only until the children finished their education, and they kept in touch with WJ.  I haven’t come across any exact reasons for the move to the US.  I don’t suppose it was simply a matter of “That’s where the job was.”  And I don’t think it was due to any discontent with England.  The Farmers left behind quite a few friends and relations who corresponded with them across the Atlantic long after the move - but then, English people were moving all over the place.  The US, Africa, India, Germany, Australia - there are mentions in the letters of British people moving to all those places.  So it probably seemed like quite a normal thing for the Farmers to move to Savannah.

When WJ went to Savannah, in 1907 (I think this was the first time), he crossed the English Channel to Flushing in Holland in a mail boat and took a transatlantic ship from there.  I don’t know why; the Titanic in 1912 is clear evidence that one could cross the Atlantic from England.  But perhaps this was the only direct sailing to the south of the US.  What I do know is that apparently WJ struck up a conversation with a conductor on the mail boat to Holland, and talked to him about Christian Science.  The conductor expressed interest, and so WJ noted down his name and address and later sent him a Christian Science book.  I know this because we have a postcard from the conductor thanking WJ, sent to the family’s latest London address:

So here we can imagine WJ: gregarious, interested in the world and the people around him, and a strong advocate for Christian Science.  He applied for membership in the Mother Church, apparently about as soon as he got to the US.  We have his certificate of admission:

The date is part of the certificate, so apparently the approvals were done in batches.

Cecil, the middle child, went to the US in 1908 after getting his engineering degree, having gotten himself a job outside of Pittsburgh working for Westinghouse.  He later married a Christian Science practitioner, Jessie Morrison.

In 1910, WJ came back to England to escort Annie, Ruth, and Kathleen to Savannah.

WJ, Annie, and Ruth, all went back to England for visits later, but Kathleen never went, and I don't think Cecil did either.  He seems to have been fully absorbed and happy in his life with Jessie and his work at Westinghouse.

We have letters of membership in the Christian Science Mother church from June 2, 1911 for Annie and for Ruth, but not for Kathleen.  There’s a letter from Will in 1919 reminding her to take care of it, which is surprising.  Why didn’t she do it when Annie and Ruth did?  It wouldn’t have been due to lack of interest.

We have the telegrams that WJ sent for the births of each of his three grandchildren.  I'll include them sometime; they're fun.

The Farmer family dwindled away in the 1930s.  Kathleen’s father died in 1933, aged 82.  Ruth died in 1935, aged 49.  I’m still hoping to find out more about the cause of death, although it may well be difficult because she was a Christian Scientist.  Kathleen’s mother died in 1936, aged 82.  And Kathleen’s sister-in-law Jessie, Cecil’s wife, died childless in 1938, probably in her 50s.  Cecil himself survived until 1968, a double amputee due to diabetes.  I don’t know if his Christian Science faith survived the amputations.

Contact was maintained with the Farmers in England.  When my parents were in England in the early 1960s, they had dinner with one of the Farmers - Lottie, I believe.  (I need to add the cherry pie story.)  But we have lost contact now.  I'm not sure there are any Farmers left.  There are probably some Grays, but how does one find a particular Gray in England?