Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Farrar, John

FARRAR, John, educator, b. in Lincoln, Mass., 1 July, 1779; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 8 May, 1853. He was graduated at Harvard in 1803, studied theology at Andover, and in 1805 was appointed Greek tutor at Harvard. He was chosen Hollis professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in the same institution in 1807, and retained the chair till 1836, when he resigned in consequence of a painful illness that finally caused his death. He published for the use of his pupils a translation of Lacroix's “Elements of Algebra” (1818), which he followed by selections from Legendre, Biot, Bezant, and others. These works were at once adopted as text-books by Harvard, the U. S. military academy, and other institutions. He was a contributor to scientific journals, to the “North American Review,” and to the “Memoirs” of the American academy. — His wife, Eliza Ware, author, b. in Flanders, Europe, in 1791; d. in Springfield, Mass., 22 April, 1870, was the daughter of Benjamin Rotch, of New Bedford, Mass. She was educated in England, lived there until 1819, and in 1828 became the second wife of Prof. Farrar. She wrote “Children's Robinson Crusoe”; “The Story of Lafayette”; “The Life of Howard”; “Youth's Love-Letters”; “Young Lady's Friend” (1837); “Congo in Search of his Master” (New York, 1854); and “Recollections of Seventy Years” (Boston, 1865).