John R. Farr

Who was John R. Farr?

John Richard Farr was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

John R. Farr was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and attended the School of the Lackawanna there, and Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He graduated from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He worked as a newsboy, printer, and publisher. He was active in the real estate business.

He served four years on the Scranton School Board. He was a member of the Pennsylvania State 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 make public education compulsory, and to provide free textbooks to public schools; both measures passed.

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.