Lycoming County Pennsylvania Biographies
ARMSTRONG, William Hepburn, a Representative from Pennsylvania; born in Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pa., September 7, 1824; attended the common schools, and was graduated from Princeton College in 1847; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Williamsport, Pa.; served in the State house of representatives in 1860 and 1861; declined a commission as president judge of the twenty-sixth judicial circuit of Pennsylvania in 1862; elected as a Republican to the Forty-first Congress (March 4, 1869-March 3, 1871); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1870 to the Forty-second Congress; declined the office of commissioner of Indian affairs tendered by President Grant; commissioner of railroads 1882-1885; resumed the practice of law in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, Pa., until 1898, when he retired from active business pursuits; moved to Wilmington, Del., where he died on May 14, 1919; interment in Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery.
(Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present; contributed by A. Newell)
Rachel E. (Lyon) Carman
CARMAN, GEO. P., CAPT., merchant tailor, Marion; born at Tyrone Forge, Blair Co., Iowa, June 1, 1832; moved to Marengo, Iowa, in March, 1869; to Davenport in 1872: to DeWitt in 1873, and came to Marion in 1875. He enlisted in Co. K. 51st Penn. V. I., Aug. 28, 1861 (having been in three months service previously, he was promoted to Second Lieutenant Dec. 25, 1861; to First Lieutenant July 25, 1862, and to the Captaincy of his Co. on the battle field of Second Bull Run, Aug. 29, 1862; mustered out July 3, 1865. He married Rachel E. Lyon, May 10, 1853; she was born at Williamsport, Lycoming Co., Penn., Dec. 24, 1835; they have had three children; one son—Orlando Chester, died in April, 1859, aged 3 years and 8 months; the living are Lillie D and Rachel B. The Captain and family are members of the Baptist Church.
[Source: The history of Linn County Iowa; Western Historical Company; 1878; transcribed by Andaleen Whitney]
CHARLES STEWARD FARNSWORTH
THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR I
Was born in Lycoming, PA and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1887. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant of Infantry and served with the 25th Infantry Regiment of Outposts in the Dakota Territory, Montana, and North Dakota and took part in the last of the Indian Wars. He was an instructor in military science at the University of North Dakota and served in the 7th Infantry Regiment in Colorado. During the Spanish American War, Farnsworth went to Cuba as acting Quartermaster of the 2nd Division and participated in the Santiago compaign before becoming an aid on the staff of Major-General Adna R. Chafee. The next year he led an infantry company in Alaska, where he assisted in building the Alaskan telegraph system. During the early year of the new century. Farnsworth rose to the rank of Colonel and served with the 7th and 16th Infantry regiments or on detached service as a constructing quartermaster and as a post Adjutant General throughout the West and in the Philippines. From 1911 to 1913, he was an instructor with the Pennsylvania National Guard. He graduated from the Army School of the Line and Staff College at Fort Levenworth in 1910 and the Army War College in Washington, D.C., in 1916. Farnsworth was also a battalion commander in the 16th Infantry, which participated in the 1916 Punitive Expedition into Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa.
Shortly after the United States entered Word War I, Farnsworth was named commandant of the Infantry School of Arms at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the National Army in 1917 and took command of the 159th Infantry Brigade, then training at Camp Lee, Virginia. In May, 1918, Farnsworth, now holding the temporary rank of Major General, became commander of the 37th Division. During the summer of 1918, he led the division to France, where it completed its training and later took part in the occupation of the quiet sectors at Baccaret and St. Mihiel.
In late September, 1918, Farnsworth led the 37th Division in the assault by the American V Corps against the German stronghold at Montfaucon during the first phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive. Give that this was the first real combat for the Division, they performed as well as could be expected. But after several days of fierce fighting, the division, like the others in the initial assault, was so spent that it was pulled out of the line so that losses could be reduced. At the end of October, Farnsworth and his division were attached to a French Corps and saw considerable action in Belgium during the Ypres-Lys Campaign until the war ended on November 11, 1918.
Following the return of the 37th Division, Farnsworth was made Commander of Camp Benning, Georgia, with the responsibility of organizing and constructing the new Infantry School, of which he was the first Commandant. In 1920, he was appointed Chief of Infantry, a post he held until his retirement at the rank of Major General in 1925. An officer who was highly regarded for his ablilties as an infantry tactician. He died on December 19, 1955,
[Source: The United States in the First World War: an encyclopedia By Anne Cipriano Venzon, Paul L. Miles (a full google book online) -Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth (Farns10th@aol.com) ]