Henry H. Farrington, born February 10, 1841, in Lake County, Indiana, is the son of Dr. John and Emily Farrington. He enlisted in the 73rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry in 1862, serving in the Civil War and participating in significant battles such as Stone River. After the war, Farrington farmed in Illinois before moving to South Dakota in 1883, where he acquired government land in Hand County. He later relocated to Wessington, Beadle County, engaging in grain and livestock trading, and eventually the hardware business. A dedicated Republican and Mason, Farrington married Lodema Pulver in 1860, with whom he had five children.
Henry H. Farrington is a native of the good old Hoosier state, having been born in Lake county, Indiana, on the 10th of February, 1841, and being a son of Dr. John and Emily (Bushwell) Farrington. His father was for many years engaged in the practice of medicine in Indiana, and both he and his wife died in that state. Of their eleven children, three are living at the present time. Owing to the exigencies of time and place, the subject of this sketch was accorded only limited educational advantages in his youth, attending the common schools of Indiana, in a somewhat irregular way, until he had attained the age of fifteen years, while during his adolescent years he gave his attention to work on a farm. Through personal reading and study and through active association with men and affairs during the course of his active and honorable business career, he has effectively supplemented the meager scholastic discipline of his boyhood and is a man of strong intellectuality and extended knowledge. When the dark cloud of the Civil war spread its gruesome pall over the national firmament, Mr. Farrington laid aside all personal considerations and placed them in subordination to his country’s call. In 1862 he enlisted as a private in Company A, Seventy-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which was commanded by Colonel Hathaway. The regiment proceeded to the front and became a part of the forces commanded by General Rosecrans. In this connection, our subject participated in the battle of Stone River, while later he took part in many others of the sanguinary and important battles attending the progress of the great internecine conflict which determined the perpetuation of the Union. At Rome, Georgia, he was captured and was held as a prisoner of war about one month, at the expiration of which his exchange was effected and he rejoined his regiment, which was then a part of the Army of the Cumberland. He continued in active service until the close of the war, receiving his honorable discharge on the 1st of July, at Nashville, Tennessee. He perpetuates the more gracious memories of his long and faithful service in the ranks by retaining membership in John B. Wyman Post, No. 115, Grand Army of the Republic, in Wessington, South Dakota.
After the close of the war, Mr. Farrington returned to the North and located in Kankakee county, Illinois, where he followed the advice given to the “boys in blue” by General Grant and turned his hand to the plow. He there continued to be engaged in farming until 1870, when he engaged in the mercantile business at Grant Park, that state, where he thus continued operations until 1883, in April of which year he came to what is now the state of South Dakota and cast in his lot with the early settlers of Hand county, where he took up three quarter sections of government land, entering homestead, pre-emption, and tree claims. He forthwith began the reclamation and improvement of the land and in due time perfected his title to the same. He there continued actively engaged in farming and stock raising until 1892, when he disposed of his fine property and took up his residence in Wessington, in the adjoining county of Beadle, where he has since maintained his home. Here he was engaged in the buying and shipping of grain and livestock until 1899, when he engaged in the hardware business, to which he has ever since given his attention, having a large and well-equipped establishment, in which he handles all kinds of heavy and shelf hardware, besides agricultural implements, while the confidence reposed in him by the people of this section is definitely indicated in the substantial and representative trade which he controls. He is a stalwart Republican in his political proclivities and served for three years as a member of the board of commissioners of Hand county, though he has never sought public office of any description. He has been identified with the Masonic fraternity for the past thirty-five years, being now affiliated with Wessington Lodge, No. 107, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in Wessington.
In Lake county, Indiana, on the 10th of September, 1860, Mr. Farrington was united in marriage to Miss Lodema Pulver, who was born and reared in that state, being a daughter of David and Mercy Pulver, the former of whom was a farmer by vocation. Of this union have been born five children, namely: Azetta, married to J. D. McNair, of Wessington; Mercy, who married A. B. Safford, of Wessington; Minnie, the wife of C. S. Richardson, of Chicago Heights; John lives at Wessington Springs, South Dakota, and is engaged in the hardware and implement business.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.