Comments on: Lorin Farrar Wheelwright: An Early Adventure

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:08:42 +0000

Thank you, Peggy! Now we know without question.

By: Peggy Wheelwright Parry

Peggy Wheelwright Parry — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:05:41 +0000

Lorin is my uncle and his middle name is his grandmother’s maiden name, Farrar. She, Catherine Emma, and her Sister, Sarah, journeyed from England to Utah in 1859 with a handcart company and settled in Ogden with their older sister, Mary Ann Farrar Wheelwright.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:13:29 +0000

I visited a 92-year-old sister on my VT beat this afternoon. Like many people a lot younger than she is, Willie finds it easier to remember the long ago than the recent — in fact, she had forgotten we were coming today, and asked us five or six times during the visit whether we had phoned her yesterday (my partner had). Near the end of our visit I asked her if she remembered a flood that happened when she was a child. Without missing a beat, she said, “Yes. I was seven. My father took me on the streetcar to Farmington to see where the houses used to be.”

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:03:58 +0000

Thanks for that new information, Anthony — and anyone who thinks LPs are old technology should check out today’s post on Evan Stephens and listen to the 1924 recordings there, one recording per side of the old disk.

Also, I’ve checked some additional sources, including the patriarchal blessing index (LFW would presumably have been the source of his own name given to the patriarch), and find more occurrences of “Farrar.” So for now I’m staying with that name, although “Farr” does appear in other public places.

By: Anthony E. Larson

Anthony E. Larson — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:49:03 +0000

I remember him as ‘Dean’ Wheelright, as he was Dean of BYU’s College of Fine Arts during the time I worked as a recording engineer in the Fine Arts Building on campus in the 1970s. He was the motivating force for including a long playing record in the Relief Society’s first Cultural Refinement Lessons. I still have a letter over his signature in my files on BYU stationary congratulating the recording department on its contribution to the original recordings that went into that LP (old technology, I’m afraid). As I recall, one of the hymns on that record was his.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:26:23 +0000

The IGI shows his name as Lorin Farrar Wheelwright, and shows his father as David Reuben Wheelwright.

Ancestral File shows David Reuben Wheelwright’s mother as Catherine Emma Farrar.

The Social Security Death Index, which might be more accurate, doesn’t show a middle name.

I’d put my money (but not much of it) on Farrar.

By: Bill MacKinnon

Bill MacKinnon — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:09:24 +0000

Ray (#9), you remind me of the little third-grade girl, who, when asked by her teacher if she knew how to spell “banana,” replied that she did but not when to stop. Heh, heh…

By: Ray

Ray — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:38:24 +0000

Bill and Ardis, maybe his father had a speech impediment and it got recorded incorrectly.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:36:35 +0000

Tatiana, I’m going to have to reread those books — that will be fun.

Bill, I’ve seen it both ways. “Farr” makes more sense for the reason you mention, but the seemingly most authoritative places use “Farrar.” I’ll have to do some more looking and report back.

By: Bill MacKinnon

Bill MacKinnon — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:58:55 +0000

Ardis,
Is Mr. Wheelright’s middle name “Farrar” or “Farr”? With the first name “Lorin,” I’m tempted to think that he was named after Ogden’s famous pioneer leader Lorin Farr, a colonel in the Nauvoo legion and a key figure in the construction of the transcontinental railroad across northeastern Utah.