Farwell, Oliver Atkins, 1867-1944

Oliver A. Farwell, a famous botanist, was born in 1867 near Copper Harbor, Michigan, the grandson of Daniel D. and Lucena Brockway. It was at the one-room schoolhouse at the Cliff Mine location that he received what is believed to be the only systematic teaching of botany that he ever had. Thwarted by his mother in his desire to attend the Naval Academy at Annapolis (her father had died at sea and her husband had been almost lost at sea), Oliver pursued his interest in botany. Through family connections he was hired by the Parke, Davis and Company drug firm in Detroit where he became their botanist. He had the responsibility for the pharmacognosy of raw botanical products, a position he retained for the rest of his professional life. Oliver A. Farwell passed away in Lake Linden, Michigan in 1944.