Figure of the Week

John F. Farmer (1843-1929) was born in Caroline County, Virginia.  He married Mary E. Deshazo (1850-1939) and lived in the White Oak area of Stafford County, Virginia.  He called his farm Potomac View.  In 1910, a friendly rivalry between local farmers produced the following notice in the Free Lance newspaper of Oct. 8, 1910, “To the Free Lance.  I am invited by Mr. R[obert] V[inton] Suttle, of King George county, to go back home and get another stalk of corn.  When Mr. Suttle can produce a stalk that measures 10 feet 8 inches from the ground to the end of the ear, I will talk to him.  My stalk was grown without fertilizer.  I challenge all this part of North America.  There is no ear mentioned on Mr. Suttle’s stalk.  I hold the belt without a rival.  John F. Farmer.”  Farmer died in 1929.