A Tennant Family

Brother Lorenzo Farley in our ward has lived a full and fascinating life, and has also traced the rich history of his ancestors and has discovered their good lives.

Brother Farley has traced his lines back thirteen generations and has found inspiration in the stories he has uncovered. The first Farley come over from Ireland in 1600 on the ship Horizon. Brother Farleys paternal grandfather was the first wheelwright in Ogden, Utah. His maternal great-grandmother came from Copenhagen, Denmark. She traveled across the plains with her family in the Martin Handcart Company. About 250 of them left Iowa, but only 52 arrived in Salt Lake City.

Before the Salt Lake temple was built, endowments were given in the Endowment House, and Brother Farleys mothers parents received them there and were sealed in 1862. His grandfather, George Housley, was the one who brought the paper out that the first Deseret News was printed on. He brought it from St. Louis, Missouri by wagon on 15 June 1851.

His grandfather was always helping people, visiting the sick and needy. He often would say, "I don't see why they always call me. I'll not go another time." But whenever there was a call, he always responded. He had a great testimony of the gospel, and he would often sing a hymn on Fast Sunday because he felt weakness in speaking. When he disagreed with his wife, he would put on his hat and go for a walk, and would return saying, "May I please come in?"

Brother Farley spoke about the Indians of Utah in the time of the pioneers. He told how the Indians would always come around and beg for bread. The pioneers had been counseled by general authorities to give them what they asked for and never harm them. In the words of Brigham Young, "Never turn them down, never make an Indian mad."

Brother Farley himself was born in Ogden Utah, on 11 July 1889. He is the oldest of 13 children. When his parents were married, his father was 20 and his mother was 13. She was only 14 when he was born. He grew up mainly in Utah and Idaho. At the age of six, he started working in his dads blacksmith shop pumping bellows to keep the fire going. He would start to work three hours before breakfast and then he would go to school, and he would return to work after he got home. In those days, a work day was from 16 to 18 hours. At times he would be so tired that he couldn't sleep. He went to school through the eighth grade. Though he never went to high school, he learned quite a bit; he was studying trigonometry in the eighth grade.

He went to Idaho to work for his mothers brother on the church cattle ranch. Later, his parents moved to Idaho Falls and he followed them and went to work for a blacksmith. At the age of 15, he went to work for David O. McKay on a dairy farm. At that time, David O. McKay was a professor in Ogden. Brother Farley remembers how he would have breakfast with the McKays and the many times he had dinner with them and the fun they had.

Brother Farley's father wanted him to learn the blacksmith trade, but he didn't like it, so he went into carpentry. He started building covered wagons, and he explained the complicated work of bowling a wagon wheel; fitting it on the hot iron tire and then immersing it in cold water.

In 1913, Brother Farley moved to Nevada, but soon returned to Utah. He had been married in 1910 in the Salt Lake Temple, and in 1915 life brought his family to California and he went to work for the railroad. He worked as a passenger car inspector, doing light repair work on the cars and was employed by them for 43 years. In his spare time, with the help of his sons, he built a five room house in Monterey Park, which he traded for the one which he owns now in San Gabriel. He commented on this home, "This is the only home Ive ever known and appreciated."

Brother Farley had three children, and then his first wife passed away in 1951. He remarried to Melissa Fransen in 1952 and they had the opportunity to travel all over. As Brother Farley put it, "We traveled the U.S. from north to south and east to west."

Brother Farley has lived a full life and although he is now confined to his home, he still greets friends and visitors with a happy youthful spirit.