Sewall S. Farwell

Sewall Spaulding Farwell (April 26, 1834 – September 21, 1909) was a Civil War officer and one-term Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa's 2nd congressional district.

Born in Keene, Ohio, Farwell attended the common schools and an academy in Cleveland, Ohio. He moved to Iowa in 1852, settling in Jones County, Iowa, and engaged in agricultural pursuits.

In 1862, after the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army as captain of Company H, 31st Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He was promoted to major in 1864, and served until the close of the war. He participated in the battles of Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Siege of Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, and Jonesboro, and Sherman's March to the Sea.^[1]

Farwell served as member of the Iowa Senate from 1865 to 1869. He served (from 1869 to 1873) as an assessor of internal revenue, then (from 1875 to 1881) as collector of internal revenue.

In September 1880, Farwell won the Republican nomination on the 124th ballot to succeed Hiram Price as the Iowa 2nd congressional district's representative in the U.S. House.^[2] After winning the general election, he served in the Forty-seventh Congress. He won renomination in 1882, but was defeated in the general election by Democrat Jeremiah Henry Murphy. He served in Congress from March 4, 1881 to March 3, 1883.

Returning to Iowa, he served as president of the Monticello State Bank. He died in Monticello on September 21, 1909, and was interred in Oakwood Cemetery. A dispute among the beneficiaries of his will was resolved by the Iowa Supreme Court in Farwell v. Carpenter, 142 N.W. 227 (Iowa 1913).

References

• United States Congress. "Sewall S. Farwell (id: F000039)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa
1st	W. Thompson Miller Henn A. Hall S. Curtis J. F. Wilson McCrary Stone McCoid B. Hall Gear Seerley Gear S. Clark Hedge Kennedy Kopp Eicher Martin Schwengel Schmidhauser Schwengel Mezvinsky Leach Nussle Braley Blum
2nd	Leffler L. Clark J. P. Cook Thorington Davis Vandever Price Smyth W. Wolf Cotton Tufts Price Farwell Murphy Hayes G. Curtis Lane Rumple Wade Dawson Pepper Vollmer Hull Letts B. Jacobsen W. Jacobsen Talle L. Wolf Bromwell Culver Blouin Tauke Nussle Leach Loebsack
3rd	Allison Donnan Ainsworth Burdick Updegraff Henderson Birdsall Pickett Connolly Sweet Robinson Willford Gwynne Gross Grassley Evans Nagle Lightfoot Boswell Latham Young
4th	Grinnell Loughridge Walden Pratt Deering Weller Fuller Sweney Butler Updegraff Haugen Biermann Talle Le Compte Carter Kyl Bandstra Kyl N. Smith Ganske Latham King
5th	Kasson G. Dodge Palmer J. Wilson R. Clark W. G. Thompson J. Wilson Frederick Kerr J. Hamilton Cousins Good Cole Thurston Le Compte Cunningham N. Smith Scherle Harkin Lightfoot Grandy Latham King
6th	A. Hubbard Pomeroy Orr Loughridge Sampson Weaver Cutts J. C. Cook Cutts J. C. Cook Weaver Lacey White Lacey D. Hamilton Kendall Kirkpatrick Ramseyer Dowell Utterback Dowell Goodwin Cunningham Gilchrist J. I. Dolliver Coad Hoeven Greigg Mayne Bedell Grandy
7th	Kasson Cummings E. Gillette Kasson H. Smith Conger Hays Hull Prouty Dowell Wearin Jensen Hansen Scherle
8th	McDill Sapp Hepburn Anderson Flick Hepburn Jamieson Towner Evans Thurston Gilchrist Hoeven
9th	Orr Oliver Carpenter Pusey Lyman Reed Bowman Hager McPherson W. Smith Green Vincent Swanson G. Gillette Harrington Narey
10th	Holmes J. P. Dolliver Conner Woods Dickinson Gilchrist
11th	Struble Perkins Thomas E. Hubbard Scott Steele Scott Boies Campbell
AL	Hastings and Leffler
Terr	Chapman A. Dodge