Michael Andrews Farrar: Pioneer artist and clergyman

The Reverend M.A. Farrar emigrated to Canada West from Wales in May 1862. S ettling with his family in Westwood, Peterborough County, within a week he was plunged into the arduous life of a backwoods clergyman, in charge of th e two-point parish of Norwood and Hastings, to which Westwood was soon adde d. Although travelling over primitive roads in horse-drawn vehicles was a t rial to such a townsman, the duties of superintendent of education were qui ckly added to his load; and he also became a forceful member of two school boards. Under his leadership, the Anglican Church in Hastings was completed, and wo rk on the Church in Westwood (later named St. Michael's in his honour) was begun. His love of drawing and painting, long a pastime, became a means of adding slightly to his meagre income. Some of his drawings were made into lithogra phs by brown and Bautz of Hamilton and offered for sale; and four others we re reproduced in The Canadian Illustrated News in 1871 and 1872. It is for his loving depiction of the houses, ragged streetscapes and the waterways o f his adopted country that he is remembered today.