Sewall Spaulding Farwell (April 26, 1834 – September 21, 1909) was a Civil War officer and one-term Republican

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from Iowa's 2nd congressional district. Born in Keene, Ohio, Farwell attended the common schools and an academy in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. He moved to Iowa in 1852, settling in

Jones County, Iowa Jones County is a county in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census the population was 20,646. The county seat is Anamosa. The county was founded in 1837 and named after George Wallace Jones, a United States senator and member of Congres ...

, 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 The 31st Iowa Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Service The 31st Iowa Infantry was organized at Davenport, Iowa and mustered in for three years of Federal service on Octobe ...

. He was promoted to major in 1864, and served until the close of the war. He participated in the battles of

Chickasaw Bayou Chickasaw Bayou is a stream in the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is a tributary to the Yazoo River. Chickasaw Bayou derives its name from the Chickasaw tribe. The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, also called the Battle ...

Arkansas Post The Arkansas Post (french: Poste de Arkansea) (Spanish: ''Puesto de Arkansas''), formally the Arkansas Post National Memorial, was the first European settlement in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain and present-day U.S. state of Arkansas. In 168 ...

, Siege of Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain,

Missionary Ridge Missionary Ridge is a geographic feature in Chattanooga, Tennessee, site of the Battle of Missionary Ridge, a battle in the American Civil War, fought on November 25, 1863. Union forces under Maj. Gens. Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, a ...

Kennesaw Mountain Kennesaw Mountain is a mountain between Marietta and Kennesaw, Georgia in the United States with a summit elevation of . It is the highest point in the core (urban and suburban) metro Atlanta area, and fifth after further-north exurban counties ...

, Atlanta, and Jonesboro, and Sherman's March to the Sea.Benjamin F. Gue, " History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, Vol. 4 (Sewall S. Farwell)" pp. 89 (1902). 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 Hiram Price (January 10, 1814 – May 30, 1901) was a nineteenth-century banker, merchant, bookkeeper, bank president, railroad president, and five-term Republican congressman from Iowa's 2nd congressional district and as commissioner of In ...

as the Iowa 2nd congressional district's representative in the U.S. House."Political News," Cedar Rapids Weekly Times, 1880-09-09 at p. 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).

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Farwell, Sewall Spaulding 1834 births 1909 deaths People from Coshocton County, Ohio Union Army officers Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa People from Monticello, Iowa 19th-century American politicians Military personnel from Iowa