Hazlewood Power Farish (1880-1958)

Portrait from the Official and Statistical Register of Mississippi, 1908.

    A practicing attorney for over five decades, lifelong Mississippi native Hazlewood Power Farish was for many years at the forefront of legal and political circles in both Issequena and Washington County, being elected as a state representative and senator from that county before he turned thirty years of age. Late in his life, Farish achieved further prominence when he was selected as the President of the Washington County Bar Association in 1951.

   Born and raised in the Issequena County town of Mayersville, Hazlewood P. Farish was born on September 14, 1880, one of five children born to Confederate Army veteran Robert Davis (1845-1900) and Caroline Power Farish (1855-1918). Inheriting his unusual first name courtesy of his grandfather, Hazlewood M. Farish (died 1851), Hazlewood Power Farish began his education in the public school system of Mayersville and would later attend the Jefferson Military College in Washington County, Mississippi. In the late 1890s, Farish enrolled at the University of Mississippi's Law School (graduating in the class of 1899) and shortly thereafter entered into practice in Mayersville.

  Within a few years of beginning his practice, Hazlewood Farish entered county politics, becoming secretary of the Issequena County Democratic Executive Committee. He would later serve as the attorney for the Issequena County Board of Supervisors beginning in 1903.

                                         Farish's senior class portrait from the 1899 Ole Miss Yearbook.

  

     On November 14, 1906, Hazlewood Farish married in New Orleans to Mildred Lillard (1880-1907), who died several months after their marriage in June 1907. Farish would later remarry to Sarah Lafon Hunt (1885-1966), with whom he would have two daughters, Elizabeth (1913-1989) and Sarah Hunt Farish (1917-2002).

   In November 1905 Farish was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives from Issequena and served during the house session of 1906-07. In 1907 he was elected to the Mississippi Senate for one term (1908-1912) and during his service held seats on the senate committees on the Judiciary, Public Education, Claims, Corporations, and Levees. Following his brief tenure in state government, Hazlewood Farish returned to practicing law, eventually removing from Mayersville to Greenville around 1910. After his resettlement, Farish took on the post of attorney for the Illinois Central Railroad and later was a member of the Greenville-based law firm of Farish, Keady, and Campbell. He would also serve as the city attorney for Greenville and as the attorney for the local Levee Board.

   In December 1951 the then seventy-one-year-old Farish was selected as the President of the Washington County Bar Association, succeeding outgoing president Holland O. Felt. Active in numerous fraternal organizations in his home state, Farish was a Scottish Rite Mason, a past Chancellor Commander of the local Knights of Pythias Lodge, and a past president of the Greenville Rotary Club. Farish died at age 77 on January 17, 1958, and was survived by his wife and two daughters. Following their respective deaths both Hazlewood and his wife Sarah were interred at the Greenville Cemetery.

       Hazlewood Farish, from the December 10, 1951 edition of the Greenville Delta Democrat Times.