John Farquhar has been a dedicated Civil War buff since the fall of 1949 when, at age 13, he and his mother first visited the Gettysburg battlefield, stopping and reading every historical sign on the way from their home in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. They roomed in a private home at 13-11 (today’s Postal address) Steinwehr Avenue, today known as “The Strip,†next to the present-day Avenue Restaurant.
Farquhar received an B.A. degree from Gettysburg College in 1958. While there, he paid little attention to the Gettysburg National Military Park (GNPG). He graduated with a dental degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962. He opened his dental practice in Seaford, Delaware, and retired in 1999.
A past board member of the Friends of the National Park of Gettysburg (FNPG), now reorganized as the Friends of the Gettysburg Foundation (FGF), Farquhar guided the FNPG toward more land preservation. He provided Pig ‘n the Poke tours to sites rarely visited on the battlefield as part of FNPG programs to raise funds for land purchase to preserve the integrity of the battlefields and that of the surrounding land.
This website is an idea that resulted from transcribing and annotating the letters in the Fisher Collection at the GNMP Archives with the assistance of the Museum Services Curator, Dean Knudsen. From that effort, Farquhar hopes to produce a book in late 2008, or early 2009.