Ferdinand Farmer (232)

Ferdinand Farmer (13 October 1720–17 August 1786) was a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, and a member of the American Philosophical Society via his 1768 election. Ferdinand "Farmer" Steinmeyer was born in the Swabia region of Germany, where he studied philosophy and then medicine, before entering the priesthood in 1743, volunteering for missionary service after ordination. Slated to head to China, he ended up assigned to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where his ministered primarily to German-speaking Catholics starting in 1752. His flock of 400, nearly a third of known Pennsylvania Catholics counted in a 1757 census, spread across multiple counties: ministration meant itineration. Although transferred to Philadelphia in 1758, he ranged across the Mid-Atlantic, from New York City to middle and southern Pennsylvania to New Jersey. When British General William Howe approached Farmer to raise and chaplain a Catholic loyalist regiment, Farmer politely declined on account of his age and heath—the he resumed his itinerations. Farmer, with his colleague at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, APS Member Robert Harding, SJ, did yeoman work indeed to elevate the profile of Catholics’ American compatibility. The French alliance (and Spain’s support) virtually extinguished public anti-Catholic sentiment: members of Congress, Protestant clergy, and leading citizens attended Masses with celebratory Te Deums, paeons of thanks sung in triumph and gratitude at St. Mary’s. Farmer was appointed a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania after its 1779 reorganization. His participation in the Society was largely as a conduit for the written contributions of fellow Jesuit and APS Member, Christian Mayer, on his astronomical findings. Farmer played a crucial role in responding to the growth of Catholicism in Philadelphia, just as he continued to minister to rural Catholics. He died as he lived: aged sixty-five and suffering a chronic cough, he traveled to New Jersey to preach, against a fellow priest’s recommendation, and died a few months later. His funeral was widely attended by mourners of all sects and backgrounds. (PI)