I found 3 court cases involving Dr. James Farnan... The first case accused him of rape, the second accused him of attempted murder of some man, the third accused him of bastardly. I can't tell from the cases if he was convicted or not. He apparently got this single woman pregnant which ties the rape and bastardly cases together. The attempted murder case is tied to these cases and from what I can tell someone came after James and James fired a gun at him to protect himself.

There are affidavits from his two son David Farnan and Frank Farnan but none from Anna Farnan or the oldest son Henry Farnan. Also curious is there is no mention of the mother Harriet McDill Farnan. Harriet died Feb 22, 1872 and the cases were being tried in 1871 and 1872. She is not buried anywhere in Sparta and I am now wondering if she may have left.

I also found out that David Farnan died in 28 Nov 1889 and is buried with the McDill side of the family in Monmouth, Warren, Illinois. Another court case filed by Henry Farnan in 1883 to get control of two properties in Sparta from James Farnan's second wife provided the clues.

• Court case #2
• Court case #3
• 1875 libel case

Synopsis:

1. James died in 1877 and left no will. His first wife (Harriet McDill), mother of his 6 children, died in 1872. His second wife was Henriette Gass.
2. At the time of his death he was living on some parcels of land (his "homestead") in Sparta, Il. with three of his children (ages 15-19) and Henrietta
3. After eight months, Henrietta and her two youngest step-sons went to live in St. Louis.
4. She never returned and rented out the Sparta house. She kept one room for herself with some furniture and it appears that the four children were co-owners of the house. After one year she sold the furniture and "surrendered" the room to a tenant named William Borders.
5. Borders purchased a one quarter share of the house from Henrietta's oldest son, Harry and later claimed to have acquired the shares of the other 3 children.
6. Borders claimed that Henrietta's stake in the property was now officially abandoned and he was suing to obtain full possession of the property.

Judgment summary (courtesy Google Digital Books)

Went out to the cemetery in Sparta Randolph County, Illinois and solved some issues but gained new ones. Can not find any of Anna's father, mother, or siblings. I also traced them across to Clonmellon, Meath, Ireland.

"Elizabeth Ayres Kidd [ed. daughter of Hobart] had 7 half siblings in Morrisonville, Clinton, New York where Hobart was from. I found a tree for Hobart that had recently posted but with a completely different Ayres family claiming the same parents family. I got in touch with the submitter and ... we confirmed they were in fact the same Hobart Ayres. It turns out the U.S. patents Hobart had tied both families together based on newspaper articles in New York and Anna Farnan Ayres obituary. The newspaper articles in New York said he left New York for Chicago after 1882 to expand his step ladder business. Don't know if he divorced afterwards and or abandoned the first family but as we know he married Anna in 1888. ... Elizabeth may never have known..."