ROBERT N. FARNSWORTH.

                                                                 Winfield.

Winfield Directory 1885.

Farnsworth R N, star lunch room, 109 e 9th, res 1101 Stewart.

NOTE: I could not find much information on R. N. Farnsworth. It is not known when he came to Winfield. He never placed any ads in the Winfield Courier for his place of business, “Ninth Avenue Star Lunch Room.” MAW

                                               FROM THE NEWSPAPERS.

[COWLEY COUNTY DISTRICT COURT.]

Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 9, 1885.

Court met this morning and went through a few cases. The term will last six weeks and the docket is quite heavy. A. P. Johnson was appointed to act as County Attorney in the case of the State against D. P. Hurst, Mr. Asp being disqualified by reason of his connections with the case before election.

The bailiffs for this term are T. A. Blanchard and R. Farnsworth.

[COWLEY COUNTY AUDITOR’S REPORT.]

Winfield Courier, Thursday, June 18, 1885.

ASSESSORS’ FEES. R. N. Farnsworth: $6.00.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, June 25, 1885.

Marshal McFadden arrested Robert N. Farnsworth, Tuesday, on a charge of selling intoxicating liquors in his Ninth Avenue lunch room. He gave bond and his case comes up in the Police Court Thursday.

[NOT GUILTY, SIR.]

Winfield Courier, Thursday, July 2, 1885.

Robert Farnsworth, who was arrested the other day for selling intoxicants in his Ninth Avenue lunch room, had his trial in Police Court Thursday and was found innocent. A dozen or more witnesses swore that he kept nothing but sweet cider—that wouldn’t intoxicate a chicken. The man who told Marshal McFadden that he would swear to having got stuff there that made him drunk testified that he drank sweet cider there and it made him sick. The facts of the case are that this fellow had been drinking alcohol, used in his vocation, put sweet cider on top of it, and the mixture upset him. All who know Bob discredited this charge from the start. He has always shown himself to be an honest, enterprising man—always acting on the square. He has taken an active part, too, in every public enterprise that has been advanced.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, July 2, 1885.

J. R. Scott, the painter, who was so ready to swear that he obtained intoxicants and got drunk in Farnsworth’s lunch room, and then on the witness stand swore that he drank sweet cider and got “sick,” got a good deal sicker yesterday. He was hauled up, as soon as the Farnsworth case was over, before Judge Turner and plead guilty to a “plain drunk” and got $12.25. Then Sheriff McIntire gobbled him and in Justice Snow’s court Scott’s pocket was relieved of $23.50. It costs something now-a-days to go off on a little booze. A double dose, one in municipal court and one in the State.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, August 20, 1885.


Bob Farnsworth, the Ninth avenue restaurant man, invested in a lot of female melons Friday morning, or rather a lot of melons from a female. Two white women and an American of Ethiopian extraction drew up before his door early this morning with a nice load of melons, and Bob, the darkey, and the two women commenced at once to draw a bargain. After due time a trade was made. The melons unloaded, the women found fault with the counting. At last it was settled that there were forty-one melons, and one of the women went and collected pay for eighty-one melons. The clerk took her word for it. There was either a big mistake on their side or it was intentional. As soon as the women got in the wagon, they drove off very fast, and seemed to be in a hurry to get out of town. The clerk followed them for some distance, but couldn’t catch them. Coming back, Capt. Siverd was put on the track. Cap. has great power with ladies and no doubt he will compromise the affair amicably.

[A QUEER BULLET.]

Winfield Courier, Thursday, August 27, 1885.

Johnnie Davis, clerk at Bob Farnsworth’s lunch counter, was in two inches of eternity the other day: about twenty-eight feet closer than he ever wants to be again. A nail had been sticking out of the refrigerator’s side for a long time, and every time he got near it, he tore his pants, shirt, or something else, and this time the tear brought sure action. He grabbed a two-pound scale weight and struck the nail a fearful blow. It went in with a flash, followed by a loud explosion like a pistol shot. Men rushed in from the street, expecting to see a “dead corpus.” John was paralyzed for a minute, when a post mortem was held on the refrigerator. In the charcoal between the outside and the zinc lining, a thirty-eight cartridge had, by some hook or crook, got lodged. The lick exploded it. The bullet came through, struck the weight, and glanced back. John’s posture put his abdomen square in range, and if that weight hadn’t glanced the bullet, we would have headed this article, “A Terrible Accident!” The charcoal of that refrigerator has been thoroughly overhauled.

[REPUBLICAN COUNTY CONVENTION.]

Winfield Courier, Thursday, September 24, 1885.

                                            WINFIELD 3RD AND 4TH WARDS.

Delegates: D. L. Kretsinger, G. H. Buckman, John C. Long, H. L. Wells, J. L. Horning, R. Farnsworth, A. McNeal, C. Stamp.

Alternates: Chas. Holmes, J. E. Snow, Capt. Whiting, L. Conrad, W. H. Shearer, Will Whitney, E. C. Seward, W. B. Pixley.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, November 12, 1885.

George Reynolds and D. E. Sinskey, from Panora, Iowa, old friends of Bob Farnsworth, are in the city looking up a location for a bank. They are very much pleased with our city. They think this is the best place they have struck in Kansas.

[BURGLARY.]

Winfield Courier, Thursday, January 28, 1886.


Bob Farnsworth’s lunch room, on 9th Avenue, and Mooso’s billiard hall were broken into Sunday. The burglar pried the back door open at Farnsworth’s, and going in, made himself at home by cooking a good mess of oysters, scraping up one dollar’s worth of pennies, and taking a little tobacco and a few cigars. Ed Davis, who was night watchman for Jim McLain last night, followed the party to the Lindell and came near arresting him, but was not sure of his man. This morning Farnsworth went to the Lindell and recognized the dollar in pennies. At the billiard hall a pane of glass was broken and the burglar lifted the window by this means and got away with one hundred cigars and some other things. It is thought that one and the same party did both jobs. The party is supposed to be one Hines from Arkansas City, who has been loafing around here for some time. He took the Frisco this morning. The officers will get on to him pretty soon and make him smoke for this little night episode.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, February 4, 1886.

Alfred Farnsworth, nephew of our Bob, arrived Friday from Iowa. Mr. Farnsworth started December 13th, with 25 head of cows, driving them through about 600 in this time. This was a pretty quick trip, considering the weather.

                       [Above item is most confusing. Not certain I understand it.]

Winfield Courier, Thursday, March 4, 1886.

Bob Farnsworth tells us that he has just received a letter stating there is two feet of snow in Central Iowa.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, March 18, 1886.

Preparatory work to moving Farnsworth’s lunch room is going ahead. Bob says he can’t get a suitable room for love nor money and thinks he will move to Wichita. Bob is a good live man and shouldn’t be allowed to leave here on account of having no business building. We don’t want to lose any live men.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, March 18, 1886.

Bob Farnsworth will occupy the basement under Hudson Bros.’ store. A front entrance will be put in and everything fixed up in a first-class manner.

Winfield Courier, Thursday, April 1, 1886.

Bob Farnsworth is fast completing his restaurant room and will have it ready for business, he thinks, by the last of the week. He will have a very neat room under Hudson Bros.