Capt. Charles Farr: Truth and Legend

Charles Farr was a chaplain and evangelist to sailors in the San Pedro Bay in the early days of the Port of Los Angeles (1901-1920) when the town of San Pedro still had dirt streets and no cars. He was born January 14, 1859, and died October 23, 1939, and is buried at Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood, California.

The Banning company, run by the sons of the late Phineas Banning, "The Father of the Los Angeles Harbor," donated the hull of the legendary decommissioned Warrior I tugboat as a preaching platform and ministry to seafarers. Farr built a "floating Bethel," a house of God, atop the hull and cared for seafarers, fishermen, and squatters until 1920.

Read the full story in this 125-page paperback or Kindle ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YTN7MHR   

If you love a mystery, Captain Farr, his life on the Warrior, his work in Los Angeles Harbor, his family, friends, and benefactors will give you hours of detective pleasure.

THREE STEPS:

1)  Read our project overview to find out what we already know about Capt. Farr and to see our sources. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bfoMyWmN3Ni4PbDL6Y17JlH5cIfoFKKpblh0sl_JZdA/edit?usp=sharing

• Part 1: How the Project Started    
• Part 2: Problems in Researching Charles Farr’s Life  
• Part 3: How You Can Help! (Help Research—or Donate!)  
• Part 4: Charles Farr’s Story Based on the Information We Currently Have 

2) Tell us about yourself and what you'd like to research. Contact us through this Google form: https://forms.gle/gh35TUnRtH46ds2SA

3) DONATE to Beacon Light Mission:  https://beaconlightmission.org and leave a message about your interest in Captain Farr. 

The short answer is that Charles Farr and the founders of Beacon Light Mission both had a vision to start ministries to sailors in the Los Angeles Harbor, back when it was still called San Pedro Bay.  

They both had a lot of experience. Farr had run a sailors' mission on a Great Lakes canal boat in Toledo, Ohio (about 1897-1901). And the founders of Beacon Light, notably Giles Kellogg and George S. Higby, had worked with a sailors' mission in San Diego, California (1897-1905). The first permanent superintendent, John Makins, had been in charge of a Christian sailors' and soldiers' home in Nagasaki, Japan (1898-1905). They all had the desire to spread the gospel and to improve the lot of sailors in the newly inaugurated Los Angeles Harbor (1899). 

Farr wanted a sailors' mission on a boat in the harbor, just as he had on the Great Lakes. The Beacon Light Mission founders wanted a sailors' home on land and incorporated immediately so they could buy real estate. At various points they sought to work together, and there was some discussion in 1904 and 1905 about combining efforts, but so far we have found no evidence they ever did. We have the board meeting minutes and annual reports from Beacon Light Mission and newspapers reports of Charles Farr's interviews, but nothing provides evidence that two were ever legally or financially affiliated. Their organizations were separate. They continued on their own paths and sometimes spoke at the same conferences.

Seaman's Friend Society of Southern California

Farr founded his work officially in Dec 1902 or January 1903. For the next 18 years, Charles Farr called is organization the Seaman's Friend Society of Southern California, which was loosely affiliated with the American Seamen's Friend Society of New York, founded in 1827, on the East Coast of the United States.

Beacon Light Mission (official name: Southern California Floating Christian Endeavor Assoc.) was incorporated in April 1905. Its founders were affiliated with a different organization, the Floating Christian Endeavor society founded in 1890 by Miss Antoinette Palmer Jones, which branched off from the Christian Endeavor society founded in 1880 by Rev. Francis E. Clark in Portland, Maine.  The first sailor's ministry on Beacon Street was called "Sailors' Rest Mission." They changed the name on the front of the mission to Beacon Light in the 1940s when the focus included more than sailors.

So they were connected in vision and spirit and desire to preach the Gospel, but Farr played no role in the founding of Beacon Light Mission. In fact, people in the 1930s, a decade after Captain Farr shut down his ministry, asked the staff at Beacon Light if he had been their founder. They said no. In fact it was the other way around. Their founders had helped Captain Farr in his first two years. 

Read the full story in this 125-page paperback or Kindle ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YTN7MHR It shows how the urban legend started, and how we know it is not correct. And surprisingly, you'll learn how Farr's story was mingled with another organization as well. He didn't found either of these organizations, nor did he ever work for them.

The Captain Charles Farr Research Project was started by a board member of Beacon Light Mission who loves research and wanted to know more about Charles Farr. 

She wrote: 

"In March 2022 I stumbled on a mystery. I am a board member for Beacon Light Mission in Wilmington, California, the heart of the Port of Los Angeles. I was entranced by the story that our organization had been founded more than 100 years ago by an old seafarer, Captain Charles Farr, who preached the gospel to sailors on the hull of an abandoned tugboat, the Warrior. I’ve always loved the legend of Charles Farr, the "sky pilot" (aka chaplain) who had been saved from a life of drinking and committed himself to evangelism.    

I was part of a committee tasked to update our Beacon Light Mission website (http://beaconlightmission.org). I wanted to find out more details about Farr. Where had he come from? What was his story? When did he pass away? Was he the president of our organization at the time of his death? What happened next? Did he have any grandchildren or relatives I could interview?   

As I went through the archives, I found the original hand-written book of board meeting minutes dating to our founding in April 1905. I expected to find dozens of mentions of Captain Farr and reports about his work, but I found nothing about his involvement as a founder of Beacon Light. I found a couple of entries mentioning that he was a missionary in the harbor, but nothing suggesting he was the founder of Beacon Light Mission.   

So I spent hours reading through contemporaneous newspapers and documents using Hathi Trust archives, Newspapers.com, the Historical Newspaper database, Los Angeles Times, Internet Archives books, the UCR California database, several history books on San Pedro, and multiple other archives. Then I visited the Los Angeles Maritime Museum and Bolton Hall in Tujunga. Our current treasurer gave me copy of our original articles of incorporation from the California Secretary of State. 

After several weeks and many hours, it became evident that Capt. Charles Farr was courageous, tenacious, and high-minded, but he was not the founder of Beacon Light Mission. He was friendly with its parent organization, Christian Endeavor, and attended their conventions. It's also clear that some of the founders of Beacon Light Mission helped Farr by leading worship services on the Warrior, and may have hoped that he would join their mission as a superintendent, but ultimately they were called to different paths. 

Farr was officially connected with another organization, Seaman’s Friend Society of Southern California, which was not incorporated (or if it was, not under that name) and no longer exists. He was not willing to give up that affiliation. Beacon Light was incorporated as Southern California Floating Christian Endeavor Society Association, affiliated with a larger organization, Floating Christian Endeavor, which slowly faded away after it's founder's death during the 1919 pandemic and World War I when the Navy provided their own chaplains on ships. 

After World War I, our founders changed their focus as the needs changed and continued to do life-giving work in the Los Angeles Harbor area for nearly 120 years. We are now located in Wilmington, CA." 

• Buy the 125-page paperback or Kindle ebook with all photos and newspaper articles. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YTN7MHR
• If you wish to help with research, fill out this Google Form: https://forms.gle/gh35TUnRtH46ds2SA
• If you wish to read the details of Charles Farr's story as we know it (and can verify it), go here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bfoMyWmN3Ni4PbDL6Y17JlH5cIfoFKKpblh0sl_JZdA/
• If you appreciate this work, donate to Beacon Light Mission that has shared Charles Farr's vision: http://BeaconLightMission.org

The Captain Charles Farr Research Project was started by a board member of Beacon Light Mission who loves research and wanted to know more about Charles Farr. 

She wrote: 

"In March 2022 I stumbled on a mystery. I am a board member for Beacon Light Mission in Wilmington, California, the heart of the Port of Los Angeles. I was entranced by the story that our organization had been founded more than 100 years ago by an old seafarer, Captain Charles Farr, who preached the gospel to sailors on the hull of an abandoned tugboat, the Warrior. I’ve always loved the legend of Charles Farr, the "sky pilot" (aka chaplain) who had been saved from a life of drinking and committed himself to evangelism.    

I was part of a committee tasked to update our Beacon Light Mission website (http://beaconlightmission.org). I wanted to find out more details about Farr. Where had he come from? What was his story? When did he pass away? Was he the president of our organization at the time of his death? What happened next? Did he have any grandchildren or relatives I could interview?   

As I went through the archives, I found the original hand-written book of board meeting minutes dating to our founding in April 1905. I expected to find dozens of mentions of Captain Farr and reports about his work, but I found nothing about his involvement as a founder of Beacon Light. I found a couple of entries mentioning that he was a missionary in the harbor, but nothing suggesting he was the founder of Beacon Light Mission.   

So I spent hours reading through contemporaneous newspapers and documents using Hathi Trust archives, Newspapers.com, the Historical Newspaper database, Los Angeles Times, Internet Archives books, the UCR California database, several history books on San Pedro, and multiple other archives. Then I visited the Los Angeles Maritime Museum and Bolton Hall in Tujunga. Our current treasurer gave me copy of our original articles of incorporation from the California Secretary of State. 

After several weeks and many hours, it became evident that Capt. Charles Farr was courageous, tenacious, and high-minded, but he was not the founder of Beacon Light Mission. He was friendly with its parent organization, Christian Endeavor, and attended their conventions. It's also clear that some of the founders of Beacon Light Mission helped Farr by leading worship services on the Warrior, and may have hoped that he would join their mission as a superintendent, but ultimately they were called to different paths. 

Farr was officially connected with another organization, Seaman’s Friend Society of Southern California, which was not incorporated (or if it was, not under that name) and no longer exists. He was not willing to give up that affiliation. Beacon Light was incorporated as Southern California Floating Christian Endeavor Society Association, affiliated with a larger organization, Floating Christian Endeavor, which slowly faded away after it's founder's death during the 1919 pandemic and World War I when the Navy provided their own chaplains on ships. 

After World War I, our founders changed their focus as the needs changed and continued to do life-giving work in the Los Angeles Harbor area for nearly 120 years. We are now located in Wilmington, CA." 

• Buy the 125-page paperback or Kindle ebook with all photos and newspaper articles. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YTN7MHR
• If you wish to help with research, fill out this Google Form: https://forms.gle/gh35TUnRtH46ds2SA
• If you wish to read the details of Charles Farr's story as we know it (and can verify it), go here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bfoMyWmN3Ni4PbDL6Y17JlH5cIfoFKKpblh0sl_JZdA/
• If you appreciate this work, donate to Beacon Light Mission that has shared Charles Farr's vision: http://BeaconLightMission.org

Click this link to see early documents from the first 20 years of Beacon Light Mission: 1905-1924.  https://bit.ly/3PKjczK

This is a photo archive facsimile of the old leather-bound book of handwritten board meeting minutes from April 1905 to April 1924 for Beacon Light Mission (in 1905, it was incorporated as the Southern California Floating Christian Endeavor Association). You will find all kinds of interesting insights buried in an otherwise ordinary set of minutes.  Beacon Light was founded in San Pedro, California, at the beginning of the Los Angeles Harbor expansion when the small town of San Pedro had no paved streets, no cars—just a few bicycles, horse carriages, and the railway to Los Angeles 26 miles north.