Editing Farwell, Michigan (section)

==History==
[[File:George and Martha Hitchcock House (09 2022).jpg|thumb|250px|left|The [[George and Martha Hitchcock House]] was built in 1885.  It is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] and is also a [[Michigan State Historic Preservation Office|Michigan State Historic Site]].]]
Farwell was founded in 1870 by Edmund Hall, John Van Riper, and George Hitchcock.  The Farwell post office opened on January 20, 1871, with George Hitchcock serving as the first postmaster.  It was informally [[plat]]ted in 1871 and officially platted the following year by Josiah Littlefield of Ann Arbor.  The [[Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad]] had plans of expanding into the area on a new route connecting [[Saginaw, Michigan|Saginaw]] to [[Ludington, Michigan|Ludington]], which was completed by the end of the decade.  The new community was named after New York native Samuel Farwell, who had an interest in the railroad and was a construction contractor.  In 1871, Farwell became the first county seat of Clare County but lost the seat of government to [[Harrison, Michigan|Harrison]] in 1879 after the Farwell courthouse burned down two years earlier.  Farwell incorporated as a village in 1879.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Walter |last1=Romig |title=Michigan Place Names: The History of the Founding and the Naming of More Than Five Thousand Past and Present Michigan Communities |series=Great Lakes Books Series |type=Paperback  |orig-date= 1973 |date=October 1, 1986 |publisher=[[Wayne State University Press]] |isbn = 978-0-8143-1838-6 |location=Detroit, Michigan| pages=192, 254}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Village of Farwell|url=https://villageoffarwell.net/node/51|title=Farwell History|date=2022|accessdate=September 2, 2022}}</ref>

In 1982, the [[Rock Road massacre]] occurred to the west of Farwell in [[Garfield Township, Clare County, Michigan|Garfield Township]].  Due to its proximity to the village, it became known as the "Farwell Murders" and brought national attention to the area.<ref>{{cite news|title=Small Town in Michigan Feels the Dread That Follows Mass Murder|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 19, 1982|page=12|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/19/us/small-town-in-michigan-feels-the-dread-that-follows-mass-murder.html}}</ref>