This Day in History: 1921-06-22

Dr. James W. Farrar, Pastor of the Ramapo Reformed Church, died suddenly in bed at the Parsonage. Since his wife was in the hospital he was alone at home, and his death was said to have been painless. He had been eating at the home of the Church Sexton, Mr. Dedrick. When he did not appear for lunch the Dedrick’s thought he might have made other arrangements, but when he did not respond to an appointment with some children in the congregation Mr. Dedrick began a search of the grounds and eventually climbed through the window of his second floor bedroom to discover him peacefully in bed. He had been dead for several hours. The Dr. who examined him believes that it was a heart attack brought on by the extreme heat of the day. He has been in Mahwah for a little more than a year. He had won many friends for the church and was especially fond of children. He had just passed his 68th birthday on June 20th. His body was returned to Brooklyn where he was buried after a simple ceremony in the First Reformed Church where he had been Pastor for 27 years. He had attended a dinner in Brooklyn given by Judge Landis, the baseball Commissioner, on the night before he died. (Bristow)