The origin of our family is the British Islands. Richard came from Wales and based on maiden names of the women that married into the Tarr family in the first five generations, they also appear to have come from the British Islands.

The material presented here is an effort to trace the family line with the Tarr nane. All the early generation material traces the male descendants only. However, for the most recent generations  both the male and female descendants.  

The early history books give a fair amount of information about Richard Tarr because he was the first settler at Sandy Bay, a place now known as Rockport, Massachusetts. It is believed that he arrived in this country at Marbelhead, Massachusetts. He first settled on a farm at Blue Poi.n t, Maine and later at Saco, Maine where he improved a saw mill for its owners and where he owned fifty acres of land. He was driven from Saco by the Indians and moved south to Sandy Bay. This spot is on Cape Ann and is north east of Boston. He probably was induced to settle in this remote area by coastal shippers who went to Sandy Bay to obtain trees to be used for boat building purposes.

While living in Maine, he and his first wife (name unknown) had two sons. He then married Elizabeth Dicer. From this marriage they had five sons and four daughters, all of whom were born in Rockport. He had five acres of land under cultivation. The extent of his farming activities is revealed by his will. It listed his assets as including three cows, one pair of steers, three yearlings, one calf, twenty sheep, and six lambs. Richard died in 1732.

We descend from Richard Tarr's fifth son, Benjamin. He was born on April 9, 1700 and died in 1783. Many of Richard's Tarr's descendents today are from the Richard/Benjamin line. We have less information about Benjamin then we have about Richard. During Benjamin's life time Gloucester, which is adjacent to Rockport, was a developing fishing center. Many of our early ancestors were .either fishermen or seamen. This is borne out in the records of Tarr deaths which report a number of drownings.

Benjamin and his wife Rebeca Wales Card had four boys and four girls. We descend from his third son John who married Elizabeth Gross. Two of their sons drowned unmarried, one son was a bachelor. Their remaining son John junior is our ancestor. John senior and John junior served together in the Sea Forces during the Revolutionary War. John senior died while in the service in New Jersey. There are at least fifteen other descendants of Richard Tarr that served in the Armed Forces during the Revolutionary War. Some of these men fought at Bunker Hill and others were involved with the defense of the sea coast.

 John junior was born in 1756 and married Agnes Thursten. They had fourteen children, ten boys and four girls. Their son Seth who was born in 1804 at Gloucester is our ancestor. Seth was the first of our ancestors to leave the Rockport area. He moved to New Market, New Hampshire where he married Mary Ann Wiley in 1826. They had five children, three sons and two daughters. One of their sons died in infancy and   another son whom was in the Union" army during the Civil War was captured and died in the infamous Andersonville prison. Their third son was our ancestor Stephen A. Tarr.

Stephen Augustus Tarr was born in 1834. At age nineteen he migrated westward to Illinois living near Kewanee, Henry County, Illinois. He lived there a year and then went back to New Hampshire in 1854. The following year he returned to Kewanee bringing with him his mother, father and sister Lida. In 1860 he married Jane E. Hallock and in the following year moved to South Paw Paw in Lee county, Illinois.

In August of 1862 he enlisted in Company K, 75th Volunteer Infantry. Without any training his Company was sent into battle in Kentucky. At the battle of Perryville he was wounded in the foot and in December was discharged because of his injury.

In 1880 Stephen purchased the 110 acre farm from his father-in-law Israel Hallock. His principal occupation was farming, but he also worked as a painter. He died in 1906 and his wife, Jane in 1926.

Stephen and Jane had eight children. Two sons died in infancy and a daughter died at age fourteen. Their daughter Mary Tarr married David Morey. Their son Stephen Franklin lived in Indiana during most of his adult life. Stephen and Jane had twin sons Rubert and Reubin. Rubert stayed in Illinois and farmed his father's farm. Reuben together with his brother Thomas Wiley first migrated to Iowa. From there Reubin went out to the state of Washington where he farmed. Thomas Wiley moved to Idaho where he farmed and was in the cattle business.