Rev. E. W. Pharr was born in South Carolina February 25, 1819. In 1840 he moved to Georgia and married. About two years later was "born again" "born of the Spirit." Though reared under the influence of Presbyterianism, he united with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in which he was ordained a ruling elder; served a number of years in that capacity with a zeal and ability that are seldom surpassed--so say his contemporaries. In 1857, his wife being called to her heavenly reward, Brother Pharr was left with six children, four sons and two daughters. One of each preceded him to the glory land by several years. Of the surviving ones, all Christians, two are ruling elders in the church to which their father was so much devoted. Dr. Pharr (for he was a doctor of medicine many years, practicing with splendid success) married a second time in 1857, getting a good business woman, with whom he lived happily till September, 1898, when she also went to her blessed reward. On March 15, 1900, he was married to Mrs. Amanda Green, a widow lady, a good Christian woman, who was truly "a help meet" for him while he remained on this side of "the valley of the shadow of death." It was in 1863, in Union County, Arkansas, that Dr. Pharr was received under the care of Ouachita Presbytery as a probationer for the ministry, and in 1865 he was set apart to the whole work of the gospel ministry. Father Clampit preaching the ordination sermon.

Though limited in education, his power in the pulpit was marked from the beginning. He made everything else secondary to his work as a minister, giving up the lucrative practice of medicine which, by faithfulness, he had gained. He studied "to show himself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed."

Brother Pharr was blessed with a good physical constitution. He was portly and commanding in his bearing, yet tempered with that gentleness of spirit that won for him the admiration of the masses. He was possessed of far more than the average native ability. Truly a man of "great faith," hence he was given to much prayer, and it has never been the writer's privilege to hear one more able in prayer than was he. On one occasion, when Dr. Pharr was conducting a revival meeting, he called the audience to prayer in behalf of penitents, leading himself. He humbly pleaded the promises with an unshaken confidence. When he arose all was quiet, but a sense of joy was clearly perceptible. He said: "God has heard and answered my prayer; has blessed some soul here to-night. Will you confess it?" At that instant one who had knelt as a penitent arose and said: "It is I. God has blessed me."

Dr. Pharr was a wise and safe counselor, a fine exhorter, a logical, argumentative, theological preacher "of the gospel of Christ." As a presbyter he had but few equals; and it is in that capacity he will be sorely missed by the five not much more than boy preachers that survive him in the Ouachita Presbytery, a meeting of which has just closed.

Brethren of our glorious church, you do not know how like giving up a father unless you have had a similar experience. "Pray for us."

Brother Pharr fell asleep in Jesus May 21, 1901. His funeral was preached August 4, 1901, at Cold Water church, from the following text, of his own choosing: 2 Cor. 5: I--"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
  Foss, Ark.

[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, August 29, 1901, page 1087]

Name: Pharr, W. W. [sic: E. W.]
Presbytery: Ouachita
Place of Residence: Liberty, Ark.
Date: May 21, 1901
Age: 82

[Source: Minutes of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 1902, page 195a]

Rev. Eli W. Pharr, one of the honored and respected old residents of Ouachita County, Arkansas, should be accorded a worthy place in this volume, for he has been associated with the agricultural interests of the county since 1849. He was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, February 25, 1819, being a son of Samuel T. and Mary W. (Guffin) Pharr, the father of whom was born in South Carolina, in 1792, having been a tiller of the soil, and a minister of the gospel by occupation. He and wife became the parents of four children, two of whom are living at the present time: Eli W. and Mary A. (wife of William G. Casey, a resident of Alabama). At an early day Samuel T. Pharr removed from his native State to Georgia, and from there to Arkansas, in 1849, settling in the northern part of the State, his wife dying here in 1880, and earnest member of the Presbyterian Church. Eli W. Pharr first started in life for himself at the age of twenty-one years as a farmer and was married in 1840, to Miss Elizabeth Lowe, a native of South Carolina, by whom he became the father of seven children, four of whom are now living: John W. (a farmer and merchant of this county), Mary L. (wife of L. R. Hollingsworth, a resident of Hughes Springs, Texas), Edward I. (a farmer and merchant of Columbia County, Arkansas), and Joseph S. (a farmer of this county). The mother of these children died in 1856, a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church, and in 1857 Mr. Pharr espoused Mrs. Parthenia Seehorn, a widow of Alex Seehorn. She was born in Mississippi, in 1820, and is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Pharr received an excellent education in his youth, and for some time was an attendant of a college at Graffenburg, Alabama, which was under the management of P. M. Sheppard. He also graduated from a medical college in 1854, after which he entered actively upon the practice of that profession, continuing from 1855 to 1856, in Alabama, when he removed to Arkansas, and from that time until 1873, was a practitioner in Union County. He was licensed to preach the gospel in 1864, being a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and has been actively engaged in the saving of souls ever since. He is well to do as far as worldly goods is concerned, and is now the owner of about 400 acres of good farming land, with about 200 acres improved. His principal crop is cotton and corn, and he is a partner in a fine steam cotton-gin and grist mill. He belongs in the Masonic fraternity, and in his professional as well as social relations, he is esteemed and respected by many.
[Source: Goodspeed]