By his teenage years, he had begun studying mathematics on his own and in 1820 he gained employment initially as a camp cook on the Erie Canal.

Under the wing of Benjamin Wright, America's most famous Civil Engineer at the time and a man who encouraged many young men to study Civil Engineering, Henry Farnam learned Surveying and was soon employed as a Surveyor on the Erie Canal.

In 1850 he moved to Illinois where he partnered with Joseph E. Sheffield to build the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.

His son Henry Walcott Farnam was an economist, and served as president of the American Economic Association in 1911.

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