His travels included interaction with missionary Jason Lee, and he later led a wagon train on the Oregon Trail.

[1] This document was signed by many of the U.S. pioneers, and called on the federal government to extend its jurisdiction over the area in order to protect Americans and their interests.

[1] While there, Farnham helped to secure the release (in 1841) of a group of Americans, British and Californios, arrested in Alta California in 1840 and sent by ship to San Blas, then overland to a prison in Tepic.

Governor Juan Alvarado, assisted by military commander Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo,[4] accused the men, involved in what became known as the Graham Affair, of plotting a revolt against the Mexican government.

[1] Farnham's widow Eliza moved to Santa Cruz, California and went on to become a leading abolitionist, novelist and early feminist.