Awards

Bicentennial Medal - 2020

About The Faris Family

Reverend James Faris moved from Rocky Creek, South Carolina to Bloomington, Indiana in 1826. As a Covenanter with abolitionist beliefs, he was the first Pastor of the Bloomington (Bethesda) Reformed Presbyterian Church, serving from 1827-1855. In 1917, Dr. Henry Lester Smith authored an article in the Indiana Magazine of History (Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages 288-297), titled “The Underground Railroad in Monroe County”. The article references Reverend James Faris as taking a highly active role in the Underground Railroad in Monroe County. Reverend James Faris was also an educator and mathematician. He tutored Joseph Wright in math when Wright was a student at Indiana University. Wright went on to be Governor, then US Senator, from the State of Indiana.

The Faris Homestead was located on the 160 acres bordered by 17th Street, Fee Lane, Dunn Street, and the Indiana 45-46 Bypass (Matlock Road), and is now the site of the Indiana University Sports Complex. It supported four generations of the Faris Family for almost 129 years. The Faris Homestead can be seen in the PBS/WTIU broadcast on “Assembly Hall: Pride of Indiana—The history, stories, and secrets behind IU’s iconic venue.”

Four of James’ children were influential ministers in the Covenanter Church, and all were early graduates of Indiana University (then it was the “State Seminary”). They were Reverend David Smith Faris (graduated 1851), Reverend John Calvin Knox Faris (graduated 1853), Reverend Daniel Cargill Faris (graduated 1863), and Reverend Isaiah Faris (graduated 1863). To date, five generations of Faris’ have graduated from the Bloomington Campus of Indiana University. This includes the first Faris female, Maudeline Faris, in 1925.

On April 17, 2015, the Indiana University Board of Trustees acknowledged the significant contributions of the Faris Family by naming an interior road of the Indiana University Sports Complex “Faris Way” and by including a commemorative plaque which states the following:

“The Reverend James Faris and his wife, Agnes Smith Faris, settled in Bloomington in 1826. A two-story farmhouse was built fifty feet north of what is now Seventeenth Street and just west of Fess Avenue. The 160-acre farm remained in the Faris Family for 129 years and was last occupied by Charles Cameron and Mary Vannoy Faris. Indiana University purchased the land in 1955. Assembly Hall, Memorial Stadium and much of the athletics complex now occupy what was the Faris Family Farm. Indiana University recognizes the significant role of the Faris Family in the development of the Bloomington Campus.”

Jude Cameron Faris, his brothers, Vannoy and Emil Faris, owned and operated Faris Brothers Meat Market at 208 North Walnut starting around 1923. Charles “Bud” Faris took over ownership and changed the name to Faris Market in the 1950s. Faris Market became the last remaining privately owned grocery in the greater Bloomington area.

Charles “Bud” Faris was in city politics for several decades. He was selected as the Bloomington "Outstanding Man of the Year" in 1952, attracted General Electric Industries to Bloomington, chaired the first Bloomington Polio Fund Drive, helped launch the United Fund as its President (later the United Way), served on the Bloomington City Council for eight years, was elected the First President of the City Council from 1966-1970, and served as the President of Bloomington's Sesquicentennial Celebration in 1968. He was a 2007 inductee into the Monroe County Hall of Fame.