Farrow went from being a watchmaker & repairman with some $30 in his pocket, working in a small jewelry store in Newport, Rhode Island in 1871, to owning a jewelry store in 1872. He stayed in Newport because there was more disposable income in the hands of young people in Newport than in any other place in America and he wanted some of it.  He went from jewelry & watches to optics; prescription eyeglasses, telescopes & binoculars.  From there to sporting goods; tennis racquets, whatever else the customers would pay for.  There has been at least one English-made double barrel shotgun marked "Farrow Arms" or maybe "Farrow Bros." reported on our forum.  He probably sold guns & shells & decoys to the duck hunters.  In 1874, he took the train to the first Creedmoor match & liked what he saw.  Thought he could make some $$ selling target rifles, but would sell more if he could actually shoot them.  So he bought more than one, probably from Remington, and all the rest of the stuff needed.  He taught himself to shoot in the late fall of 1874.  Learned early on he needed a range, so he organized a rifle club and got his wealthy customers to pay for a range & clubhouse.

Imagine learning to shoot a target rifle, probably a rolling block in .44-77 Bottleneck, iron sights, that weighed no more than 10 lbs.  Farrow wasn't a big guy; maybe 5'8', weighed about 150, maybe less.

Entered a few matches in 1875.  By 1877, he was winning & collecting prize $$.  By 1878, he turned the jewelry & sporting goods store over to his brother Tom and started his career as a professional marksman & salesman.  Soon figured out that there was a lot more $$ to be made and much less BS to contend with on the Schuetzen circuit.  From what I've learned, 1883 was the last of the long-range matches.

But what was really important to Farrow was his wife, their 3 kids, and the rest of his very large family; brother Tom, his younger half-sisters and half-brothers and their spouses, and his mother.