Fresno County, California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


CALEB HARMAN. � Two decidedly intellectual pioneers, whose lives, 
animated by lofty moral ideals, have made them benefactors to many, and 
whose influence for good will be felt for generations to come, were Mr. and 
Mrs. Caleb Harman, long so fondly esteeemd by the early settlers of Fresno 
County. He was born in Morgan County, Ohio, on September 20, 1836, the 
son of John Harman, whose folks came from Pennsylvania and were un- 
doubtedly related to that branch, the Harmons, later distinguished in jour- 
nalism and the law, in the history of Ohio, and which has given a governor 
to that state. In Ohio, John Harman married Miss -Hannah Stephens, a lady 
whose ancestors belong to the best of South Carolina stock. In their union 
there was one of those happy blendings of Northern and Southern virility 
and culture that have contributed something definite and valuable in the 
elevating of American society. 

Caleb attended, the public schools in Ohio until he was twelve, when his 
family removed to Van Buren County, Iowa, after which he continued his 
schooling in his new home district. He also grew up on a farm in the pioneer 
days of Iowa, and there he farmed for himself. During the Civil War he 
served in the Home Guards. 

In 1874 he came to California from Iowa, and spent the first winter at 
Santa Rosa, coming down to Fresno County the next spring. This whole 
section was then a desert-like wilderness. He went out to the Mendocino 
Settlement, however, and bought land ; he encouraged and helped to build 
the Church Ditch, which was the first ditch for irrigation in that part of 
Fresno County, became a stockholder and secured a perpetual water-right 
in the canal. People said that he must starve to death, for there was nothing 
but horned toads and jack-rabbits that could live there ; yet the Church 
Ditch proved the making of the country. 

On October 18, 1861, at Milton, Iowa, Mr. Harman was married to Miss 
Sarah Carr, daughter of Jonathan and Margaret Jane (Weatherington) Carr, 
both of whom came from Virginia families, migrated to Ohio, and as early 
as 1853 removed to Iowa. Sarah was born near Columbus, Ohio, on Febru- 
ary 25, 1838, and Jonathan Carr, who was a farmer, died in Illinois, when 
she was only seven years of age. Mr. Harman was an intelligent, indus- 
trious and large-hearted man ; and his wife was in all respects his equal, 
and assisted to make the Harman home the center of abounding hospi- 
tality and good-cheer. They had four children: Lizzie became the wife 
of O. W. Rudolph, of Santa Barbara, where she died in 1903 and left 
four children, all still living in California; Jennie is the wife of Dr. J. E. 
Shafer, of Berkeley, and they have two children ; the third child is C. E. 
Harman, while Daisy, the younger daughter, resides at 737 Wilson 
Avenue, Fresno. 

Interested in politics only so far as they aided in the upbuilding of the 
community. Mr. Harman, although an active Democrat all his life, never 
sought nor held public office for any benefit for himself. He was school 
trustee in the Mendocino district for many years, and was a worker for good 
schools. He donated the site for the Mendocino school, and also the land 
for the original plot of the Mendocino cemetery near Miley Switch on the 
Santa Fe Railway. And he planted the first vineyard in the Mendocino 
district. 

Having been advised to seek a change of climate, Mr. Harman rented 
out his large ranch of 480 acres and moved down to Lompoc in Santa Bar- 
bara County, and then in 1905 he and his wife removed to Berkeley. There 
Mrs. Harman died on March 9, 1907, and Mr. Harman passed away on June 
2, 1915. Both rounded out such careers of exceptional usefulness that it may 
truly be said of them � "their works do live even after they have departed : 
wherefore they have not gone, but in their works live on and on."