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Biographical
Review of Lee County, Iowa H WILLIAM HARMON submitted by Joy Schwarz One of the residents of Keokuk whose reminiscences are most valuable in a work dealing with the historical development of Lee county is William Harmon, who was born in Harrison county, Indiana, May 15, 1830. The family is remotely of German origin, but the first member of whom there is accurate record is Abraham Harmon, who came from Tennessee in the pioneer days to Indiana, where he was manager of a gristmill owned by General William Henry Harrison. It is still remembered that his instructions were to "take toll from the rich and give it to the poor," thus leaving no profit for the owner. William Harmon's father was John Harmon, who was born at Jonesboro, Tennessee, May 30, 1807, and died July 13, 1893. He was reared in Harrison county, Indiana, in territorial times, and remembered the massacre of nine families in his neighborhood by the Indians. In 1829 he married Miss Stacey Witt, who became the mother of our subject. She died in the fall of 1839, and he remarried, his second wife being Miss Butler, whose death occurred in Keokuk. He came west in 1841, locating in Keokuk, where he took up land on the half-breed tract. Indians still occupied the vicinity and the settlement consisted of one frame house and three log houses. His experience was wide. Previous to the Civil War he served as a soldier twelve years under the old military law of South Carolina, and when General Jackson called out the troops to combat threatened secession in that state he took the field with his regiment. In Keokuk he was a member of the "Gray Beards," or Thirty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry, assigned to post duty, which was very severe service. Two of his sons gave their lives to the Union cause, and are buried near the battlefield of Shiloh. In 1836 he, with his father-in-law, traveled from Indiana to Illinois by three-horse wagon, camping on the way. It was a large party, and the men of the party walked the whole way, taking turns, however, at riding one of the horses and driving. Although then but six years of age, our subject remembers the journey distinctly. On account of his wife's ill health, John Harmon built a flatboat, and took his family for a trip down the Mississippi river. She failed to improve, however, and died six miles below Alton, Illinois, in the American bottoms. He then revisited Indiana for a year, after which he returned to Keokuk, and with the exception of two or three years' residence in Clark county, Missouri, here passed the remainder of his life. He voted for Andrew Jackson for President of the United States, but was in politics a Whig and Republican. He was the oldest member of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Keokuk. He is buried in Prouty Mound cemetery. When William Harmon came to Keokuk, Lee county was a wilderness. For the first year he lived in a primitive "shanty," having the bare earth for a floor. The family cleared away the forest from a tract of land and for a while did some farming. In 1845 they removed to what is called Prouty’s Mound on the banks of the Des Moines river, where for four years they conducted a ferry. The territorial government required no license for ferrymen, but on the formation of a state government a law was passed providing for license formalities, and the privilege which the Harmons enjoyed was secured by a politician, thus depriving then of that source of income. Mr. Harmon as a boy conceived an interest in the statement frequently made that the American Indians in burying their deceased warriors and chiefs followed the custom of burying with them their arms and other valuable possessions. To test its truth he, with others, examined many Indian graves, and he asserts that the theory is evidently without foundation, as no arms or implements of any kind were ever found. He has also closely observed the floods of the Mississippi river, and is convinced, though alone in his contention, that the famous "flood of fifty-one" has not since been equaled. Throughout the three weeks of its duration he was engaged in rescue work at Alexandria. He and his father owned a boat, and with this they saved a great deal of valuable property, often entering houses in which water stood shoulder-high, and diving to recover household goods. July 30, 1851, Mr. Harmon was united in marriage to Miss Sarah K. Wickham, daughter of Slattriel Wickham. She was born near Zanesville, Ohio, March 7, 1832. They are the parents of the following sons and daughters: Mary Ellen, born April 22, 1852, died January 22, 1854; Stacey Drusella, born January 31, 1854, died March 16, 1854; Nancy Ann, born September 6, 1855, died April 9, 1886; John William, born September 23, 1857, and Charles, born March 9, 1861. Both sons live in Keokuk, occupying homes in the immediate vicinity of the father's residence at 1820 Oak street. On March 1, 1862, leaving a wife and three small children to answer the call of patriotism, Mr. Harmon enlisted in Company E, Seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry, under Captain (afterward Colonel) Parrott, and went into camp at Camp Lincoln, Pittsburg Landing. Thence proceeding to Corinth, he arrived there three days after the battle, and at this place he saw first active service, taking part in skirmishes. His health failed, and for three weeks he was in Monterey Field Hospital, and later in Quincy Hospital. On recovery from his illness he was placed upon detached service, in which he continued for about eighteen months, first coming to Keokuk to join a body of 100 men detailed to guard the city. For a time be was acting sergeant, and frequently took out squads of soldiers at night to guard the fords of the Des Moines river, as Keokuk was menaced by Rebel guerrilla and Southern sympathizers. This service ended, he rejoined the active forces in the field, and followed General Sherman in his famous march to the sea. He was honorably discharged March 6, 1865, at Goodwin's Mill, South Carolina, but continued with the army for a period of twenty-five days thereafter. Although gifted with a fine physical constitution, Mr. Harmon still suffers from the hardships of his army experience. After the war he was variously employed, for rather more than a year. He ran a dray in Keokuk for four years, having a ten-year contract to do hauling for a foundry. The company for which he worked suffered financial failure, but a new company was organized, and he secured another contract for five years. Mr. Harmon owns a pleasant home in town and seventy or eighty acres of island land in the Des Moines river — land formerly owned 'by his father. He has retired from active pursuits. Although self-educated, never having received any schooling, he gives much time to reading, and is thoroughly informed on current topics and events. In his religious connection, he is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church, as is also Mrs. Harmon, and has been an active worker since ante-bellum days. He has acted as class leader and steward, and having in a marked degree the gift of language, formerly was a very successful exhorter. His sons and their wives are also members of the church. He is a member of Belknap Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. Politically be has always been a loyal and consistent Republican since the organization of that party. His first vote was east for the Whig candidate for President. William Harmon has many friends in Keokuk, and no man is more respected for his earnest Christian character and his unwavering fidelity to the right as he sees it. Mr. Harmon died suddenly while in his fields gathering corn, on Friday afternoon, November 11, 1904. At the time of his death he was Keokuk's oldest resident in point of continuous residence. --------------------------------------------------The above text is a transcription from the book Biographical Review of Lee County, Iowa: Containing Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of Many of the Prominent Citizens of To-day and Also of the Past. Chicago, Hobart Publishing Company, 1905. Pages 348-350. Worldcat record http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6430209. Transcribed by Joy Schwarz on 11 Feb 2007 DAVID HOUGHTON submitted by Joy Schwarz David Houghton, now engaged in business as a barber at Montrose, Iowa, was born October 23, 1840, in Orange county, Vermont, the son of David and Elizabeth (Rowell) Houghton, both natives of Vermont, and is the sixth of eight brothers and sisters, of whom only three now survive, those being Melissa, wife of C. Hamma, of Sonora, Illinois; Pomelia, wife of William Dustin of Oregon, and our subject. In 1841, the year following that of his birth, he came with his parents to Nauvoo, Illinois, they being converts to the faith of the Latter Day Saints or Mormons, and having sold their property in Vermont to follow the fortunes of the prophet, Joseph Smith. For his adherence to the new faith David Houghton, Sr., was disinherited by his father, a wealthy citizen of Vermont, but he nevertheless relinquished all his interests in his native state, including a very desirable position as manager of a large shoe factory employing sixty men, and set up a shoemaker’s shop in Nauvoo, where he prospered and by his industry built up a good business. He remained a Mormon all his life, and in 1848 when to Prairie du Chien, where he died the same year, while his wife died at the home of her son, David, in Montrose in 1871, she having been remarried to a Mr. Timmons and returned to Nauvoo, where she taught school after the occupation of that place by a French colony. When ten years old Mr. Houghton left home in consequences of a quarrel with one of his schoolfellows, and went to live with a sister in Chicago, where he remained, working as a shingle packer for ten years, returning in 1854 to Montrose, and here he has since continuously resided. He worked for a time in the boat yard owned by John Bunker, and in the autumn of 1861 he enlisted in Company B, Seventeenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry under Colonel Rankin and Captain Hoxie. In the spring of 1862 he went into camp at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, and after remaining there for two weeks proceeded down the Mississippi river to Shiloh, landing at that place just after the battle, but in time to participate in the battles of Corinth and Iuka. At Jackson, Mississippi, he was captured by Rebel forces and placed in Libby prison at Richmond, Virginia, whence after about fifty days he was paroled, and went to the hospital at Annapolis, Maryland, being detained there for a period of seven or eight months on account of suffering from gangrene in the right hand. After ninety days spent at Camp Tyler, Baltimore, subsequent to his leaving the hospital, he set out to rejoin his regiment, meeting it at Scottsboro, Georgia, and the next battle in which he was engaged was the second fight at Corinth in 1863, and while occupying a blockhouse at Tilden he, with the entire regiment, was captured by the soldiers of General Hood on October 13, 1864. Thence he was taken to Kahoba, then to Melon, Georgia, and later to the famous military prison of the Confederacy at Andersonville, where he remained a prisoner of war until April 1, 1865, a period of more than six months, during which he suffered great hardships. Released from prison, he was at Vicksburg at the time of the assassination of President Lincoln, and immediately thereafter started north, landing first at St. Louis, where for two weeks he was at Benton Barrack;, and then returned to Montrose, and three days after his arrival here was called to Davenport, Iowa, where he was honorably discharged from the service of his country after a long and faithful devotion to duty on field of battle, in camp and in many perilous situations. After the close of the war he worked for some time as a freight handler on the Mississippi river, lighting freight over the Des Moines rapids. On July 11, 1866, Mr. Houghton was united in marriage to Miss Mary Ann Ray, he then took up his present occupation, that of a barber, having learned the trade while a prisoner in Andersonville, and this he has ever since continued with great success. He has taken an active interest in public affairs as a member of the Republican party, having served two terms in the city council and also having been once elected to the office of constable, although he refused to accept the office. Fraternally, he is a charter member of Tip Best Post, No. 75, Grand Army of the Republic, while Mrs. Houghton is a member of the Women’s Relief Corps. They occupy a pleasant home at Second and Walnut streets, and enjoy the esteem and regard of a large circle of friends. ------------------------------------------------- The above text is a transcription from the book Biographical Review of Lee County, Iowa: Containing Biographical and Genealogical Sketches of Many of the Prominent Citizens of To-day and Also of the Past. Chicago, Hobart Publishing Company, 1905. Pages 291-293. Worldcat record http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6430209. Transcribed by Joy Schwarz on 11 Feb 2007
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