The Harmons- Keokuk Pioneers

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 (Harmon was originally Hermann in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, Johann Jacob Hermann the first Harmon in this line in America was baptized in Stuttgart in 1706, was present in Virginia in 1749), but the first member of whom there is accurate record is Abraham Harmon (5x great grandfather), who came from Tennessee in the pioneer days to Indiana, where he was manager of a gristmill owned by General William Henry Harrison (later 9th president of the United States). 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. (Son Birdsell Harmon and stepson Isaac Bunch both were killed at Shiloh 6 April 1862).

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. (My Note: This church became a notorious house of prostitution in the 1920s before being torn down in 1958). 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 them 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.(In 1851 74 inches of rain fell in Iowa, mostly over 40 days- a record that holds to this day).

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. With his father and brother-in-law Mr. Harmon early purchased a ninety-acre tract of land on the Des Moines river in order to secure the timber, and later it was cleared and cultivated. He sold his share in 1855.

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.