Person:Mathias Harman (1)

Mathias Harman was important in many ways in events surrounding the abduction of Jenny Wiley by Indians in 1789. In a battle, he had killed the son of an Indian chief. [But it may in fact have been his nephew, Matthias Harman ^S7, who was known to have been in a battle the previous year.] It is thought that Jenny Wiley was abducted by mistake when the Indians came seeking revenge on Harman (they were neighbors). After her abduction Mathias Harman launched an unsuccessful search party for her, and it was Harman's Station where she was finally able to escape to in 1790. ^S5

Description from The Founding of Harman's Station

" Matthias Harman was called "Tice" or "Tias" Harman by his companions. He was diminutive in size, in height being but little more than five feet, and his weight never exceeded one hundred and twenty pounds. He had an enormous nose and a thin sharp face. He had an abundance of hair of a yellow tinge, beard of a darker hue, blue eyes which anger made green and glittering, and a bearing bold and fearless. He possessed an iron constitution, and could endure more fatigue and privation than any of his associates. He was a dead shot with the long rifle of his day. The Indians believed him in league with the devil or some other malevolent power because of their numbers he killed, his miraculous escapes, and the bitterness and relentless daring of his warfare against them. He was one of the Long Hunters, as were others of the Harmans, and more than once did his journeys into the wilderness carry him to the Mississippi River. He and the other Harmans able to bear arms were in the Virginia service in the War of the Revolution. He is said to have formed the colony which made the first settlement in Ab's Valley. He formed the colony which made the first settlement in Eastern Kentucky and erected the blockhouse. He brought in the settlers who rebuilt the blockhouse, and for a number of years he lived in the Blockhouse bottom or its vicinity. In his extreme old age he returned to Virginia and died there. It is said he lived to be ninety-six, but I have not the date or place of his death. " written by WILLIAM ELSEY CONNELLEY, 1910 ^S5

Historical marker #736 (Kentucky)

Harman's Station is Kentucky historical marker #736 located 5 mi. S. of Paintsville, US 23, 460. [3]

Description: The first settlement in Eastern Kentucky. Matthias Harman's party of hunters from Virginia built stockade near river bank, 1787. Indians forced evacuation in 1788, and burned blockhouse. Harman and others returned, 1789, and rebuilt an enduring fort. These men at Blockhouse Bottom broke Indian hold on Big Sandy Valley, opened Eastern Kentucky for settlement.

Historical marker X-25 (Dry Fork, Virginia)

Sign reads: Harman helped establish the first permanent English settlement in eastern Kentucky in 1755. In 1789 he founded Harman’s Station on the Levisa River near John’s Creek in present-day Johnson County. He and his wife, Lydia, settled in this area in 1803image

Mathias Harman home site at Dry Fork and historical marker dedicated June 1991 Photo by Charlotte Harman Puckett. Courtesy of Charlotte H. Puckett. image 1image 2

Description on images: "Mathias, Sr. and Lydia Skaggs Harman are buried here, along with succeeding generations. The present home was built ca 1913 by a descendant, with the original Harman homestead possibly higher up on the mountain. Mathias, Sr. (1763-1832) and Lydia S. Harman (d 1814) returned to Tazewell County in 1802 from present Johnson County, KY, and established their last home on Dry Fork."

Location: Dry Fork Road (State Route 637) about 4 miles north of intersection with Baptist Valley Road (State Route 631), North Tazewell, VA 24630. The marker is located in a remote area on a very rural road.

GPS: 37.166307,-81.629867

Larger map

1. ↑ Find A Grave.

   Mathias Tice Harman Mathias Harman Cemetery (Dry Fork) Tazewell Tazewell County Virginia, USA

2. ↑ Ancestor #: A050869, in Daughters of the Amercian Revolution.

   Mathias Harmon Service Source: KEGLEY, MILITIA OF MONTGOMERY CO, VA 1777-1790, P 27
   Service Description: 1) CAPT JAMES MAXWELL'S CO, 1778

3.   Nuckols, Ashley Kay. The Harman-Harmon family marriage records 1800-1993 : Tazewell County, Virginia. (A.K. Nuckols, c1995 (Venture Printing & Office Supplies)).
4.   Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

   English, West Virginia Mathias Harman and his wife Lydia were the first English settlers in the present county. They lived in a cabin along the Dry Fork River as early as 1802. In 1829, William Fletcher was issued a patent for 20 acres (81,000 m2) of land at the mouth of Little Indian Creek in the present city limits of Welch. In 1825, Moses A. Cartwright and his wife Clary also moved to the present location of Welch. Other early settlers within the county were John and James Milam, Philip Lambert and Amos Totten. [note: this information is unsourced. I am including it here as a pointer for more research. ~cthrnvl]

5. ↑ Connelley, William Elsey. The founding of Harman's Station: with an account of the Indian captivity of Mrs. Jennie Wiley and the exploration and settlement of the Big Sandy Valley in the Virginias and Kentucky, to which is affixed a brief account of the Connelly family and some of its collateral and related families in America. (New York, New York: Torch Press, c1910).
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2} Scalf, Henry P. (Henry Preston). Kentucky's last frontier. (Prestonsburg, Kentucky: [s.n.], 1966).
7.   Harman, John Newton. Harman genealogy (southern branch) with biographical sketches, 1700-1924. (Richmond [Virginia]: W.C. Hill Printing Co., c1925).
8. ↑ Thomas and Samuel Wiley were members of this party. ^S5
9.   Descendancy File by Caryl Lamont
10. ↑ Listed as Strausburg, Frederick County, Virginia in our family files. Since Frederick County was not established until 1743, I have written the existing county, Orange, as the location for his birth. In addition, the town of Strasburg was not founded until 1761. user:cthrnvl
11.   McDowell and Wyoming Co, WV Families and Individuals