Person:Reuben Harmon (3)

Biography

The founder of this family in America was John Harman, as the ancient records spell the name, who emigrated from England prior to 1644, and settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he died after a long and useful life, January 7, 1660.

His [John Harman's] great-grandson, Reuben,....was born at Sunderland, Massachusetts, or perhaps at Springfield, on February 18, 1714, and married Eunice Parsons, of Suffield, Connecticut, August 25, 1739. In 1759, he sold his real estate in Suffield, and, in 1776, became a large land owner in Rupert, Vermont. In 1779, he bought 170 acres in Rutland, the latter State, to which town he soon afterward removed, and where he held the offices of Selectman and Justice of the Peace in 1780. In June of that year, the records show that he conveyed ninety acres of land in Rutland to each of his sons, Oliver and Reuben, Jr.,... Reuben, Sr., died in Rutland, Vermont, in September, 1794, his widow surviving him until November 18, 1803, expiring at the age of eighty-six years, both greatly regretted.

Reuben Harmon, Jr.,....was an extensive land-owner and farmer in Vermont. He was a member of the Legislature of that State for a number of terms, and enjoyed the privilege of coining copper coins on his own responsibility, which, in those days, was no trifling distinction. He was married, in September, 1774, to Ruth Rising, also a member of an old and honored family, her parents being Aaron and Anna [Harmon] Rising, of Suffield, Connecticut. She was a woman of fine physique, resolute, persevering and patient, of rare sociability and cheerfulness.

During the Revolutionary War, Reuben Harmon, Jr., served in the patriot army, and his wife was either residing with his father, at Sunderland, Massachusetts, or was there on a visit, when that town was burned by the British and Indians. Mrs. Harmon caught an unbroken colt in the field and mounted it, bare-back, and, carrying in her arms a babe three weeks old, fled while the smoke of her husband's early home rolled up behind her. Such a person was well fitted to be the first white woman on the frontier of Ohio, as she afterward became. Fearless amid semi-hostile Indians and strong in every hour of trial, she was a typical pioneer. The babe previously mentioned, she afterward carried in her arms during the long journey to Ohio, where it was scalded to death in 1802.

In 1796, Reuben Harmon, Jr., purchased 500 acres of land, comprising the salt springs, in Weathersfield township, Trumbull county, Ohio, and in the fall of 1797 he went there and began the manufacture of salt, returning to his home the following spring. Each fall and winter, he continued this business and eventually erected a cabin there for the future home of his family. In the early spring of 1800, he returned to Vermont and prepared for the final removal to the new field, which seemed to promise so much to one of his vigor and activity. Having all things ready, the family started in June of that year for the far West.

In 1806, Reuben Harmon, Jr., returned to Vermont to finish settling his business, and when he went back to Ohio found that his agent, who had been left in charge of the salt works, had disappeared with $2,000, part of which amount had been collected from sales of salt, which were partly delivered. Thus stripped of his means, Mr. Harmon was obliged to work the harder for the support of his family. In the midst of this, he was taken with fever and died, October 29, 1806, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. His loss was a sad blow to his family and to the newly started settlement in which he took such an active part. He was for many years a member of the Congregational Church of Rupert, Vermont, and, in 1803, united by letter with the First Presbyterian Church, of Warren, and was noted for his piety, kindness of heart and rigid integrity. From a condition of independence and prospective affluence, his family was left in comparative poverty. His widow, however, proved equal to the emergency, meeting all her trials with rare fortitude and sagacity. She passed a life of usefulness, and spent her declining years in Warren, at the homes of her sons, Dr. John B., and Heman R. Harmon, dying at the latter's house, of congestion of the lungs, April 10, 1836, in the seventy-eighth year of her age, leaving many friends to mourn her loss. Her life was characterized by cheerfulness and activity, and she enjoyed a large share of the pleasures of a ripe old age. She was for many years a member of the Methodist Church in Warren, and died in the hope of that faith. She was the mother of eleven children....

Continued on wife, Ruth Rising Harmon's page...

1.   Biographical history of northeastern Ohio, embracing the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull and Mahoning: containing portraits of all the presidents of the United States, with a biography of each, together with portraits and biographies of Joshua R. Giddings, Benjamin F. Wade, and a large number of the early settlers and representative families of to-day. (Chicago [Illinois]: Lewis Publishing, 1893)
   pp. 421 - 423.

   See "Biography"