Jacob Harrison, born in West Milford, New Jersey, in 1835, and his wife Ardelia Look set out from New York for Kansas in 1856 but stopped at Mt. Vernon because she was ill; he went to Idaho for the gold rush in 1863, later farmed in Bertram Township, and after her death in 1890 he remarried and settled in California. Their son William H. Harrison, born in the county in 1859, married Jennie Berry in 1880 and farmed land in Bertram Township that her father, Robert Berry, had given her, and Jacob's daughters married into the Berry, Brown and Thompson families. Thomas Harrison, born in Portage County, Ohio, in 1824, was raised in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, was a lumberman there, and came to Iowa in 1868 to farm in Monroe Township. Every fact below is cited to a public-domain Linn County history.
Earliest in the record
Thomas Harrisonborn 1834Most recent in our records
Almeda (Harrison) Berry and Mary E. (Harrison) Brownborn 1861Each number matches a section below. Tap a name to jump to that person.
Farmers near Mt. Vernon and in Bertram Township
Farmer and stock feeder, sections 27 and 28, Bertram Township
WILLIAM H. HARRISON.
The subject of this sketch, who is successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits on sections 27 and 28, Bertram township, was born in this county, on the 18th of September, 1859, and is a son of Jacob and Ardelia (Look) Harrison, natives of New Jersey and New York, respectively. He was born in West Milford, Passaic county. New Jersey, February 16, 1835. They were married in the latter state, at Painted Post, and in 1856 started for Kansas, but on reaching Mt. Vernon, Iowa they decided to stop on account of the mother being in ill health. For sometime ]\Mr. Harrison was engaged in cutting timber, and also worked for a time in the Belden sawmill and then rented a farm, being engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1863, when he went to Idahoduring the gold excitement in that state. When he left for the mountains he sent his family to New York, and about the close of the Civil war he rejoined them in that state, bringing them back to Linn county, Iowa. He purchased what is now known as a part of the Caldwell farm, in Bertram township, on which he lived for ten years, and in 1885 bought the James Berry farm of two hundred acres, which he disposed of, though he afterward moved to another farm, where he lived for nine years. His first wife died October 2, 1890, and was buried in Mt. Wernon. He subsequently spent one year with a married daughter on the old home farm, and then went to California. He has since been back and forth a number of times, but has resided permanently in that state since his second marriage with Mrs. Millie Kupple in the fall of 1899, having sold his possessions in Iowa. The children by his first union were Almeda, wife of Walter Berry, of Bertram township; W.
As printed in the source1. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
Daughters of Jacob and Ardelia Harrison
Former Pennsylvania lumberman; farmer on section 21, Monroe Township
THOMAS HARRISON, one of the substantial farmers of Linn County, formerly a lumberman in Pennsylvania, and now residing on section 21, Monroe Township, was born in Portage County, Ohio, Aug. 24, 1824. At an early period in Thomas' life, his father, Joseph, removed to Cambria County, Pa., where he remained until his death, May 1, 18G8, at the age of seventy-four years, eleven months and nine days. Joseph Harrison married Miss Mary Snyder, a native of Pennsylvania, and they had seven children, as follows: George, Thomas, Christopher, John, David, Samuel and Elizabeth.
Thomas Harrison, our subject, married, Dec. 28, 1854, Miss Sarah Waters, a native of Pennsylvania, born Oct. 20, 1834, by whom he had five children, three of whom are now living. Mrs. Harrison is the daughter of Jacob and Anna (Leidy) Waters, natives of Pennsylvania. Her father was of Irish descent and her mother a German. They had ten children, of whom seven are now living, as follows: Samuel,.Mary, Daniel, David, Sarah (wife of our Subject), Matilda and Elizabeth Jane. The names of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Harrison are as follows: Stephen J., born Sept. 24, 1855; Ophelia, Nov. 31, 1857; Charlotte J., July 3, 1862; James L., born Nov. 7, 1869, now deceased, and William H., born May 6, 1873.
Mr. Harrison came to Iowa in 18G8. He is now the owner of 1024; acres of land, on which is a fair surrounding's its — """
dwelling-house. His farm and its show evidence of thrift and care in its management, and do credit to the head and hand of the owner. Mr. H. is, and was reared a Dunkard or German Baptist. His parents before him belonged to the same denomination. His school privileges in his early days were very limited, but for any deficiencies in this direction he makes up by native shrewdness, which has given him a leading place among the farmers of his township. He is a Republican in politics, although he was brought up a Democrat. He carries his conscience into politics as well as into his daily transactions, and his energy, probity and shrewdness, have won him the respect and esteem of all his neighbors.
Mr. Harrison is legal heir to a large estate in England, consisting of money on deposit in the Bank of England. This was left by the great-grandfather to John James Harrison, grandfather of our subject, the amount being £140,000 sterling, but, owing to lack of proper evidence, none of the family have ever been able to obtain it.
As printed in the source2. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
The printed record stops in the early 1900s. We pick up from there and trace your line down to you and back as far as the records go, into a written book with every source cited.
All sources are public domain. Facts only. We follow set rules to leave living people out (how).
Other family lines from the same county: