Lexington Farmhouse

Here's an early photo of the farmhouse built by Charles E. Harden in Lexington in 1908, the reason for the upcoming centennial celebration. There was no year on the photo, but I think it was taken earlier than a 1963 photo of the house I also received, courtesy of Willis Harden. Uncle Willis gave my mom a bunch of neat photos of the farm in the early days, mostly 50s an 60s. I hope others will send us some photos. I have some from Mike and Gayle Harden, Willis and my mother. Any others will be welcome.

Logging those darned comments!

Here are some detailed instructions about how to add comments to this blog. Remember you can see the larger image by clicking on it.

Gilchrist Family History

Charles E. Harden married Agnes Gilchrist Feb. 11, 1890, in Coldwater, Kan. She was the daughter of William Gilchrist and Margaret Richardson Gilchrist, both born in Scotland. (Yay!) I found William and Margaret in the 1860 census in the town of Hickory, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, where Agnes was born in 1863. She doesn't appear yet, but the family is already rather large with Jane, 13, William, 11, Charlotte, 9, Archibald, 7, Dugald, 7 (now the record I have says Archie was born in '63, while Dugald was born in '64, but here they are the same age, so they may have been twins...) Mary, 5, Robert, 2, and James, less than 1 year. Now, interestingly enough, it looks like Margaret's brother, Dugald Richardson, was living in the same household. Apparently, the family left Ohio to go back to PA to work mining coal. Info collected from my mother says Margaret Richarson was buried in Lexington Cemetery.

U.S. 1850 Census -- Details

Today I found a page from the 1850 U.S. Census that shows Nathan Harden back in Pleasant Township in Logan County, Ohio. It shows he is the son of Nathaniel Harden, 47 (farmer), and Mary Harden, 43. Their children are listed as John, 21 (farmer), Nathan, 19, Lewis, 17, Henry, 15, Mary, 13, Lydia, 11, and Mahala, 9. I wonder where they got a name like Mahala? Imagine what it would be like to birth a child every two years, like clockwork. Yikes!

In this census, Nathaniel has listed his place of birth as Pennsylvania, and Mary is from Maryland. Son John was born in Pennsylvania, but the rest are born in Ohio. I tried going back to earlier censuses to find a Nathaniel Harden in PA, but their records are not as neat and detailed as these. It seems only male heads of house (and perhaps widows) are named in those records, so I cannot find out from that source who Nathaniel's father was, without knowing in what county he was born, which might narrow it down.

1850 U.S. Census

U.S. 1880 Census -- Questions

I found this cool site, Ancestry.com, that helps people research their family trees. Unfortunately, it costs to join, so I will have to be quick so I can cancel before my free-trial period is over. But I found this page from the 1880 census showing Nathan Harden, 49, in Jefferson Township, Warren County, Iowa. At this point, in the home are Nathan (farmer), his wife Viola, 25! (keeping house), Charles, 18 (farm laborer), Susan, 12 (at school), Isabel, 10 (at school), and Henry, 8. One of the odd things I saw was that Nathan's parents are both reported to have been born in Maryland, though the page from the Kansas book from 1916 says he was born of "Pennsylvania parentage." Well, I will have to check an earlier census from Ohio to see what that says. Not sure you can make out this page on the blog, but you can click on the image and see it largely. Can you imagine doing a census where everyone's name must be written in pen and ink, and neat enough to read? Luckily, there were fewer people back then.

U.S. 1880 Census

Update/correction to post re: Nathan and Emeretta Harden

After more research, my post on Jan. 7th was incorrect. Nathan and Emeretta did not come to Lexington together as Emeretta had died in 1873 back in Iowa after giving birth to her 10th child. (Viva la birth control!) She was, however, the mother of Charles E. Harden and apparently came from a prominent family, and was a learned and accomplished woman. My mother has pages from a diary kept by her father, so it will be interesting to read his recollections of those early years.

Stake a Homestead game!

Hey there. I had to take a break from the fascinating hunt into family history when I saw this online. It's an actual game called Stake a Homestead! Before the game of Life, where blue and pink plastic pegs drove a plastic car around a fantasy land of uranium mine bonanzas and stock certificates paying huge dividends and you either ended up a Millionaire Tycoon or Bankrupt, there was this game based on the Homestead Act of 1862. Here's the description from the box:

"In 1862 congress passed the Homestead Act. A United States citizen twenty-one years old could file a claim on 160 acres of public land which he wished to own as a home for himself and his family. If he lived there for five years, had built a house and was raising crop, he was given title to the land.

"The country was wild, the problems faced by the "sod-busters" were great. Many homesteaders gave up before five years had passed. Everyone who succeeded did so through sheer determination and by using every skill or handicraft he could master.

"Players take turns drawing cards and playing them onto their Land Tracts. The cards come in 5 colors, one for each year. At the end of the game, players who have a house, crop, and 4 of the 6 other types of cards, without having the claim jumper card, win."

Oops, I just read on Wikipedia that Milton Bradley's Game of Life was created by the man himself in 1860, but the modern version was published in 1960 -- both before Stake a Homestead. Well, it's possible some of you Baby Boomers out there played this game. I don't remember it being one of the games in Great-Grandma's basement (though I do remember Chutes and Ladders and Head of the Class), but maybe it rings a bell or simply brings a laugh at the thought that the process of digging a hole out of the dirt or clay in the side of a hill for your family to live in could ever be replicated by a paper board game. Fun for the whole family!

Obituary for Betty Harden

When I wrote my post yesterday, I didn't realize she had died Sunday. The funeral was today. My condolences for the family. Here's the obit that appeared in the Salina Journal:

GOODLAND -- Elizabeth Theresa "Betty" Harden, 84, Goodland, died Sunday, Jan. 6, 2008.

Mrs. Harden was born Elizabeth Theresa Kompus on Sept. 25, 1923, in Herndon.

She was preceded in death by her first husband, Ralph Wolfram.

Survivors include her husband, Lloyd Harden, of Goodland; a son, Jerry Wolfram of Herndon; a stepson, Monte Harden of Sioux City, Iowa; three daughters, Joyce Lea Brown of Murrieta, Calif., Jeanette Adams of Cheyenne, Wyo., and Roxanna Jankovits of Rochester Hills, Mich.; a stepdaughter, Marilyn Harden of Hays; six grandchildren; three stepgrandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Mountain time Wednesday at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Goodland. Burial will be in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Herndon.

A rosary will be said at a vigil at 6:30 p.m. Mountain time today at Koons Funeral Home Chapel, 211 N. Main, Goodland 67735.

Memorials may be made to Cedar Living Center of Oberlin.

Pre-Revolutionary Hardens!

Mother says she has talked to Uncle Chet's daughter, Geraldine, and she is sending us some info going back to the 1600s. It should be interesting to read. If it pans out, perhaps I'll send an application to the Daughters of the American Revolution and lend that organization some tone. OTOH, they'll probably expect a donation...

Betty Harden

Lloyd's wife, Betty, is in the hospital in McCook, Kan., after Betty fell and broke her hip. Ray said she was not in the best health at the moment and that her family would appreciate your prayers and good wishes.

"All history becomes subjective; in other words there is properly no history, only biography." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Unless we hire a professional genealogist or become Mormons it's likely we'll never know the exact date Hardens or Bards came from the Old Country to the New World. The problem with not having a history written down is that oral history can be spotty or misremembered. If I was to recount what I knew of our family history, it would go like this: Hardens came to America sometime after the Mayflower. They bided their time. Emeretta Arnold Harden may have been a descendant of the English spy Benedict Arnold of Revolutionary War infamy. (He was featured in one of the rooms at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Quite a place.) They probably settled in Ohio after that. The family was Quaker at that time, so the sons had to hide from the Civil War "recruiters." There was a tornado and someone's twin brother was killed. Then Nathan and Emeretta came to Kansas in a covered wagon (hopefully!) and farmed. Times were hard, but they prospered, had children. Their son Charles was my great-great grandfather. He had several children, one my great-grandfather, who had seven children. His son Duane met my grandmother, Linda, and they had three children. My mother, Judy, met some guy in college, got married and had me. Yay! Unfortunately, I'm so terrible with names that there's a lot of people and events and stuff that gets left out of this tale, which is why I need help writing it all down.

(My consort, Ken, has just told me that his maternal grandmother Mayhew was at one time a professional genealogist, and that's how he knows he had seven ancestors on the Mayflower and that his seven-times great-grandfather Thomas Mayhew (he has his own Wiki page, too!) was the first governor of the colony on Martha's Vineyard. There were only 20 families on the island, so they became terribly inbred, but it is said that the Indians were treated fairly (comparatively). In one branch, he is descended from four siblings, which is why I tell Ken, "That's why you ain't right." He is mostly all right, though.)

"It is not possible for one to teach others who cannot teach his own family." Confucius

From the materials my mother has sent me, it appears that the first Hardens to come to Lexington were Nathan and Emeretta, in October 1884. Nathan and his son Charles E. Harden, 21, both filed claims, under the Homestead Act, I assume, which according to Wikipedia gave a title to 160 acres of land (the Indians were not using it, apparently) if the claimant was at least 21 years of age, had built on the section, farmed it for five years, and had built a house on it that was at least 12 x 14 feet. The gov't wanted to make sure you didn't just put up an outhouse on the land and call it a homestead, I guess.

"Heirlooms we don't have in our family. But stories we've got."

Yes, we've got stories, but we need to share them. It's the only way to preserve family history for members of each new generation. Why don't we know the story of our ancestor's emigration to America? Perhaps because there were no photos back then, the men and women who came after had no reference point to ask their parents "who?" and "why?" Luckily, we have a treasure of photos that Florence Harden saved and passed down to us. We're attempting to organize them, so we can tell the story in a coherent way. So if you have any photos, of your parents' wedding, your wedding, or interesting photos on the farm, or Christmas at Great-Grandma and Grandpa's house, etc., please scan it as big as you can and send it to me. Or you can send it to me to scan and I'll bring them with me to the reunion (or mail them back if you prefer.) I'll do my best to use it, in what promises to be a large family project.

Countdown to the Family Reunion -- July 4, 2008

Dear Family (though you may be many times removed),

I am putting together a book containing the history of the Hardens of Clark County and Comanche counties. My mom and Gayle Harden are sending me tons of photos and some history from the 19th century on. I know there are many branches of the family who would like to be included but for which we have few pics and info, so I invite you to send them to me (good quality photos are best, of course.) Also, if you have special memories of Paul and Florence Harden, or their children, your parents and grandparents, these would be nice to know too. Anyone who would like to be added to this blog to make entries, you are welcome. Just email me and I'll take care of it. Any large attachments should go to my jprather at duke dot edu account. Otherwise, you can use my chirpXL at gmail dotcom account.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in July!

Jennifer Prather (Judy's daughter)