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Canadian Cousin Researches Brothers George and
Michael Harland by John H. Harland
Editor’s Note:
Have you ever wondered about the events and conditions that led to
the departure of our ancestors, George and Michael Harlan(d) from
England and subsequently, Ireland?
John H. Harland of Kelowna, British Columbia, a retired anesthesiologist and author of maritime books, became interested in what precipitated the departure of the brothers, and as a result, he learned much about Quakerism and Irish History. His findings are entitled The Irish Interlude, and the first part appear below. The remainder of John’s interesting account can be accessed through the link, “Irish Interlude” on the Harlan Web site: <http://www.harlanfamily.org/IrishInterlude.htm >.
Incidentally, John is the nephew of the founder of the check-printing business, the John H. Harland Company of Atlanta, and articles about his uncle and the company have appeared in The Harlan Record, Issues 23 & 24.
George & Michael Harland: The Irish Interlude
Having sailed from Belfast, Ireland, the founders of the Harlan Family in America, George and Michael Harland, arrived in William Penn’s Quaker colony on the Delaware in America in 1687. Although they were born in England, near the City of Durham in the Bishopric (Episcopate) of Durham, they did not come here directly. Prior to leaving for America, they spent a period, perhaps 15 years, living near Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is this Irish interlude I wish to consider. This article attempts to explain why they went to Ireland; why specifically to Lurgan; how it was that they could take up land there, to which native Irish presumably had prior claims; why they decided to go to William Penn’s American colony; and how their peregrinations fitted into the larger picture of what was going on in Ireland and the world at large, at the time.
Answering these questions involves constructing a sort of snapshot of what was going on in the world in 1687, outlining the relevant events leading up to that date, and where necessary, indicating what happened later. My model for this approach is John E. Wills: 1688: A Global History, which drew together events in a single year in the 17th century, and described what was happening at that particular time all over the world. The scope of my account is less ambitious, but follows a similar plan.
The World in 1687
Great events were unfolding in England and the world at large during the
17th century, but my guess is that the brothers’ intellectual
horizon was quite constricted, and that the great sweep of world history
left them untouched, untroubled and uninterested. They were probably
already in Ireland when France’s Louis XIV revoked the Edict of
Nantes in 1685, thereby revoking the freedom to worship earlier granted
to the French Protestants (Huguenots). The arrived in America the same
year that Robert LaSalle died while working his way down the Ohio,
Missouri and Mississippi rivers, establishing the claim of France to
large tracts of territory in North America. The Thirty Years War, the
Franco-Spanish War, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars, which had raged earlier in
the century, were of little concern to them, and catastrophes like the
Great Plague of London in 1665 and the Great Fire in 1666 would have
seemed quite remote.
Irish History
Since we are concerned with the brothers’ sojourn in Ireland, some
understanding of the story of that island is important. The ethnicity
and culture of England had been repeatedly modified by invasion since
Roman times, and although similar considerations applied to Ireland,
remoteness had its advantage, and the native Celts were better insulated
than their English neighbors from foreign influences. The genetic makeup
of the modern Irish is predominantly that of their Celtic ancestors. The
Irish suffered many military defeats over the years, but the country was
never subjugated to the extent that the majority of its citizens became
quietly resigned to foreign rule. The history is complicated, but for
our purposes, we may summarize events this way.
The Vikings had invaded Ireland in the 9th century and then the Anglo-Normans (themselves of Viking ancestry) came in the 12th. England’s Henry VIII declared himself King of Ireland in 1541, and the Tudors made significant land grants to favorites of the Crown. Irish peasants were tenant farmers of these manor lands until the reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603), when efforts were made to import substantial numbers of English settler-tenants. The incomers for the most part lived inside the “pales” or boundaries of the cities of Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and Dublin. Not surprisingly, the natives resented their presence, and there were rebellions in 1559, 1569 and 1594. The last of these, led by Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, continued to 1603 and is remembered as the Nine Years War. During the conflict both sides practiced scorched earth tactics, and the Irish countryside was laid waste by fire, sword and famine.
Ultimately, the rebels were defeated, and peace was declared by England’s King James I at the Treaty of Mellifont in 1603. The Earls were allowed to regain control of their lands by surrendering them to the Sovereign, who then graciously re-granted them. By agreeing to this, the Earls acknowledged the supremacy of the Crown. But Tyrone and his associates had created too many enemies for this to settle matters, and among the English authorities were those relentlessly plotting their downfall. Troops commanded by Earl of Tyrone had killed the brother of Sir Arthur Chichester, and the latter, now Lord Deputy of Ireland, was engaged in a personal vendetta against the Earl. By the summer of 1607 the Earl felt that he was in imminent danger of arrest, imprisonment, and execution. Together with about a hundred others, he boarded ship and fled the country. Things might have been different had the Earl ever fulfilled his intended desire to return, but instead he died in exile in Rome in 1616.
The Ulster Plantation
At the end of the 16th Century, of all the Irish Provinces, Ulster,
(basically the northern part of the island), remained the most Celtic in
tradition, laws, religion and ethnicity. Although the number of folk who
sailed with the Earls was very modest, the Flight of the Earls proved to
be pivotal in Irish history because it was the catalyst that transformed
Ulster into the least Irish of its Provinces. The event could be
considered as the beginning of an Irish diaspora, which in later years
was to dramatically reduce the population of the island.
The vacuum left by the departure of O’Neill and O’Donnell gave the authorities the excuse to confiscate their lands, roughly speaking the counties of Derry, Fermanagh and Armagh, and to neuter further threat of Irish rebellion by “planting” the escheated territory with great numbers of Scots and English dissenters. In his capacity as King of Scotland, James I was glad to see the back of many of his less law-abiding citizens, and by transporting these folk across the Irish Sea, the authorities in England and Scotland killed two birds with one stone — at a stroke they disencumbered themselves of lawless Scottish Lowlanders and troublemaking English dissenters, while establishing on the seized lands a population who would offer a rabidly Protestant bulwark against the indigenous Irish Catholic inhabitants.
As an added bonus the Crown made money by selling off large tracts of land to “undertakers,” who committed to attracting a specified number of settlers as tenants or leaseholders within a specified time and to building lightly fortified forts or “bawns” with arms and powder for their defense.
Some of the dispossessed Irish were killed or transported as slaves to the West Indies, while others took to the hills to survive as rapparees, descending on the newcomers’ farms when opportunity offered. Some remained to work as laborers for their new masters, but they did not do so happily, and this was to have repercussions in 1641.
Of significance to Harlan Family history is an area in northeast
Armagh, near the modern town of Lurgan. This was part of the Barony of
Oneilland, confiscated from the O’Neill clan in 1607 and ceded to
the Brownlow family as undertakers. This area was settled largely with
English, as distinct from Scottish, planters, and remarkably, to this
day, dialectologists can detect traces of this difference in background
in the speech of folk of this particular area. Surviving records
indicate that tenants on the Brownlow estate included Peter Harland,
townland of Ballyblagh in 1635, and John Harland, townland of Liscorran
in 1659. (These townlands are now totally overbuilt and incorporated in
the town of Lurgan.) Peter is listed on a Muster Roll as
“pikeman,” and this together with the early dates suggest that
he was not a Quaker, at least not then. If, as seems probable from the
family name, they were related to the brothers, then their prior
presence in the area is another reason why the later arrivals chose to
settle near Lurgan.
(Editor’s Note: Future issues of the Harlan Record will carry more installments of this story. If you can’t wait, see the entire unedited version on the Harlan Family Web site.)
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The Harlan Record
The Harlan Family in America
E-mail to: C. J. King, Editor or mail to the organization’s address shown above. Editorial Board: John L. Harlan, Diana Harlan Wells, Ed Wynn
If you want an electronic version of The Harlan Record,
e-mail your request to:
[email protected]
The e-mail newsletter will be sent close to the time that printed newsletters are mailed. The Harlan Record is also available on the Harlan Web site: www.harlanfamily.org under the link “Newsletter” |
Genealogy Book Still Available
The book,
The History and Genealogy of the Harlan Family and
Particularly of the Descendants of George and Michael
Harlan, compiled by Alpheus Harlan and published in 1914, may be
ordered from: The cost of the book is $60, postpaid. Make check payable to The Harlan Family in America. |
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Remembrance Fund In Memory of ....
Eva Jane Harlan Burlin,
Harold O. Harlan (1927-1961),
Kenneth Eugene Harlan,
Marion Elaine Harlan,
Ralph M. Harlan,
Charles Stokes, |
Harlan Family in America Fund
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Remember.....
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Request
I have a copy of Vol. 1, No. 1, of The Harlan Record, dated December 1901. It was published by James M. Harlan, manager of The Harlan Publishing Co, St. Louis, Mo.
If later issues of this early newsletter exist and can be copied,
please send copies to The Harlan Family in America (address in
column one). Thanks. |
National Harlan Family Reunion Update
Mark your calendars for the next national reunion to be held at John
Ascuaga’s Nugget Hotel in Reno, Nev., from July 11–15, 2007. We
are excited to hold our first national reunion in the western states.
There are many things to do in the Reno/Lake Tahoe area, so plan your
vacation time around it. If you visit the following:
<
www.visitrenotahoe.com >
< www.janugget.com >
<
www.renotahoevisitor.com
>
and use a search engine, you’ll find informative sites to help you
plan.
We have been given the following data from John Ascuaga’s Nugget Hotel: room rates have been quoted as $89, single or double occupancy, plus 13.5% room tax. Triple and quad occupancy is an additional $10 each, with a hotel guarantee that the rate will be no more than $95, single or double occupancy. Please note that the actual room rate may be lower then the guarantee. There are other lodging options such as campgrounds, motor home parks, and lower priced motel rooms.
The annual board meeting of The Harlan Family in America will be held April 23, 2005, at the Clarion Hotel in Sacramento, Calif., with the main topic being the 2007 national reunion. Daily reunion activities will be discussed, and reunion volunteer committees will be organized.
How can you help make this another successful reunion?
We have had a good response for volunteers in our first appeal last year but will need many more. We’re also looking to add to our mailing list so more Harlan family members can be reached. If you know of others who do not now receive the newsletter, please let them know about the forthcoming reunion and urge them to sign up to receive reunion information as it becomes available.
If you would like to help make this another successful reunion, please contact Junior F. Harlan at: [email protected] or by mail; 6218 E. Betty Elyse Ln., Scottsdale, AZ 85254-1947.
Hildene’s Symposium: In the Shadow of Greatness: The Lives of Presidential Children
Hildene, the former summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln and his wife, Mary Harlan Lincoln (#5864), in Manchester, Vt., will host a symposium this summer, July 5–7, entitled In the Shadow of Greatness: The Lives of Presidential Children. Hildene has gathered an impressive collection of nationally recognized speakers for this event, as well as several presidential descendants.
Those who will participate over the course of the three-day event are founder, chairman and CEO of C-SPAN, Brian Lamb, the keynote speaker, plus some of the country’s finest historians and scholars. Topics and speakers will include: Vice President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and author Harold Holzer, “To See Ourselves as Others See Us: The Lincoln Family Album ReOpened”; University of Vermont History Professor Melanie Gustafson, “The Children of Theodore Roosevelt”; author and lecturer Steven Lee Carson, “Children of the Adamses and Jefferson: Suicide, Murder, Homosexuality and the Presidency”; and Rhode Island Chief Justice Frank Williams, “Robert Todd Lincoln.”
Additionally, Susan Ford Bales, the daughter of President Gerald and Betty Ford and recently appointed president of the Betty Ford Clinic; Harry Truman grandson Clifton Daniel; and Jennifer Sayles Harville, great-granddaughter of Calvin and Grace Coolidge, will discuss their personal experiences and intimate recollections of life as presidential progeny.
If you have any questions, please contact symposium coordinator Lisa
Fairley at (802) 367-1144 or < [email protected] >. You can also find
additional information about the symposium and background information
about the speakers at:
<www.hildene.org/symposium.htm>
Harlan-Lincoln Women’s Biography
Harlan Record co-editor C. J. King’s four-generation biography of the Harlan-Lincoln women will be unveiled just in time for the Hildene symposium this summer. It will soon be available on the <www.harlanfamily.org> Web site.
King has been researching and writing her book, Four Marys and a Jessie: The Story of the Lincoln Women, for several years, ever since she learned that she is related to these women through the Harlan family. After visiting Hildene, the Lincoln family home in Manchester, Vt., she decided to move to Vermont to begin this research. She now lives in Jamaica, Vt.
A native Hoosier and the daughter of Raymond and Melba Harlan King of
Indianapolis, she holds a degree in journalism from Ball State University
and an MFA in writing from the University of Massachusetts. As a
professional writer for 25 years, she has published many articles in
newspapers and magazines. This is her first book.
Hildene will publish the book this spring. For information on ordering it:
call 802-362-1788 or
e-mail to <[email protected]>
A December 23 article by Ron Jennings of The Sedalia (Mo.) Democrat newspaper featured Bob Harlan as he made rounds of a local hospital disguised as Santa Claus.
For five years, Bob has visited hospitalized children and new mothers, but this year he expanded his role to include everyone in the Bothwell Regional Health Center. In exchange for filling Santa’s role at a Russell Stover Candies Store and the Salvation Army, he received candy and gifts to distribute to patients at Christmas time and was rewarded with many smiles and bright eyes.
He was quoted as saying, “I don’t care if they’re three
or 93, they all could use a little Santa Claus.” Incidentally, he
sports a real white beard, and the photos in the newspaper portray an
authentic looking Santa enjoying his role.
Bob is a third-generation retired meat cutter from Green Ridge, Mo.
# 2489–JOSHUA HARLAN m. Lucinda Dixon
Updated by Curtis Long
#2846–ELI BENTLEY m. (1) Mary Hall m. (2) Mary Custer
Contributed by Donna Lee
#4485–LYDIA HARLAND m. Aaron Henry Barnes
Corrections: Lydia was born Feb. 22, 1822 (not 1826); Aaron’s last
name was Barnes (not Brown, as in the book).
Updated by Sue Guerra
#6903–WILLIS R. HARLAN m. Jane Carter
Updated by Marvin Gregory
Send any genealogy updates to: Esther Harlan Wells [email protected]
Director of Genealogy: Cynthia Rhoades [email protected]
Widow Makes Unusual Discovery
By Renee Duncan-Cortez
Over the years I have researched my family’s heritage. After my husband, Brad Lake, passed away in 1995 at age 40, I wanted to include his family’s history in my database for our two children, Brad, Jr., and Judy Raeann.
I could not help but notice that my husband’s ancestors had been Quakers and had lived in the same location as my family’s roots. Then I came across the name of Elizabeth Duck, and my heart began to pound because it looked like the association was more than a friendship—it was looking more like family.
To make a long story short, we indeed have family ties going back more than 300 years. I descend from Hannah Harlan Hollingsworth #6, and Brad descended from Aaron Duck Harlan #8.
I find it amazing that in this vast world we live in, two people (George #3 and his wife, Elizabeth) who started their family in Ireland, would have two descendants who met and married on the far western side of the United States (Clovis, Calif.). And our two children have double lineage to the Harlan and Duck families.
I now live in Denver, Colo., with my husband, Robert Cortez, and daughter, Veronica, but I’m still very close with Brad’s family. I now call my mother-in-law “cousin,” and we have a laugh.
Announcing a New Feature on the Harlan Family Web Site
Names Upon the Land
Submitted by Steve Harrison
The Harlan name is scattered across America. I am not referring to names of people (although we are scattered) but rather names of places. There are mountains, ditches, roads, counties and buildings. Last year, while visiting “home” in California, I was discussing family history with my cousin Bill Harlan (William K. Harlan). He suggested starting to compile a list of Harlan place names.
The result is a new link on the Web site of The Harlan Family in America,
known as “Harlan Place Names.”
<
http://www.harlanfamily.org/places.htm >
The list you will find at the Web site includes place names in the 50 United States. Place names could be geographic (a mountain) or political (a city or county). The list includes the place name, state, county, more specific location if available, and history such as with whom the name originated. For example, you will see Harlan Avenue in Fresno County, California. Harlan Avenue was named for my great-grandfather, Elisha Harlan (#2995), who homesteaded in that area in the 1860s.
This list is not definitive, and we want it to continue to grow with help from relatives and researchers everywhere. Please feel free to send additional names, corrections to existing information, or additional information on existing names. Send information to me by e-mail or postal mail. As the list is updated, I will send it to the Junior Harlan so the Web site can be updated.
Steve Harrison
P.O. Box 1218
Manteo, NC 27954
< [email protected]>
A Reminder... When sending e-mails to anyone connected with The Harlan Family in America, please include “Harlan” in the subject line.
“The Jews were scattered to all parts of the world. They described this movement as the Diaspora. Without its capital “D,” the Irish have come to love this word of ancient Greek origins meaning “those who are scattered; a dispersion, as of a people belonging to one nation.”
“The Irish famine 1846-1850, caused by the repeated destruction of the potato crops, had lead to some two million Irish men and women setting off all round the world, never to return. Even 60 and more years later the Irish still regarded emigration as a common-sense thing to do – and that in spite of the fact that the only available transport option was a long slow uncomfortable journey by sea.”
A new Web site full of Harland history opens with the above words. This Web site, organized by Webmaster Robin Harland of Belfast, Northern Ireland, includes pictures and genealogical information about the descendants of John Harland, a tenant farmer in the Armagh region of Northern Ireland, an area that we also explore in the article, “Irish Interlude,” in this issue of the Harlan Record (page 1).
The Web site reports the history of just one single family, one of very many examples of the Irish diaspora. The family’s home was: Hillside, 29 Convent Hill, BESSBROOK, Co. Armagh. Pictures of the home and some more recent ones of the family’s descendants are on the Web site, found at: www.harlanddiaspora.net
“It starts with the story of the Harlands in Ireland from 1635, but the main part of the site concerns a single family unit that spread out all round the world … Although only one very tiny part of the whole, some of the cousins may find some interest in these pages,” Webmaster Robin writes.
How do these Irish Harlands relate to the brothers who left England, spent
some time in Ireland, and eventually ended up in America? Check out this
Web site, read our ongoing installments of John H. Harland’s
“Irish Interlude,” which will be published in several issues of
the Harlan Record, and let’s see what we can find out.
(Editor’s Note: Robin is the younger brother of John Harland,
author of “Irish Interlude.” They may descend from Thomas,
elder brother of George and Michael, who chose to remain in Ireland in
1687, although some of his descendants eventually came to America. This
is speculation, however, as other Harlands were in the Lurgan area at
that time.)
More Than One Tragedy for First Lady McKinley
Submitted by Steven Coulter
I notice the Harlan Web site features a page on our cousin Ida Saxton (#10368), wife of President William McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901. Three years earlier, his brother-in-law’s killing resulted in one of the noted murder cases in Ohio’s legal annals.
Ida Saxton McKinley’s only brother, George Dewalt Saxton (#10370), was a well-to-do ladies’ man. He never married. Rather, he enjoyed other men’s wives. So it came as no great surprise when George was found dead at age 47 in 1898, with four bullets in his body. According to the coroner’s report, two of the shots didn’t hit any vital organs. The third bullet caused a fatal wound, but the victim might have lived as long as 24 hours if not for the fourth bullet, which severed a major artery. George bled to death within just a few minutes.
President and Mrs. McKinley were headed to the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha, Neb., but their train was detoured to Canton, Ohio, so they could attend George Saxton’s funeral.
The real surprise came when the suspected killer turned out not to be a jealous husband, but rather Mrs. Annie George, one of the dead man’s conquests. When Annie found out George was two-timing her, she gave him the “Frankie and Johnny” treatment.* You might think the crime was an open-and-shut case, with a noose waiting on a scaffold for the jealous adulteress. The prosecutor, Atlee Pomerene, was a competent attorney who later became a United States senator from Ohio. However, clever defense attorney James Sterling secured a sympathetic jury who found poor Annie “not guilty.”
First Lady Ida McKinley survived her husband by only five years, dying in 1907 in Canton, Ohio. She and her two young daughters rest with the martyred President in the McKinley Memorial adjacent to West Lawn Cemetery at Canton. Ida’s other surviving sibling, Mary Belinda Saxton Barber, died ten years later, in 1917.
I am the 6th cousin, three times removed, of Ida, Mary, and George Saxton. My Harlan connection, through my mother, was Hannah Harlan Hayes, daughter of Ezekiel Harlan, Jr., son of Ezekiel Harlan, son of George Harlan the American immigrant. By coincidence, through my father, Fred Coulter, President William McKinley was my 2nd cousin, three times removed.
* “Frankie and Johnny” is one of the most popular and enduring American folk ballads. It tells the story of Frankie, the young woman who catches her lover with another woman and shoots him with her .44, “rat-a-tat-tat,” because “he done her wrong.” Frankie claimed self-defense, and a jury found her not guilty of murder.
(Editor’s Note: More about Ida Saxton McKinley can be found on the link, “Who’s Who,” on the Harlan Web site.)
Reprinted from the National Education Association’s NEA Today, Oct.
2004
by Donna Chiu
Ever since Washington state teacher Sara Harlan spent a year living and teaching in Haiti, she has not been able to get the picture of the more than 300,000 abandoned and abused Haitian street children off her mind.
When she told her fourth-grade students about her experiences in Haiti, she set in motion an effort that touched everyone involved. “I was telling my class about the hardships the street children in Haiti were facing, and the kids in my class just asked, ‘What can we do to help?’” Harlan says, “I didn’t put any ideas in their heads.”
Together, Harlan and her students brainstormed ways to raise money and finally decided to host a Read-a-thon, a one-month event conducted by five fourth-grade classes that raised more than $1,500 in pledges. In addition to the awareness effort she launched at her school, Harlan also alerted her community to the situation in Haiti by donating all $1,000 of the proceeds from her 2003 art show to Haitian Street Kids, Inc., a nonprofit charitable organization that provides children in Haiti with a home and the opportunity for a good education.
But Harlan’s generosity did not stop there. As the new librarian at Stanwood Middle School in Stanwood, Washington, Harlan has already held a fund-raiser to help a sister school in Guatemala open up a new library and has plans to hold another fund-raiser this year to continue helping Haitian street children.
“Awareness is the most important thing,” says Harlan. “I can’t possibly raise all the money necessary to help the children who need it, but if I can raise awareness with other people, then that’s how compassion begins to snowball.”
Mark Harlan—Internet Poker Expert
(George #3, James #11, John #44, Isaac #207, Isaac #797, John #2720,
Samuel Lingo, J. Fount, Delly Lee, John Lee Harlan)
Many are familiar with the series of “Dummies” manuals—books that serve as texts for those unfamiliar with various subjects.
The recently released book, Winning at Internet Poker For Dummies (Wiley Publishing, ISBN 0764578332) is co-authored by Mark “The Red” Harlan of Santa Clara, Calif. It provides guidance for playing basic online poker games, setting up accounts, securing funds, devising winning strategies and participating in tournaments. It was written for people who are generally familiar with poker, but not as comfortable with the nuances of online play.
Mark is also one of the co-founders of CyberArts Licensing, LLC, a software company that is producing a new poker site: gamesgrid.com
Mark’s bio is extensive. He is featured on the Harlan Web site < www.harlanfamily.org > under “Stories” where you will find information about his participation in the 1998 GTE Big Ride Across America, a group bicycle ride from Seattle, Wash., to Washington, D.C. which benefited the America Lung Association. He selected an “honorary buddy” for the undertaking—Joe Loft of Clarence, Mo.—who was a childhood friend of Mark’s father and was suffering from lung disease.
Mark has spent 20 years in the Silicon Valley, working on various projects including Apple’s Macintosh computer, the Sony MagicLink, the Motorola Envoy, early versions of the Netscape Navigator Web Browser and the T-Mobile Sidekick.
Mark’s biggest claim to fame is all but unknown to the public. One day over lunch, his friend Pierre Omidyar, asked Mark if he had an idea for how bidding might work in online auctions. As a child, Mark often went to police bicycle auctions, so the task was familiar and intriguing. He diagrammed the entire bidding process on the back of a place mat for Pierre, making special emphasis of the “proxy” technique (i.e. being able to bid while not being present). Pierre took the design, coding it exactly for use in a product called “Action Web.” The software matured, was renamed, and yet this exact bidding system is still being used by millions of people every day, now under the name of “eBay.”
If you want to learn how to win at Texas Hold ’Em and Omaha on the Internet, get a copy of Winning at Internet Poker For Dummies. If you want to actually play, give your cousin’s site a try: gamesgrid.com !
The annual May Day Singing at Blue Ridge Baptist Church is set for Sunday, May 1, 2005. The church is located on FM-1771, about 10 miles east of Marlin, Texas.
The event starts at 10:00 a.m. with a prayer and short sermonette,
followed by hymn singing until noon. A covered dish dinner will follow,
with drinks and meats furnished. Attendees are asked to bring a salad,
vegetable or dessert.
Hymn-singing resumes after dinner and will continue as long as singers and
musicians are there. Any musicians and vocal performers are welcome.
Blue Ridge Baptist Church and the adjoining cemetery were established by descendants of Dr. Isaiah Harlan, #712, (1798-1847) on Mexican land granted during the days of Republic of Texas.
For more information, contact Zill and Mary Harlan at 254-587-2238.
Friends of the Harlan-Lincoln House Promotion
Iowa Wesleyan College and the Harlan-Lincoln House Renovation Committee of Mt. Pleasant, Ia., launched the “Friends of the Harlan-Lincoln House” last September. The Friends organization was initiated as a way to support the mission “to preserve the Harlan-Lincoln House and its collection” and “to fulfill the home’s vital role in the living history of the College and the Community.” To date, memberships have raised approximately $15,000.
One may become a member at different levels of giving, starting at $30 for an individual or $50 for a family. To qualify as a charter member of Friends of the Harlan-Lincoln House, you may join at the $500 level before May 31, 2005. Charter members will receive a print of the Harlan-Lincoln House designed by Susan S. Johnston and will be recognized on a permanent plaque displayed in the Harlan-Lincoln House. For more information on joining Friends, contact Johanna Chapman at 800-582-2383.
The current project at the Harlan-Lincoln House is raising funds to reconstruct the wrap-around porch Mary Harlan Lincoln had built in 1895. Architect Cooper Norman of Prairie Architects, Inc., has prepared specifications that include handicapped accessibility. Twelve feet wide, the porch is estimated to cost $75,000. In Norman’s words, “The addition of the porch . . . added grace to the otherwise austere massing of the house, and the open gesture it made to the college community must have been perceived as an invitation to come sit a while, to engage in conversation and open thoughtfulness with respected members of the community.”
Funds from Friends memberships and from the support of two local family foundations will go toward the porch project, but additional funds are needed to move forward with bids for the project.
A current photo of the house may be viewed on the Harlan Web site: < www.harlanfamily.org/sites.htm >. Tours of the Harlan-Lincoln House are available by appointment. Contact Lynn Ellsworth, Executive Director of the Harlan-Lincoln House Renovation Committee at 319-385-6320 or by e-mail: [email protected]
Hurricane Survivor Shares Experience
Editor’s Note: An inquiry in the Fall 2004 Harlan Record brought a
response from Hazel Allee Burns (George Harlan #3, Ezekiel #5, William
#22, Stephen #115, Stephen #465, Enoch #1656, Malinda Ann Harlan Allee
#4644, Levi Austin Allee, Victor Millard Allee, Hazel Allee Burns), who
tells about living through last fall’s hurricanes:
My hometown, Fort Pierce, Fla., was struck head-on by Hurricane Frances, and then just three weeks to the day, we were struck again by Hurricane Jeanne! I’ve lived in Florida for 51 years, and Frances and Jeanne were my first experiences with hurricanes. The last big hurricane to hit Fort Pierce was in 1949, and we are right on the Atlantic Ocean!
The days just before Frances, we spent battening down in preparation. That meant bringing in anything that might fly around from the high winds, and rushing to the store to stock up on drinking water and easily prepared foods. Most of my neighbors boarded up their windows. I didn’t. I had no hurricane shutters, and there was no way that I, a 79-year-old widow, could cut and nail plywood over the 13 windows and the large double door that leads from the family room to the courtyard.
On Saturday morning, October 4, it was breezy when we woke up, and by 10:20 a.m. the power went off. By that time, several of my neighbors headed out for what they thought were safer locations. A trip to Orlando usually takes about two hours, but those who went there spent 10 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic in high winds on the Turnpike. My little English Springer Spaniel, Max, and I just hunkered down and listened to the battery-powered radio, and I later spent the night—as the winds picked up—reading by flashlight. Our telephone service remained on throughout the storm, so I was able to check with friends who stayed.
The winds increased in strength until they were howling over our heads at 100mph. It was about that time that the big palm tree in my back yard fell over. It just missed the house by six feet. (Did you know that insurance doesn’t pay for the removal or replacement of trees unless they damage the house? I didn’t.)
Finally at 2:00 a.m. the eye passed over Fort Pierce, so I was able to sleep for two hours until the winds picked up again at 4:00 a.m. The south side of the storm wasn’t nearly as severe as the earlier winds from the north. By daybreak we were able to survey the damage. The powers that be looked after me—I had only $2,600 damage: most of the screen over the courtyard was lost, one small window was broken, and a 10-foot decorative brick wall was destroyed. Food in the refrigerator and freezers began to spoil, but Max and I were fit and happy.
Following Frances, we had no power for 11 days, no water at all for two days (they had a boil-water order for about a week), no cable for 15 days, no newspaper for several days, and we were under a curfew from dusk to dawn.
Little did we know that an even stronger storm was on its way. Jeanne was a Category 3 hurricane, and she had winds up to 120 mph. The worst of it also hit at night. I held on and prayed the roof would hold. It did, but I spent all night mopping up rain that was driven under the family room door and the patched-up window in the bedroom. Little enough price to pay.
There was extensive damage in our town. Many houses had major damage, and 2,400 had to be condemned. That’s a lot in a town with only 35,000 people. Many of the schools had enormous damage, and the kids were out of school for 20 days. One of the worst things in the aftermath is that all our traffic signals were out for a time.
• Ralph M. Harlan, 88, who passed away November 24, 2004. His grandfather was William Harlan, #4702, in Alpheus Harlan’s History and Genealogy of the Harlan Family.
Ralph was a lifelong resident of the Cleveland, Ohio, area and served in the 10th Armored Division of the U.S. Army in World War II. Ralph’s brother, Earl Harlan, also of Ohio, served in the Merchant Marines and has attended the national reunions of 1987, 1997 and 2002.
• James Trabue, (8/4/1934 – 8/11/2004) who lived in Wickenburg, Ariz. James was interested in genealogy for 50 years. He formerly lived in Illinois, near St. Louis.
Let Your Eyes Do the Walking
When I find a new idea I always wonder why I didn’t think of that before. Spending time wandering through cemeteries looking for family stones can be very time consuming. Taking a pair of binoculars along to help you search for those elusive gravestones can save a lot of time. Although you can’t see and read all of the stones at one time (unless it’s a very small cemetery) you can at least scan large areas and cover a lot of ground at a much faster pace. Talk about a time saver! Whereas the phone company suggests letting “your fingers do the walking,” in this case you can let “your eyes do the walking.”
Cynthia Rhoades
Director of Genealogy
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comments or suggestions to Ruth Harlan Lamb
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