HARKNESS, Susan "Susie" B. Humeston 1845 - 1932

HARKNESS, BROWN, BLACK, HUMESTON, NORTHRUP

Posted By: Richard K Thompson (email)
Date: 5/2/2011 at 17:09:16

Fairfield (Ia.) Daily Ledger
Friday Nov. 18, 1932
Pg. 8 Col. 1

MRS. HARKNESS DIED IN PANORA

Funeral for Former Fairfield Woman Will Be Here Sunday

Mrs. R. A. HARKNESS, widow of Prof. R. A. HARKNESS (sic. Richard A. HARKNESS), well known former Parsons college professor, passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Charles BROWN, at Panora, Iowa, according to word received here this morning.

The body will be brought to Fairfield and services will be held at 2:30 o'clock Sunday afternoon from the Murray Funeral Home. Dr. Gilbert Voorhies will officiate. Interment in Evergreen cemetery.

Mrs. HARKNESS is survived by two children, Mrs. Charles BLACK of Panora, and Dr. Carl HARKNESS of Highland Park, Ill. She also leaves one grandchild, Dr. Richard BROWN of New York City. Her husband and one daughter, Mrs. Susie HARKNESS BROWN, preceded her in death.

The HARKNESS family came to Fairfield in 1881, making their home at 200 West Washington street. Prof. HARKNESS was Latin instructor at Parsons college from 1881 until 1889. He was better known as "Uncle Dick." After leaving Parsons college he was professor in the Junior college at Lamona, Iowa, for a short time, but the home was made in Farifield. From Lamona he returned to Fairfield and conducted a private school.

In the summer of 1918 Prof. HARKNESS passed away at his daughter's home in Panora. Burial was made in Evergreen cemetery. Mrs. HARKNESS and daughter made their home in Fairfield until about 1921 and since that time have lived in Panora. The one daughter, Mrs. Susie BROWN, died March 1923.

* Transcribed for genealogy purposes. I am not related to the person(s) mentioned.

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Added by Admin, April 2024 --

"The Fairfield (Ia.) Daily Ledger"
Monday, November 21, 1932
Page EIGHT, Columns 1 and 2

PAY TRIBUTE TO MRS. HARKNESS

Friends Fill Funeral Home To Hear Funeral Ceremonies

Impressive funeral servces at 2:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon in the Murray Funeral Home marked the last tribute paid Mrs. R. A. HARKNESS by her many friends.

Rev. Gilbert Voorhies officiated at the last rites. A quartet composed of Miss Cora Ball, Miss Mary Demaree, Prof. Carl G. Molander and Prof. Harold T. Smith, sang "Asleep in Jesus," and "Come Ye Disconsolate." Miss Ball sant "One Sweetly Solemn Thought," with Mrs. Voorhies accompanying on the piano.

Magnificent floral offerings, sent by friends and associates, were banked about the casket in mute testimony of the esteem in which Mrs. HARKNESS was held by all who knew her.

Burial was made in the family lot in Evergreen cemetery. The casket attendants were E. Russell Smith, Paul S. Junkin, Prof. Charles Carter, Dr.. C. C. Tallman, J Wilbur Dole and C. W. Wade.

Born in Ohio

Susie B. HUMESTON, the daughter of Mary NORTHRUP and Alva HUMESTON was born in Fowler Ohio, April 10, 1845 and died in Panora, Iowa November 17, 1932 at the home of her son-in-law, Dr. S. J. BROWN.

When she was ten years old her father and mother decided to move to Hiram, Ohio, to afford their children an opportunity to enjoy that town's educational advantages, especially those of what was then known as the Eclectic Institute, but later became Hiram college. The president at that time was James A. Garfield, and the HUMESTON and Garfield families soon became close friends. Susie HUMESTON was a brilliant and ambitious student, but when upon the outbreak of the civil war Garfield resigned his presidency of the institute to enter the service, taking with him a large number of the young men of the school, Susie and her older sister left their college work to assist their father in his store because the town had been so nearly stripped of its young masculine population.

Moved To Iowa

She spent the winter of 1864 visiting relatives in Syracuse and Fayetteville, New York, where her exceptional charm and social graces made so great an impression that thirty years later the older residents were still talking of her. She was recalled from this gay visit by the news that her father had sold out his business in Hiram and was about to move to southern Iowa and in the early summer the family arrived in Garden Grove where the only residence available for them was the spacious log temple built by the Mormons when they founded Garden Grove and abandoned by them when they began their march farther westward. It was here that Susie first met the young principal of the schools, Richard A. HARKNESS, who had come there from New York a few months earlier. Something more than a year later they were married after a courtship filed with ammusing incidents which they used to recount to the immense entertainment of their children. The wedding took place in another log house about a mile from the present town of Humeston for the incessant rains had made it impossible to make the bricks for the large house which Mr. HUMESTON later built on his land there.

Accepts Position Here

The HARKNESSes continued to live in Garden Grove until the summer of 1882, when Professor HARKNESS was elected to the chair of Latin in Parsons college in Fairfield. He died in Panora in June 1918, at the home of his daughter Mrs. S. J. BROWN, and a year later Mrs. HARKNESS sold her Fairfield home and went to Panora to reside. Except for two winters spent in New Orleans with her other daughter, who was then living there, the remainder of her life had been passed in Panora and since the death of Mrs. BROWN in 1923, in the home of Dr. BROWN.

Won Many Friends

Wherever she has lived her sweetness and charm have won her many warm and lasting friends, and her going, even at so ripe an old age, will leave a sense of sadness and loss with all who have known her.

She is survived by her brother Alva HUMESTON of Humeston a son and daughter.. Dr. Carleton Ainslee HARKNESS of Chicago and Mrs. Mary Leal HARKNESS BLACK, of Panora and one grandson, Dr. Richard J. H. BROWN of New York City.

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*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.

RKT note: The given first name was evidently "Susan", but other references to her and on her headstone use "Susie". She was the daughter of Alva HUMESTON and Mary NORTHRUP HUMESTON, who settled in Wayne county, Iowa. The town and cemetery there were named HUMESTON in his honor. Susan/Susie was born April 10, 1845 and died Nov. 17, 1932. She was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Fairfield, Iowa. 2nd.215.