Harrod, William S.

HARROD

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 11:42:27

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.524

WILLIAM S. HARROD
William S. Harrod, a retired farmer of Norwalk, Iowa, was born in Scott County, Indiana, January 29, 1837, the son of Isaac and Sarah (McCreary) Harrod. Isaac Harrod was a native of Kentucky, but being opposed to slavery he removed to Indiana to get away from it. He was of Scotch-Irish descent and possessed all the force of character that is characteristic of this ancestry. He was a good marksman and a soldier in the war of 1812. He died in Indiana, September 20, 1855, aged sixty-six years. His wife. Sarah McCreary, was of Irish descent, and a native of Kentucky. She survived her husband by a number of years, passing away as did her husband, at the age of sixty-six years. They were the parents of nine children.
When a young man nearly twenty-one years of age, William S. Harrod accompanied his mother on a visit from Indiana to Des Moines, where lived a brother and two brother-in-laws who were in business there. He liked the place and there began working at the carpenter's trade for one of his brother-in-laws. He followed that trade in Des Moines for seven years, during which time he managed to accumulate considerable means. When a youth he had invested in Kansas land and at one time owned over one hundred acres in what is now Lyon County.
During the seven years spent at Des Moines he invested in two hundred and eighty acres of land in Greenfield Township, Warren County, where he lived for many years, and in addition to this pur­chased two hundred acres elsewhere in Iowa. He was fortunate in securing this land at a time when its valuation was low compared to the merits of its soil, and its consequent growth in value added materially to his pros­perity. A favorable opportunity presenting itself for its sale, he disposed of it some years ago and bought with a part of the proceeds a farm adjoining the village of Norwalk, which is now well worth one hundred and twenty-five dollars an acre. For eight years Mr. Harrod has lived in the village re­tired from the active work of the farm and the leisure thus afforded him has enabled him to look into the merits of various propositions which have been presented to him, many of which he has seen good reasons for rejecting, while in others he has seen a source of profitable investment. His most approved idea of an assured income is that of making loans on first mortgages, which he is enabled to do by reason of his early habits of thrift, industry and economy.
In February 1872, occurred the marriage of William S. Harrod and Miss Barbara Beery, a native of Ohio and daughter of David Beery, deceased, one of Warren County's early pioneers. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Harrod has been born one son, Irvin C. Harrod, who is married to Miss Emily Garow and is engaged in real-estate business in Des Moines.
Mrs. Harrod is a member of the Methodist Church. Mr. Harrod was formerly a member of the Christian Church. In politics he is a Republican and while in no sense of the word is he a politician, yet he takes an active interests in the questions and issues of the day, and in making his decisions in this, as in all other matters, that he is actuated by the highest principles of justice and integrity is doubted by none.