Alexander Jr, Harrison

HARRISON ROE

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 8/26/2010 at 21:47:48

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Alexander Harrison, Jr
By Loraine E Washburn

Alexander Harrison, Jr, was born 28 June 1843, Climax Township, Kalamazoo County, Michigan, the son of one of that township’s earliest settlers, Alexander Harrison, Sr, born 8 November 1811, Jefferson County, Ohio, he was in Climax Township by 1837, died there 18 August 1887, and is buried in Harrison Cemetery, located on what was his land, married 2 January 1830, Union County, Ohio, to Elizabeth roe, born 14 February 1813, Fayette Township, Wayne County, Ohio, died 18 November 1887, Climax Township. Alex Jr was the eighth of their fifteen chidlren. Others were: Bersheba, 1830-1833; Jeremiah, 1833-1894; Hannah, 1834-?; Elizabeth, 1836-1906; Edna Ann, 1838-1904, married Eli Sager, her cousin, and has many descendants in Woodbury County; Emily, 1839-1833; Margaret, 1841-1917; Benjamin, 1846-1892; grandfather of Lillian, Merlin, Willard, Bert and Bud, all of whom were Woodbury County residents; Columbus, 1847-1848; Charles, 1849-1849; Frederick ‘Keg’, 1850-1925, his grandsons, Veryl and Jim McKibben, attended school in Banner # 1; Garrett, 1853-1918; Hiram, 1855-1898; and Samuel, 1858-1938.

Alexander, Sr was the son of Joseph Harrison, born about 1773, Maryland, died (?) 1820-1830, Union County, Ohio, where he had been one of Mill Creek Township’s first settlers about 1819, married about 1795 to Bersheba Oglesby, born 1774, Virginia, died 15 April 1951, Climax Township, Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Alexander, Sr was the eight of their ten children. Others were: Hannah, 1796, Virginia, married F J Sager, parents of Eli who married Edna Ann; Benjamin, 1799, Virginia; Moses, 1801; Joseph Jr, 1803 Pennsylvania; Aaron, 1805; America, 1807, Ohio; Columbus, 1810, Ohio; Elizabeth, 1813, Ohio, had descendants in Plymouth and Woodbury County; Frederick, 1817, Ohio, lived in Plymouth County, grandfather of Earl Harrison, former Lawton, Iowa resident.

Alec, Jr married 14 February 1864, Wakeshma, Michigan, to his cousin, MaryEm ‘Mary’ Roe, born 18 January 1846, Adams County, Indiana, the daughter of Jeremiah ‘Mize’ Roe III and Polly Hill. Mary’s sister, Elizabeth Roe, married James H Stilwell, and was the mother of Warren Stilwell who resided in Banner Township, Woodbury County, and has many descendants in the county at the present time.

Alec and Mary lived in Michigan for a few years; their two sons were born there. We believe they came to Iowa in the 1870’s, probably because of Alec’s wandering foot. Before purchasing the Harrison farm in Section 11, Banner Township in 1888, the family bought the Nate McElrath farm northeast of Moville, probably located in Section 21, Arlington Township, which they resold, and Alec took his family on a trip to Texas to look at land, but returned to Iowa. His daughter was born at Chanute, Kansas, on that trip. We believe the family also made a trip like this to Missouri at one time. They also lived one winter in a dugout cave on the farm of Alec’s brother, Frederick, in Plymouth County, Iowa, with Frederick’s family, as well as the family of another brother, Benjamin.

Afer Alec and Mary bought the farm in Banner Township, Mary refused to move again, and the farm is now the home of the fourth generation of Harrison, the current owner of the farm being Donald Harrison. There are two homes on the place and there have always been two or more Harrison families in residence on the place. Donald’s father, Everett, is the tenant in the second house. A portion of the land in the northwest quarter is owned and farmed by Darrel Harrison, another fourth generation Harrison.

Alec and Mary were parents of three children. Oscar, the first, born 21 Octobe 1865, in Michigan, lived on Harrison Farm in Section 11, Banner Township. HE married Laura Angeline Walker, born 26 September 1874, ir. Missouri. Le died in 1939 at the farm; she died in 1938 in a Sioux City hospital; and both are buried in Plymouth County. They had seven sons, Elmer, Thomas, Howard, Carl, William, Benjamin and Everett.

Lafayette ‘Lafe’, the second son, was born 10 October 1869, in Climax Township, Kalamazoo County, Michigan. HE lived in Banner Township as a youth, and for a time after his marriage in Missouri, to Dora Melton. At least one of their children, Osmer, was born in Woodbury County, in 1893. This family lived briefly in Michigan, but spent most of their years in Missouri, where Lafe died 19 September 1956. Their other children were Clyde, John and Daisy.

Maggie Rosannah was born 23 August 1881 at Chanute, Kansas. She married Herman Harry Richardson. They farmed in Sections ten and eleven of Banner Township, living in Section eleven. They had one son, Louis H, and two stillborn daughters. Maggie died in 1962, and is buried in Banner Township Cemetery.

Alec Harrison, died 20 May 1922, and Mary, his wife, died 12 January 1909, both in Banner Township. They are buried in Lincoln Township Cemetery, Plymouth County, Iowa.