Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 499
JAMES HARDY Sr.

James HARDY (deceased) was born in Somerset County, PA., in April, 1813, and in the Keystone State received a good business education. He spent his early life in Somerset County, PA, and in 1833 married Minerva TOMLINSON, and loved to Logan County, Ohio, and for three years was engaged in farming; from which place they went from Steuben County, Indiana, and in 1850 crossed the borders of the Hawkeye State andsettled in Mills County, where he was elected the first Sheriff that county had. But not being fully satisfied with his location, in 1852 he removed to the present site of Magnolia, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land; also another quarter section on section 15, of Calhoun Township, upon which was a good water power, upon the site of which he erected one of the first flouring mills in Harrison County.

He was among the first settlers at the town of Magnolia, and assisted the County Seat Commissioners in locating the county seat at this point, and was County Judge in that county in 1854-57, and under his administration the first court house in the county was built. He always took an active part in any enterprise that in his judgment would build up the interests of Harrison County, and was ever ready with donations of land and money to help such matters along, and no man was more popular in the county than was "Judge HARDY," as he was almost universally called. He lived in Magnolia until 1864, and then moved to his place on the Willow River, in Calhoun Township, where he resided to the day of his death, May 10, 1885. About four years before his death he lost the use of his eyesight, as a result of a sickness, and from that time on gradually grew weaker, until finally he fell into a dreamless sleep, and thus passed from this earth.

He was a member of the Congregational Church, having been a member of that body for some thirty years.

He reared a family of nine children -- eight sons and one daughter. Of all the pioneer band none were more highly respected than Judge HARDY, who was a kind father, a considerate husband, a good citizen and a trustworthy friend to all who lived within the radius of his acquaintance.

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