Wapello County IA Archives Biographies.....Harlan, Joseph Alexander 1835 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 July 14, 2013, 7:12 pm

Source: See Below
Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher

JOSEPH ALEXANDER HARLAN.

Sixty-three years have come and gone since Joseph Alexander Harlan became a
resident of Wapello county. He is now living retired in Ottumwa, enjoying a well
earned rest, but for many years he was closely associated with agricultural
interests in this section of the state and also engaged in the breeding of
shorthorn cattle. He is now nearing the seventy-ninth milestone on life's
journey, his birth having occurred in Union county, Indiana, November 24, 1835.
His parents were Aaron and Lucetta (Conaway) Harlan. The father, a native of
Tennessee, born in 1805, was but five years of age when in 1810 he accompanied
his father, George Harlan, to Indiana, where the latter died in 1813. The son
had the usual experiences of the pioneer settler in a heavily timbered country.
Having arrived at years of maturity he wedded Lucetta Conaway, who was born in
North Carolina, in 1805, and in her girlhood days was taken by her parents to
Indiana. They were married in Union county and there resided until 1851, when
they drove across the country to Wapello county. There were two families who
made the trip. They had two teams and Joseph A. Harlan drove a team for his
neighbors. After reaching his destination he bought a farm four miles north of
Ottumwa on the Kirkville road and there continued to engage in general
agricultural pursuits until the third of April, 1863, when death claimed him. He
was also a local preacher in the Christian church, and his life was an
influencing factor for good in the community in which he made his home. His
widow resided on the farm as long as she was able and then removed to Ottumwa,
where she passed away January 3, 1876. They had a family of nine sons and three
daughters, and of this number nine reached years of maturity. The only ones now
living are: Joseph A., of this review; James S., of St. Louis, and Elizabeth,
the wife of E. B. Davis of Ottumwa.

Joseph A. Harlan spent the first sixteen years of his life in his native county
and then accompanied his parents on their removal to Wapello county, where he
has lived since September, 1851. For an extended period, therefore, he has been
a witness of the growth, progress and development of this section of the state.
He turned his attention to farming and his was a life of arduous and unremitting
toil until he reached the age of fifty-five years, when he put aside the more
strenuous work of the farm and removed to Ottumwa. He took charge of a farm
belonging to his father when but seventeen years of age, and as the years passed
he not only carefully cultivated his fields, but also engaged in the breeding of
shorthorn cattle for ten years. He is now the owner of a number of dwellings in
the city and from his property derives a good annual income.

On November 4th, 1855, Mr. Harlan was united in marriage in Wapello county by
Judge Silas Osborn to Miss Bellona Nosier, who was born in Putnam county,
Indiana, July 17, 1839, a a daughter of Christian and Martha (Denny) Nosier, the
father a native of Tennessee and the mother of Mercer county, Kentucky. They
brought their family from Indiana to Iowa in 1843 and were afterward residents
of Wapello county. The father entered land about four miles north of the present
site of the city, although the town had not been established, and he became one
of the pioneer agriculturists of the district. He converted wild prairie into
rich and productive fields, and upon the farm which he developed, both he and
his wife spent their remaining days. They were the parents of four daughters and
two sons: James H., who was mortally wounded at the battle of Shiloh and died
two weeks later in Keokuk; Mrs. Harlan; Elmira, who is the widow of Joseph Davis
of Faith, South Dakota; Mary Evans, deceased; Eudora, the wife of H. C. Nosler
of Ottumwa; and George F., of New Orleans.

Mr. and Mrs. Harlan had ten children: Charles F., who died in 1894, leaving a
widow and two children; Addie, who is the widow of A. S. Spear and lives in this
county; Julian George, a resident of Atlanta, Georgia; Carl S., who makes his
home in Oakland, California; Martha, the wife of Dr. E. A. Sheafe, of Ottumwa,
la.; Estella, the wife of John R. Criley of Decatur, Illinois; T. K., of
Ottumwa; Mary, the wife of Benjamin Glew of Creston, Iowa; Bertha, the wife of
H. L. Hills of Des Moines, and one who died in infancy. There are also thirty
grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Mr. Harlan lacked twenty days of being old enough to vote at the time when
Fremont was the candidate of the republican party. He afterward supported that
party for many years and is now identified with the progressive movement. For
forty years he has been a member of the Christian church and has ever endeavored
to faithfully follow the golden rule. He and his wife tell many interesting
tales of pioneer life, for they resided in this county at a period when they
made practically everything they had and raised everything which they ate, and
when the Indians were still in the county. When Mr. Harlan drove from Indiana to
this state, a distance of five hundred miles, they crossed but one railroad
track, and that at Indianapolis. Mrs. Harlan remembers when there was only one
little store in Ottumwa, conducted by Mr. Lyons. Her girlhood was spent 111 a
log cabin upon the prairies and the first school which she attended was held in
a log building having an immense fireplace in one end of the room. Her father,
however, although in limited circumstances at the time of his arrival, became a
man of considerable means before his death. Both Mr. and Mrs. Harlan can well
remember when the greater part of the dwellings were log cabins, when much of
the land was still unclaimed and uncultivated, and when Ottumwa gave no promise
of ever becoming the thriving, progressive and populous city that it is today.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY IOWA
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME II
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1914



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