Bio of HARDING, Simeon (b.1812 d.1872), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical

SIMEON HARDING - Vol II, pg 746-747
More than a half century has passed since the demise of Simeon Harding, yet his
record is of especial interest to students of Minnesota's history, as he took up
his abode here in the early '50s and was actively identified with the work of
pioneer development and improvement. His birth occurred in Orange county,
Vermont, on the 20th of November, 1812, his parents being Samuel and Love
(Mahew) Harding, who were married at Falmouth, Massachusetts, in 1789. The
father was a soldier of the Revolutionary army and when sixty-six years of age
walked from Sullivan, Pennsyl­vania, to Washington, to establish his claim to a
pension. Joseph Mahew, the maternal grandfather of Simeon Harding, also
participated in the struggle for independence.
Simeon Harding, who was the thirteenth in order of birth in a family of fourteen
children, obtained his education in the public schools of Pennsylvania and after
putting aside his textbooks turned his attention to agricultural pursuits. It
was in 1854, when forty-two years of age, that he came to Minnesota, located one
hundred and sixty acres of land and erected a large residence in the Whitewater
precinct of Olmsted county, two and a half miles west of what is now the city of
St. Charles, which at that time boasted only one house-Springer's Tavern. In the
spring of 1855 he brought his family from Illinois to this state, bravely facing
the hardships and privations incident to settlement in an undeveloped region.
Once a week he traversed a distance of thirty miles to Winona for milk and
groceries. The Harding house was a relay station for the first stage line
running west from Winona and it was also in this historic dwelling that the
first school assembled, church services were conducted and elections were held.
The tracks of the Chicago & Northwestern, the earliest railroad, lay about
twenty feet from the front door.
In 1831, at Sullivan, Tioga county, Pennsylvania, Mr. Harding was united in
marriage to Miss Ann Smith and they became the parents of seven children, as
follows: Amy; Emily, who became the wife of Chester Phelps; Josiah, who wedded
Harriet Potter; Smith, who married Miranda Moore; Henry Harrison, who married
Miss Florence Boyle; Rhoda Prank; and Clara Sophia, who gave her hand in
marriage to Almon Hopkins. After the death of his first wife Simeon Harding
married Miss Caroline Pillsbury Moody, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Moody,
the wedding taking place at Albion, Michigan, in 1847. Their children were two
in number: Caroline Elizabeth, who became the wife of Truman T. Stevens; and
Simeon Lathrop, the first white child born in Olmsted county, Minnesota.
Mr. Harding was a whig in his political views until the organization of the new
republican party, of which he became a stalwart supporter. His fellow townsmen,
recognizing his worth and ability, called him to positions of public honor and
trust. He filled the office of county treasurer, served as postmaster of St.
Charles, Minnesota, for six years and was a member of the state constitutional
convention, in 1857. He was a consistent member of the Methodist church, in the
faith of which he passed away at Morganville, New York, on the 19th of December,
1872, when sixty years of age.