John Bishop Harry - Part two

Will Harry established a home and reared a family in Lubbock, Texas. This conclusion is verified by a descendant of John Hutchinson Harry who remembers her father speaking of Cousin Will Harry of Lubbock. This fact, together with John Bishop Harry's published will that Will Harry was the surveyor who laid out the division of his real estate just before the Cival WR began.

Washington Marion Harry, (our ancestor), the youngest son of John B Harry, was the only son that established a home near his father in Cleveland County. (Buried in Grover Cemetery.)

An unfortunate accident came to John B Harry. As he was returning from Raleigh on horseback, which was the only mode of travel in those days, the old man was caught in a heavy thunder shower. The dye from his hat mixed with rain and ran into his eyes. It so injured his eyesight that he was almost blind during the last years of his life.

A beautifully executed will in John Bishop Harry's own writing shows him to be well educated. He left his estate to his four daughters and son, Washington. The two older sons had undoubtedly received their portion of the estate when they left for Texas. They are not mentioned in his will. However Will Harry is mentioned as an assistant in the survey and division of his property. He was not mentioned as a receipient.

I remember a statement by my father that one of his fathers brothers left home when he was young. After the death of his wife Sara and all his children were married and had moved away, John Bishop disposed of his larger home. It was sold to one Major Borsers. He divided his slaves with his children He moved two miles south on the Shelby-York, SC county road.  He built a rectangular home with one big room and a fireplace in the south and two pot racks at the north end. He had a dozen slaves that lived nearby and assisted him.  He was 73 years of age  and blind when he came to his new home. There he lived out his last years in luxury and comfort. His slaves prepared his meals, kept the big log fires in his living quarters burning. In winter a bed of embers burned under the pots on the pot rack of the kitchen fireplace. They worked his farm in summer and split the big chestnut trees in the woodlands into rails to fence in the cattle, hogs, and sheep. The old rail fence enclosed one hundred acres of pasture land.

John Bishop Harry lived to be 87. He died in the third year of the Cival War (1863). His will was made and probated  in that year.

It is an interesting document listing slaves, property, and household effects. A map designed by John B Harry is intact. It shows an acreage of some thousand acres between Buffalo Creek and the South Carolina line. It lay along a stream called Jacob's Branch. His son, Washington Marion Harry, constructed a log dam on Jacob's Branch, and used the power therefrom to set up a community center:
A corn mill,  flour mill, a saw mill, a syrup mill, and a cotton gin which was probably the first cotton gin in Cleveland county. It had on it the printed letters of the Whitney patent and was geared to operate not only by water power, but also to cog gear that operated the gin by manpower.

My father, David Harry, the second son of Washington Harry, learned to operate the above mentioned machines, and later moved this equipment one mile up the creek on a higher shoal on Jacob's Branch. Here he built his home.  Here my two brothers, sister, and I were born and reared.

The water power of Jacob's Branch was geared to a turbine wheel operated under 22ft of pressure and a big overshot wheel 100 ft in diameter. These power units powered the operation of the following machines: a corn mill and a flour mill that pulverized the corn and wheat that made the bread for a twenty mile area; a feed mill that ground the  ................(this line is missing in my copy) .........,,,,,
farming community; a syrup mill that crushed the cane and cooked the syrup; a lathe that turned the columns and banisters that ornamented the homes of the area; a shingle mill. All of this service center was handed down from the genius of John B Harry, the old farmer, politician, and clockmaker.

Washington Harry had three sons - John Wesley MacMeeekin (Mack) Harry, Zebulon Bishop Harry, and David Filmore Clay Harry.  

Mack Harry, my fathers oldest brother, established his home 1/2 mile from his fathers home. The front room of his home was a community store. Ex-slaves farmed his land. He taught  a community school for the children of the area - reading, writing, arithmetic. He was married to Dicey Bell. They had three children - one son - William Harry ?, Lenorea, and Dicey were the daughters.

My father, David Harry, the second son of Washington Harry and Mary McArthur Harry, in partnership with his father, supervised and operated the service center.

David married twice. The first marriage was to Nancy Adams.  They had three children - one son and two daughters, Pluto, Sophie, and Ellis.

His second marriage was to Sara Frances Gold. There were born to them four children -Charles Franklin, Woodfin Grady Harry, Benjamin Audy Harry, and Margaret Lee Harry (named for Margaret Bishop and  Margaret Malinda Gold.)


[ I am visiting my daughter .... Waiting on her new baby to arrive .... I brought some but not all the pages of my Grandfathers family history.  I will enter what I have and add additional pages, when I return home.]