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| Notes for Peter HARNESS | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Peter Harness (born about 1742 in Frederick County, VA and died abt. 1825 in Fayette County, Ohio). It would appear that Peter and his wife Susan, married and raised their family in Virginia and that he came to Ohio some years following her death about 1805 in Virginia. Various records indicate that son George Harness was the first of the family to come to Ohio, about 1795 (see George W. Harness file for that account). It looks like Peter and all of his sons except Jacob came to Ohio about 1810 or 1811, all settling initially in Jefferson township, Fayette County, Ohio. According to some sources, notes in a family bible of a Joel Wood indicate that Joel and his family moved from Pendleton County, Virginia to Ohio in 1811 in the company of the families of Michael Carr, Aaron Kendel, Joseph Hidy and Peter Harness. That date would coincide with information passed down in the Harness family as to the date Peter Harness and his family left Virginia for Ohio. According to Michael Stump's returns for Hampshire County, Peter Harness was a property owner in Pendleton (Hampshire) County in 1782. Six people were listed as members of his household. Susan and Peter Harness had 11 children in all: Michael, Elizabeth, George, Arthur, Margaret, Sarah, Susannah, Adam, Jacob, John and Peter, Jr. Census records indicate that all of their sons spent some time in Ohio, in the Fayette county area. It is believed by some researchers, but not completely substantiated, that Peter purchased the western half of Edward Duff's Survey # 1271 in Fayette County, Ohio in 1814 (about 1,100 acres) and divided it among his surviving sons. (see Ohio land records later in this file) Jefferson Township organized school districts March 18 1826, and records show the 3rd district encompassed the Harness land and listed the owners as Peter Harness, Jacob Harness, Adam Harness, and Arthur Harness. The Peter Harness named would be Peter Jr. because Peter Sr. had died about 1825.. Son John Harness was not mentioned as he had died in 1818 and son Michael also was not mentioned as he had been charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of brother John, and had junped bail and fled back to Virginia. Another son, George also was not mentioned as one of the land owners in 1826. By that time he had resettled his family in Indiana. OHIO LAND RECORDS: Name: THOMAS DUFF Warrantee Name: EDWARD DUFF Land Office: OHIO Document Number: 586 Total Acres: 2000 Signature: Yes Canceled Document: No Issue Date: November 09, 1801 Metes and Bounds: Yes Survey Date: 1793/11/1 Statutory Reference: 1 Stat. 82 Multiple Warantee Names: No Act or Treaty: August 10, 1790 Multiple Patentee Names: No Entry Classification: Script Warrant Act of 1790 Land Description: 1 No Source Information for above: United States. Bureau of Land Management. Ohio Land Records [database on-line] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 1997-. Original electronic data from: United States. Bureau of Land Management. Ohio Pre-1908 Homestead & Cash Entry Patent and Cadastral Survey Plat Index. General Land Office Automated Records Project, 1996. According to Fayette County, Ohio court records all three of John's children were mentioned in Peter's will as devisees, a legal term dating back to the 15th century meaning the recipient of real property according to a will. In 1838, John's children went to Fayette County court to redeem 61 and a half acres of land along Sugar Creek that they said had been bequeathed to them in their grandfather Peter's will, but had been sold in the interim to satisfy county tax claims. The court ruled in the children's favor. The land involved was part of Duff's survey #1271 and was likely their father, John's share of the land his father had purchased in 1814. Peter Harness will was probated Feb. 21, 1825 in Fayette County, Ohio. However, a fire in 1828 destroyed many of the county's records, including the will, according to the Fayette County Records and Archives Center. NOTE: While Peter Harness' male siblings appeared to be active in military and other affairs, virtually nothing is known about any similar involvement in such activities by Peter. That he was reportedly lame may account for that. That he was lame is contained in a one line reference made by one of the earliest Harness family historians, Helen Yoakum Black, in a letter she wrote in 1872. Mrs. Black was very elderly at the time and much of the information she wrote has since proven only marginally correct, and it is pointed out here only as a possible explanation as to why Peter Harness appears to have been not very active in any pursuits other than farming. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Modified 9 Feb 2005 | Created 12 Feb 2005 by Reunion for Macintosh |