CHILDREN OF GEORGE AND NANCY (NEIL) HARMON
By
Barthena Harmon and William Kelsay
1) Nathan Harmon, born about 1795 in Greene County, Tennessee; he married there on April 19, 1814 to Rebecca Myers. Sometime between 1815 and 1819, Nathan sold his interest in his father's estate to a man named Peter Harmon probably son of John Harmon). Nathan was a gunsmith by trade and moved in 1828 to Hillsboro, Montgomery County, Illinois. He later moved to Atchison County, Missouri, where he died in 'the prime of life." Rebecca married (2) William Frashier. Nathan and Rebecca were the parents of Elizabeth, Polly, George, Lottie, Henry, Reuben, Davidson and Nancy Harmon.
2) John Burton Harmon, born about 1797 in Greene County, Tennessee. Burton, as he was called, married there on April 14, 1818 to Tabitha Adams. He is probably the John B. Harmon residing 1830 and 1840 in Montgomery County, Illinois, alongside his brother Nathan. It is believed he was the father of James Nathan Harmon and Achilles Kile Harmon, both born in Tennessee, raised in Montgomery County, Illinois, and died in Raymond, Lancaster County, Nebraska.
3) Nancy Harmon, born about 1798 in Greene County, Tennessee; she married there on August 27, 1817 to Thomas Adams.
4) Barthena Harmon, also called Perthany or Parthenia, was born 1800 in Greene County, Tennessee. Barthena's father, George, was a gunsmith in Greenville, Greene County, and a young man named William Kelsay worked for him as an apprentice. William became very adapt at this trade, and a descendant described the rifles William made were "very well made, accurate, but muzzle loaded by hand." As he was engaged in this apprenticeship he became acquainted with his teacher's daughter, Barthena, and courted her.
As was sometimes the custom in the hills of eastern Tennessee where there couldbe periods of time without a minister or other authority to perform a marriage present, William and Barthena entered into a marriage promise and later, after moving to Wayne County, Kentucky, had the marriage "solemnized" by a formal wedding on April 15, 1818.
They moved back and forth several times between Wayne County, Kentucky, and Blount and Greene Counties, Tennessee, as he was again listed as a resident of Blount County in 1819 when they signed a document relinquishing their inheritance of 140 acres in this county as heirs of George Harmon, deceased, to Peter Harmon.
At this time they made their final move back to Wayne County, Kentucky. William, who was the son of John and Mary (Anderson) Kelsay, was born June 2, 1792 in Greene County, Northwest Territory of North Carolina (Tennessee). After their final move to Wayne County, William settled a claim, and like many early settlers, did not file a claim with the county.
Years later he lost this land due to his failure to do so.
In October of 1831 William purchased fifty acres on the Little South Fork of the Cumberland River, and several years later under the date of March 1833 bought (in conjunction with his nephew Alexander Kelsay) another 50 acres of adjoining land. The following month William sold 100 acres of land on the Cumberland River (these two 50 acre parcels). He moved his family about ten miles into the town of Monticello where he operated his gunsmith shop.
On March 8, 1849 William purchased 80 acres on Otter Creek in Wayne County near the border of neighboring Clinton County. In 1850 he and his family appear as residents on the census in Clinton County, and on June 26, 1851 sold their Otter Creek acreage. This was the year that William and Barthena bid farewell to Kentucky and moved westward. They had the idea of going to California but stayed ten years in Missouri.
Leaving their home in Kentucky, they took their wagons (some pulled by horses and some by oxen), loaded them with their household goods, their farming and gunsmithing equipment and supplies for the trek. Barthena and the grandchildren rode in the wagons while most of the adults and older children walked as much as possible so to keep the wagons as light as they could for the animals to pull.
William would ride his horse ahead in the late afternoons to find a good camping place, get a fire going, and many times would have wild turkeys dressed and ready to cook when the others caught up to him. This is the manner they traveled theyseveral hundred miles to Saint Louis, Missouri. Once here they traveled by boat up the Mississippi to the Missouri River, and then sailed up this rivernearly across the entire state to Ray County, Missouri, where theyhomesteaded land for 25 cents per acre.
The land was good for farming but the mosquitoes were plentiful and soon all were sick with malaria. They thought, at this time, that their illness was caused by the fog from the river. However, William and Barthena endured and did well in this area.
The 1860 census lists William and Barthena as residents of the town of Knoxville in Ray County. In 1861, the Kelsays decided that their "layover" on their trek to California was at an end and they joined a wagon train led by Captain William Harriman and began their very eventful trip over the plains.
Among the more than one hundred people in the company were Williamand Barthena Kelsay, their son Nathaniel, daughter Sarah, daughter-in-law Permelia, and at least nine grandchildren. It seems all went well on their trek until they camped one night on the Raft River in southern Idaho. The Raft River is a short river (more like a creek) that flows north into the Snake River about fifty miles southwest of Pocatello. During this night, August 1, 1861, they were attacked by a group of Indians led by white renegades, and a battle ensued. The wagons were rounded into a circle.
Permelia Kelsay and her young children were placed in a wagon and her feather bed and pillows were placed over them (bullets and arrows of those days did not always have power enough to penetrate a pillow). It is said of William Kelsay, by his daughter Sarah, that during this battle that "everytime his gun would pop, an Indian would drop."
The fight continued until the attackers were able to stampede the horses, and as this was what they were after, they left after accomplishing their objective. Thus, the travelers and their wagons loaded with all the possessions they owned in the world were stranded in the middle of the wilderness about 600 miles fromtheir destination of Sutter's Fort in California. The party waited four days in case another wagon train happened along and they could join with it, but none came. They decided that the necessary supplies that could be carried on their backs would be unloaded from the wagons, and then they bunched the wagons together with the remaining supplies and were set afire so that nothing would be left for the attackers if they should return to loot their abandoned belongings. The salvaged supplies consisted mostly of food, blankets, pots and pans.
The route they traveled, by foot, was as follows:
After leaving Raft River, they followed the Emigrant Trail up through the City of the Rocks, up over Grouse Creek Mountains down into Grouse Creek Canyon, thence over a dividing range into Thousand Springs Valley, on down into Bishop Canyon, finally arriving at Humboldt Wells, Nevada (now the town of Wells). From this point they followed the Humboldt River, originally called Mary's River, to the point where it sank into the sands of the desert. Across a forty mile stretch of Humboldt Sink, they finally arrivingin a town called Ragtown (a town of tents) on the Carson River. Ragtown is near the modern town of Fallon, Nevada.
From Ragtown they hiked over the pass in the Sierra Mountains and into the valley of Sacramento in California. One story has Barthena flagging down a rider who brought the news of this company ahead to Sacramento and they were met by soldiers with food and supplies. William Nobles, who was a neighbor to the Kelsays, stated "Everybody had to carry a pack. Even little children had to.
They didn't know what they were going to run into, the whole country was infected with wandering bands of marauders. Well, everybody was pretty much scared, and some of the women and children were crying. It was then, and later, that Sarah Kelsay and her monkeyshines kept some folks from going crazy. Well, Sarah tied some frying pans and a lot of tin things that rattled together and slung them over her back. Then she pretended she was a horse and pawed the ground and snorted and whinnied and bucked and made a great clatter, til folks just had to laugh in spite of themselves. And they used to say when the party arrived in California that Sarah was still cutting up and making them laugh.
It was the night of August 1st they were robbed and they had to walk hundreds of miles over mountains and through sand and sagebrush with little to drink but alkali water that made them sick. Those that carried the bacon had their clothes and their backs soaked with grease. But after while that didn't trouble them because they didn't have anymore bacon and not much food of any sort. The grown up people had been going on half rations most of the time and saving the best for the children.
But soon there wasn't enough for anybody...and the women had a terrible time with their feet. Their thin shoes wore out, and they had to wrap their feet in sacks and old rags. Lots of times the rags would be bloody where they'd cut their feet on sharp rocks. Must have been pretty hard for Sarah to prance in those days, but they say she did it. After crossing a lot of mountains and rocky canyons, they straggled down the Humboldt River to the Sink, and into the desert.
Things were desperate, but there wasn't anything to do but go on. Grandpa Kelsay (William) got sick but he wouldn't let themstop. He kept on walking while two other men carried his pack. He was wiry though and soon he perked up again. Some days he and Grandma led the whole train.
One day in the desert when the heat was just awful, a big man named Isaac Johnson put down his load and said he couldn't go another step. Grandpa piped up and said, "All right Ike, I'll carry you and your pack too." Everybody laughed and he was so mad picked up his things and led the line the rest of the day.
Another day the captain's daughter lay right down on the sand and said she couldn't go any farther. Her father bent down over her and said they'd have to leave her there, or they'd all die. After a while she got up and went on with some folks helping her. On September 28th, almost two months after they'd been robbed, they staggered into Ragtown on the Carson River. Folks were kind to them and they rested several days. Then they walked on over the pass and down into the valley toward Sutter's Fort.
About thirty or forty miles before they got to the fort, they were met by soldiers sent out to meet them with provisions and to escort them to the fort. When at last they arrived, they got plenty to eat and rested until they were ready to go on. The Kelsays then came here to Big Valley. They settled in Big Valley, near Kelseyville, Lake County, California in October of 1861, and William continued his trade as a gunsmith.
Barthena died there on January 16, 1877; William died December 6, 1878. They are buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Kelseyville. They had fourteen children.
5) Cornelius Achilles Harmon, born about 1802 in Greene County, Tennessee. On June 12, 1824, as a resident of Monroe County, Tennessee, he sold three tracts of Greene County land to Peter Harmon. He is not listed on the 1830 Tennessee census, and may be the Cornelius Harmon who is living at that time in Pulaski County, Arkansas.
6) Susanna Harmon, born about 1805 in Greene County, Tennessee. In 1827, as a resident of Monroe County, Tennessee, she sold her interest in her father's land to Peter Harmon. She is last known to be living, still single, in 1830 in Monroe County, Tennessee.
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