Samuel Harkness

My grandfather Samuel Harkness, Sr, (Jan. 1;1763-Apr. 25, 1830) was born and spent his childhood near the Giant's Causeway, County Antrim, Ireland. My father, Thomas F. Harkness, used to tell me that his father used to say that when a little boy he was once sent on an errand of some kind, and in passing along the seabeach, he discovered a large fish that had been left by the tide in a small pool; that after a hard struggle he managed to capture it and carry it home; and that the fish was almost as large as himself.

He used to tell my father also that from his home in the North of Ireland, on clear days, he could see the coast of Scotland, and that his parents told him that their people had emigrated from Scotland to Ireland to escape religious persecution. It is natural to infer that the persecution he referred to was that of which John Graham of Claverhouse was the chief instrument; and that as the Southwest part of Scotland where Entreken is situated, is just opposite the North part of Ireland where my grandfather was born, my grandfather's ancestor's were very probably of the family of Harknesses concerned in the rescue at Entreken. If I could prove this positively, I would be much more proud than I would be could I claim to royal descent.

My grandfather Samuel Harkness had a brother who enlisted in Ireland in a British regiment of dragoons. My grandfather himself applied for enlistment in the same regiment, but was rejected because not tall enough. The regiment was ordered to India and my grandfather never heard of his brother again. I regret that I do not know what the soldier's first name was. I have not been able to fix the exact date when my grandfather Samuel Harkness came to America, but my cousin John W. Harkness, son of George W. Harkness, has in his possession an old certificate dated Oct. 11, 1785 stating that Samuel Harkness who had at that time been a resident of Pennsylvania about a year, then took and oath of allegiance to the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. My father used to say that when his father, Samuel Harkness Sr, came to America, he expected to join an uncle of his who had preceded him across the ocean about a year; that on reaching America he found that his uncle had tired of waiting for him and had gone to Georgia, leaving instructions for him to follow him; but that he preferred to stay in the North.

My grandfather Samuel Harkness was a carpenter and carpet weaver. I know as to the latter trade only from my mother's telling me that my grandmother Harkness used to say that it was her determination, when a young girl, never to marry a carpenter, a carpet weaver, or an Irishman; - and that when she married Samuel Harkness Sr, she got all three.

He settled in Washington D.C. at the time the seat of government was established here, and, my father used to tell me, worked as a carpenter on the original capitol building. At one time he was one of the street commissioners of Washington City. My parents used to say that he was, during his early residence in the District of Columbia, in partnership with some gentleman in Georgetown in the flour business, but failed and that he afterwards engaged in the grocery business, his residence and store being on the South side of I Str. between twentieth and twenty-first Street, next east of the alley, where he lived and engaged in business until his death in 1830. He built the house, and it stood until about 1895 when it was replaced by one built for Mr. Eiker. When my grandfather's old frame house was torn down the space between the space between the weatherboarding and the plastering was found to be packed with straw, among which were some old newspapers with my grandfather's name on them. I am sorry to say the papers were not preserved. My family would have prized them highly. In that old house all my grandfather's children except his first son Thomas and his first daughter, Susannah, were born and raised.

He was married twice. His first wife, Susannah Alexander of Cecil Co, Md, he married March 13, 1798. She died Jan. 17, 1800, leaving a baby daughter Susannah who grew up to be a beautiful woman and married Mr Robert Harrison (from whom I take my first Christian name) (Mr Harrison so strikingly resembled Andrew Jackson that he was sometimes mistaken for him. Some of President Jackson's admirer's once sent him a gigantic cheese, and my uncle Robert Harrison was employed to cut it up; and while he was so employed, some of the President's friends, coming in, thought it was Old Hickory himself going for that cheese like he did for the British at New Orleans). My Aunt Susan and Uncle Robert Harrison were considered of the handsomest couples in Washington and their children, seven of whom grew to maturity and one of whom, Mrs Elizabeth Boudinot, is now ninety years old (1912)

On her deathbed my step-grandmother Susannah requested her friend Elizabeth Semans to marry grandfather and care for her baby daughter Susannah. She consented and became Samuel Harkness Sr's second wife July 1, 1800, at Dover, Delaware, less than six months after the death of the first wife.

My grandfather Samuel Harkness Sr. while opposed to slavery, became a slaveholder in spite of himself. A man owed him some money which my grandfather repeatedly tried to collect without success. At last the debtor offered him a slave woman in payment, but my grandfather refused; whereupon the debtor told him he would have to take the slave woman or nothing. So my grandfather took her. Her name was Phebe Rollins. In course of time she became the mother of a daughter whose father was a member of Congress, and called her Rachel. And Rachel grew up and in due time became the mother of two daughters and a son. Eventually my grandfather became so provoked with the whole family that he told them to take their freedom and go. But he gave them no manumission papers, and, when he died, he left no will. After his death the slaves came to my father Thomas F. Harkness and asked him to procure manumission papers for them from the heirs. He went to the other four sons, his sister and his half-sister to get their signatures and all consented except the half-sister. Anyhow, my father went to the Court House to have the papers recorded. Some person there told him he was foolish in freeing the slaves and offered him twelve hundred dollars for one of them. My father told him (and, oh, how proud I am of him for it) that he had come there to free the slaves, not to sell them. And having furnished them with the evidence of their freedom, he saw them safely on their way to the North, furnishing them out of his own pocket, with part of their passage money, they having a little money themselves. (This was about the year 1830, and his family can claim that he was one of the early abolitionists and did not let money blind his eyes or influence his conduct, nor did he claim any particular credit for it. God bless his memory! and, too, that of his brothers and sisters!)