John Fremont Harshman
John Fremont Harshman. former member of the board of county commissioners for Greene county, formerly and for years trustee of Beavercreek township and now a retired farmer, making his home at Xenia, where he has resided since 1907, was born on a farm two miles north of the village of Zimmerman in Beavercreek township on September 22, 1856, son of John C. and Ann Maria (Miller) Harshman. the latter of whom also was born in this county, on a farm two miles south of the village of Fairfield, in Bath township, April 20, 1819, daughter of Daniel Miller and wife, pioneers of that part of the county.
John C. Harshman was born in the vicinity of Fredericksburg, Maryland, January 12, 1807, and was but a child when he came to this county with his parents, Philip and Frances Harshman, the family settling in the Zimmerman neighborhood, as is set out elsewhere in this volume. On that farm near Zimmerman John C. Harshman grew to manhood, receiving his schooling in the primitive schools of that day. He early set out to acquire a land holding of his own and before he married was the owner of a tract of two hundred acres two miles north of Zimmerman and had cleared fifty acres. In the fall of 1841 he married and after his marriage established his home in that clearing, proceeded further to develop his place and there spent the remainder of his life, coming to be the owner of four hundred and forty acres of land. John C. Harshman died on June 26, 1880, his widow's death occurring on October 5, 1894. Both are buried in the Hawker graveyard. He was reared in the Baptist faith and she was a member of the Reformed church. They were the parents of nine children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the eighth in order of birth, the others being the following: Samuel Henry, born on October 10, 1842, who served as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War, having gone to the front as a member of the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and who died on May 16, 1866; Sarah Elizabeth, October 10, 1844, who is still living in Beavercreek township, the wife of Andrew J. Tobias; Mary Catherine. March 13, 1846, who married Jacob Shoup and died on February 28, 1868; Ann Maria, December 28, 1847, who is still living in Beavercreek township, wife of W. W. Ferguson; Ephraim F., November 11, 1849. a retired farmer, now living at Springfield, Ohio; Martha Ellen, December 25, 1851, who is still living in Beavercreek township, widow of Edward O. Gerlaugh, a memorial sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume; Reuben M., January 29, 1853, a stationary engineer, who for years has made his home at Dayton; John F., the immediate subject of this biographical sketch, and Abraham Lincoln, January 4, 1861, who is now living at Dayton.
Reared on the home farm north of Zimmerman, John Fremont Harshman there grew to manhood, receiving his schooling in the old "Big Woods" district school and was married when he was twenty-two years of age. For two years after his marriage he continued working on the farm under the arrangement he previously had made with his father and then, after his father's death in 1880, he and his sister. Mrs. Ferguson, and his brother Lincoln bought the home place of two hundred and fifty acres and for seven years operated it under a partnership arrangement. Mr. Harshman then sold his interests in the farm to his brother and sister and bought a farm of one hundred and fifteen acres on the Beaver Valley road in Beavercreek township and in 1890 moved to that place, erecting on the place a good house and barn, and there resided until his retirement from the farm in 1905 and removal to the village of Trebeins. In the meantime he had been elected to represent his district on the board of county commissioners and after his second election to that office moved, in 1907, to Xenia and bought a house at 423 North King street, where he still makes his home. In addition to his property interests in this county Mr. Harshman is the owner of six hundred and forty acres of arable land in southern Alabama. Mr. Harshman is a Republican, and for nine years served as trustee of Beavercreek township and for two years as treasurer of the township. In 1904 he was elected to represent his district on the board of county commissioners and was re-elected for four successive terms, though not a candidate for renomination in his last campaign, and thus served for three two-year terms and for one three-year term, the law relating to tenure having been changed during the period of his service on the board.
On July 22. 1879, John F. Harshman was united in marriage to Letha Ann Lefong. who also was born in Beavercreek township, June 10. 1861, daughter of Orlando B. and Rebecca (Black) Lefong, who then resided on a farm one mile north of Zimmerman and the latter of whom is still living there, being now in the eighty-third year of her. age. Mrs. Rebecca Lefong was born on a pioneer farm in Bath township, this county, November 2. 1835, daughter of Robert and Mary (Koogler) Black, early residents of that part of the county. Robert Black was born in Pennsylvania of Irish parents and his wife also was born in the East, of German parents, she having been born shortly after the arrival of her parents in this country. The Blacks and the Kooglers were early settlers in this county and it was here, about the year 1823, that Robert Black and Mary Koogler were married. After their marriage they located on a farm in the Byron neighborhood, but in 1840 moved to a farm in Beavercreek township. Orlando B. Lefong was born in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, October 21, 1817, and was ten years of age when he came to this county in 1827 with his parents, George Burnett and Cassandra (Lovell) Lefong, the family settling in Beavercreek township, moving in 1842 from the farm on which they first located upon their arrival here to the farm on which Mrs. Rebecca Lefong is now living, a mile north of Zimmerman. George Burnett Lefong was a native of France, but was reared in the city of Richmond, Virginia, his parents having located there upon their arrival in this country, he at that time having been but an infant. His father became a merchant and millowner at Richmond. George B. Lefong served as a soldier during the War of 1812 and after his marriage continued to make his home in Virginia until he came with his family to this county, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. Orlando B. Lefong grew to manhood here and some time after his marriage to Rebecca Black bought the interests of the other heirs in his father's estate and on the home farm north of Zimmerman spent his last days, his death occurring there on April 5, 1892. He was a Democrat and was a member of the Reformed church. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, of whom Mrs. Harshman was the first-born, the others being Sarah E., wife of Isaac Kable, of Shoup's Station; George W., who died at the age of two years; Rebecca, who married John Shoup and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased; Oscar, now a resident of the neighboring county of Montgomery, and Mary L. and Robert, who died in infancy.
To John F. and Letlia A. ( Lefong) Harshman three children have been born, John Burnett, Anna Viola, who died at the age of twehe years and eight months, and Sarah Myrtle, the latter of whom is at home with her parents. She completed her schooling at Hamilton College, Washington, D. C, having entered that institution after two years at Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. John Burnett Harshman, now clerk to the city commission at Dayton and a lawyer in that city, was graduated from the Beavercreek high school and then entered Ohio State University, from which he was graduated. He later took three years of study in the law school of the university and was admitted to the bar, engaging in the practice of his profession at Xenia. He married Mary Louise Longbreak, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has two children, Mary Ann and John Burnett, Jr. The Harshmans are members of the Reformed church and Mr. Harshman is a member of the local lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons. He formerly was connected with the Knights of Pythias lodge at Alpha, for some time during the period of his residence in that neighborhood a member of the Alpha Building Association, one of the trustees of the same, and for some time was a member of the board of directors of the Greene County Agricultural Society. During his residence on the farm Mr. Harshman was for some time a member of the board of trustees of the Beaver Reformed church.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918