My Genealogy Hound

BENNETT J. HARTER, farmer; P. O. Troy; born in Kentucky, Feb. 19, 1819; is a son of Jacob and Elizabeth Harter; he was a native of Virginia, and she of Kentucky. The grandfather Harter was born in Maryland, and the grandmother Harter in Virginia, the ancestry being originally from Germany. Jacob, the father, removed to Miami Co. about 1820, and located in Elizabeth Township, where he followed his trade as hatter, in connection with farming, for about twenty-three years, then sold out and bought a grist-mill and distillery, about three miles southwest from his first locality; here he carried on the business some ten years, then removed to a farm just east of there, and farmed for a few years, when he retired from active business and located in Troy, and resided till his death, which occurred in 1875. When Mr. J. first came to this county, he commenced with but a few dollars capital, but by industry and unfaltering energy, enduring faithfully all the hardships and deprivations of those early settlers, his diligence and economy won for him a large competency, so that during the latter years of his life he could enjoy all that money or wealth could procure; but it is said that he declared that the happiest period of his life was during his first years in Miami Co., when he had to labor the hardest and economize the most. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom four are now living, viz., Bennett J., Samuel K., Catharine (now Widow Randolph), and Franklin L. Mr. Harter, our subject, lived with his father till about 28 years of age. In 1844, he married Miss Nancy Green, daughter of George and Nancy (Knight) Green; he was born in Pennsylvania, and she in Ohio; by this union they have had six children, of whom three are living, viz.. Bell S. (now Mrs. Charles C. Royce, of Washington, D. C.), Mary Josephine (now Mrs. E. W. Heywood, of Boston), and Jacob D. After his marriage, he lived on a rented farm for two years, then bought the Smulser farm, where he lived about five years, then removed to the Cove Spring farm, where he has since resided. He has 366 acres of excellent land well improved.