JAMES C. HARMON. It is the men of broad and comprehensive views who give life to communities-men who have foresight and energy, pluck and push to forward their enterprises and still retain an untarnished reputation through it all. Such a man is James C. Harmon, who is one of the leading citizens of Cleburne County, Arkansas He was born in Monroe County, Tennessee, in 1846, and is a son of Peter and Caroline (Kirkland) Harmon, natives also of that county, their marriage taking place near Madison.
From their native State they removed to Arkansas, in 1849, and located in Independence County, but from there moved to Van Buren County in 1856, where the mother passed from life. In 1863 the father was taken prisoner by the Federals and died at Little Rock, having been a member of an Arkansas regiment. He was a successful tiller of the soil, and a man of good habits and principles, and had always given his support to the Democrat party. His wife was a Methodist. They reared a family of eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second in order of birth.
James C. Harmon was educated at the public schools of Independence County, and was brought up to a knowledge of farming. In the early part of the Civil War he joined McRae’s regiment, with which he served for some time, but was taken a prisoner by the Federals and taken to Little Rock, and thence to Rock Island, Illinois, and was held until the close of the war. When the war was over he found himself in very straitened circumstances, but he at once began tilling the soil on rented land, eight miles west of Batesville, in Independence County, where he continued to make his home until 1880. Since that time he has resided in what is now Cleburne County, where he energetically tilled rented land for some time, and then bought a tract of river bottom land, comprising 160 acres of hill land and 60 acres of fine river bottom land. He has been successful, and is now in good circumstances, although it has been at the expense of much hard labor and thought. He opened a grist and saw mill and cotton gin three years ago, and has since conducted this in a very satisfactory manner financially. He is one of the substantial men of the county, is public spirited and enterprising, and has ever been an active Democrat. He was married in 1868 to Adaline Lancaster, who was born in Arkansas and died in 1870. In 1874 he took for his second wife Minerva Wright, by whom he has one son and four daughters, all at home. Mr. Harmon is a Mason and a member of Scarlet Lodge No. 283, in which he has held the office of senior warden.