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HARRISON, JOHN H., farmer and stock raiser, son of Reuben and Barbara Ann Harnsberger, natives of Rockingham county, Virginia, where they were married, March 29, 1810, where there was born four children, three of whom lived to be adults, viz: George M., John H. and Sarah N. In 1818, his parents emigrated to Christian county, Kentucky, where one daughter was born, Malinda A., where they remained until the fall of 1822, when he moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, coming by teams, crossing the Ohio river at Louisville, and locating on the place where Mr. H. now resides, moved into a log cabin eighteen by twenty feet, without a window, making his claim on the Seminary grounds, which he afterwards purchased, where he lived until a few years previous to his death. Having a son in Alabama, he went there to spend the winter, when he died May 3, 1852. Mrs. Barbara Ann Harrison died August 23, 1842. Mr. Harrison had been married prior to marrying Mrs. Barbara Ann Harnsberger, to Prathana Harrison. There was one son by this marriage, Leonard C. Mrs. H. died September 20, 1809.
J. H. Harrison was reared on a farm and received his education in log cabins, of which he says in the first one the only light they had came down through the chimney place, there not being a window pane in the building; the following spring, cut out a log and pasted greased paper over that for light. On the 17th day of May, 1843, married Miss Sarah Conover, daughter of Elias and Sarah Conover, natives of New Jersey, where she was born on the 22d day of March, 1825. The fruits of this marriage was ten children, seven of whom are living, viz: Charles H., Samuel B., George R., Hote T., John V., Susan, now Mrs. James G. Crow and Annie A. He has four hundred and seventy-two acres of land, valued at $65 per acre; raises one hundred and eighty acres of corn, fifty acres of wheat, fifteen acres of oats and turns off eighty head of hogs yearly. Mr. Harrison has been a resident of Cartwright township for fifty-nine years, and has land that has been under cultivation that
length of time, and the present season will yield sixty bushels of corn to the acre. He is one of the large and well-to-do farmers of the county.