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SAMUEL M. HARBERT is successfully engaged in business as a grain grower and stock raiser, and his farm in Wheatfield Township is classed among the most desirable pieces of property in this part of the county. He was born in 1837 in Tippecanoe County, Ind. His parents were Eli and Mary Harbert. His father was a shoemaker and a farmer. He died in 1839 and the mother in 1863, her death occurring in Barclay, Sangamon County, she having come to Illinois in January, 1840.
Our subject made his home for many yeas with his grandfather, Dr. James Harbert of Barclay, Ill., who was a practicing physician of great repute and through him he gained a wider acquaintance with people and places than he could otherwise have done. He began life for himself as an assistant on a farm, and such was his faithfulness and industry that at the age of twenty-three he was enabled to buy eighty acres of land to which he removed and entered upon its improvement. In 1867 he bought forty acres of land adjoining his first purchase and how has the whole under a fine state of cultivation. He has established here a comfortable home, has all the necessary buildings to be found on a good farm, and has first-class machinery for carrying on his operations. His farm is well stocked with Shorthorn cattle, road horses and Berkshire hogs of a good grade, and he makes much money both in dealing in stock and in his grain sales.
Mr. Harbert has had the assistance of a thoroughly competent and energetic wife in the accumulation of his property. They were wedded December 25, 1862, and of their happy married life four children have come. Their son John is a resident of Denver, Col.; their daughter Anna is the wife of William Clendennin and their daughter Ada who attends school is at home. One child, Ida died in infancy. Mrs. Harbert's name before her marriage was Serilda Miller, and she is a native of this county. She received an excellent training in housework and is a good housekeeper, making the home cozy and comfortable for its inmates.
For thirty-three years Mr. Harbert has been a devoted member of the Christian Church, and he is known as one of its most zealous workers and for his sturdy adherence to principle in all the affairs of his life. He is a charter member of the Illiopolis Masonic lodge which was established in 1866; he has been a Mason for thirty-two years being one of the oldest Masons in this section of the country. He has been a School Trustee for the last twelve years, has been Township Treasurer, and in whatever capacity he serves the public he strives to promote its social and moral elevation as well as its material advancement.