PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM.
page 849
EDWARD HARRISON, of the
Lagonda View Farm, in Clark County, was born in Frederick City, Md.,
April 18, 1832. His father, Zephaniah Harrison, of Scotch-Irish descent, was
born in Frederick County, in November, 1795. He was a volunteer in the War of
1812, and his company, under Capt. Brengle, lay on their arms on Federal Hill
during the night of the bombardment of Ft. McHenry, ready for action.
He was a skilled mechanic, a wise man and a born naturalist.
The mother of our subject, Mary Ann (Haller)
Harrison, was two or three years younger than her husband.
She was born in Frederick City, of German parents, and was a Christian
woman, possessing a large heart and generous impulses.
During the late Civil War she and her husband were thoroughly loyal and
were, with other members of the family, active in their efforts in behalf of the
sick and wounded soldiers after the several severe battles which were fought in
their vicinity. Our subject attended school, public and private, from early
childhood until thirteen years old, and then spent eighteen months in the
printing office of the Mirror of the Times, a weekly religious and temperance paper,
published in Frederick City, by the Rev. S. W. Harkey (now D. D.) and the
subject's brother, Josiah. In the
summer of 1847 he entered a retail dry goods house in Frederick, where he
remained four years, then engaged in the grocery business in the same city on his own account,
until the latter part of the summer of 1853, when he set out for the West, for
the purpose of acquiring a practical education.
In the fall of this year he entered the Commercial and Teachers'
Department of Wittenberg College and so rapid was his progress that during the
following winter he was appointed by the faculty of the institution an assistant
teacher, but from almost the day of the appointment was at the head of the
department, and, at the age of twenty-two was appointed Principal, which
position he held until the summer of 1857.
Mr. Harrison then resigned his place and opened
a commercial school in Springfield, which he conducted with gratifying success
until the spring of 1865, when he went with his family to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa,
where for eighteen months he was at the head of a business college, and
successfully taught the several branches pertaining to a commercial education.
In the fall of 1866 he was solicited to return to Springfield.
He was one of the incorporators, and the first Treasurer, of the Republic
Printing Company, which position he resigned in the Spring of 1868, and went to
his native city, where he conducted a commercial school one year.
He
then returned to Springfield and engaged in teaching and expert work pertaining
to his profession until the latter part of January, 1871, when he entered into
an engagement with James Leffel & Co., water-wheel manufacturers, as head
book-keeper and collector, and is with them at the time of this writing, 1890,
being now on his twentieth year.
Mr. Harrison was a successful teacher, and as
an expert accountant has few equals and perhaps no superior.
Since he first engaged in the profession of book-keeper, expert work has
been a large part of his duties. He
has been an acceptable contributor to the agricultural press, but has written
sparingly and to the point, preferring to write too little rather than too much.
He was first married in Hagerstown, Md., August
21, 1855, to Miss Virginia Francis Gelwicks, a most estimable young lady, a
native of Frederick City, and the daughter of George C. and Mary M. Gelwicks.
The living children by this marriage are: Frank, publisher of Frank Harrison's Short-hand
Magazine, at Newark, N.J., and proprietor of two popular short-hand schools,
one in Newark and the other in New York City; May, the wife of Charles E.
Mickle, of Lagonda; and Jessie, the wife of Colgan W. Burns of Springfield.
The wife and mother died suddenly at her home on Dibert Street,
Springfield, February 10, 1871.
Mr. Harrison contracted a second marriage
October 9, 1872, with Miss Mary Anne Woods, daughter of the late Col. Joseph H.
and Sarah H. Woods, of Jackson Township, Champaign County, Ohio.
The present Mrs. Harrison is a Christian lady of fine culture, possessing
rare intellectual and social qualities. For
several years before her marriage she was
a popular teacher at Urbana, where she still has many friends.
Lagonda View Farm, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harrison,
is located in Moorefield Township, three miles northeast of
the Springfield post-office. This farm has a world-wide reputation as
having been the home of the famous Lagonda View herd of Jersey cattle, from
which was made the Lagonda View brand of gilt-edge butter, the demand for which,
at fancy figures, was equal to and often greater than the supply.
It has been much regretted by his numerous friends that Mr. Harrison was
compelled, on account of lack of time and physical strength, to abandon cattle
breeding and the manufacture of butter. In
these branches of rural pursuit, assisted by his most excellent wife and
daughters, he has had few peers. Mr.
Harrison is a self-made man, thoroughly practical.
He has not acquired any considerable wealth, but is in comfortable
circumstances. Politically, he is a
sound Republican, decided in his opinions and believes in progress and reform.
For the benefit of those interested in Jersey
cattle and dairy products, we append the following: The Rev. Ross C. Houghton, D. D., late pastor of
Roberts Park Church, Indianapolis, writes to the Jersey Bulletin, under date of March 1,1884:
"A pleasant ride of half an hour from the
railway station at Springfield, Ohio, brought me to Lagonda View Farm, the
residence of Edward Harrison, one of the most intelligent and genial among my somewhat numerous "Jersey" friends.
The farm itself is "most beautiful for situation," and just the
spot in which a man, whose mornings are given to the exacting labors of city
office work, can so occupy the latter hours of the day as to combine profitable
employment with restful recreation. It
is, however, chiefly of interest, so far as these notes are concerned, as the
home of one of the choicest Jersey herds in Ohio, and the place where some of
the best families in Springfield purchase "gilt edged" butter, which
is beyond all praise, and for which they cheerfully pay a long price.
If any man doubts the success of the Jersey dairy business, in the
neighborhood of a large city, let him compare notes with Mr. and Mrs. Harrison.
The herd is headed by Lagonda 4078, the only
living son of Chrissy 1448, who yielded sixteen and one-half pounds of butter in
one week, and whose dam, Kitty Clover 1113, was a fourteen pound cow. Lagonda's
sire is Grand Duke Alexis 1040, one of the most noted butter bulls, whose
daughters and granddaughters will rival, in butter yield and in the large prices
for which they have been sold, any family of Jerseys that can be mentioned. Twenty-four
cows, and four bulls, with from 121/2 per cent. to 50 per cent. of his blood,
have sold for $3l ,985, an average of $1,142.35 each.
Lagonda is really a grand bull. Dark
gray shading into black, with evenly incurved horns, a soft and rich hide, and,
in all points combined, scoring well up towards perfection.
His get, an unusually large proportion of which are heifers, are almost
invariably very handsome and promising. Thus
far there are no failures at the pail among his daughters, and they are, to my
personal knowledge, highly prized in the herds where they are found.
Baron De Alphea 5411, a son of the famous Chief of Mad River Valley 2934,
and Cremona 6721, stands next in this herd, and is fully worthy of his place.
He is a rich golden fawn, black points, and a little white upon his
flank. He traces, by only a few
removes, to such noted animals as Mercury 432, Alphea
171, Sultan 58, and Pansy 8.
Of the cows in this herd I have space to mention
but few. Cremona 6721, Lady Felter
5059, Queen of the Miamis 6793, Dimple's Matchless 6794,
Daphne of Clark 11621, and several others will compare favorably with the
leading cows in any Western herd I have examined. There are eight great-granddaughters of Sultan 58, with a
liberal per cent. of the blood of Albert 44.
I found, on examining the pedigrees of the entire herd, that the blood of
some old and well established family predominates in every animal.
No testing has been done at Lagonda View, but an examination of the
private dairy record not only shows a very high average butter yield, but also
reveals the fact that a number of the best cows could undoubtedly, by special
care and feeding, be brought to the figures of which we read in connection
with more
noted animals. Quite a
number of the very best cows and heifers are liberally marked with white, a fact
which the owner does not depreciate, and which does not seem to prevent their
sale, or the sale of their progeny at most satisfactory prices.
Mr. Harrison breeds for quality, not for fancy colors.
I am not friendly to such rapid breeding as is
practiced by Mr. Harrison, but I am free to confess that I saw no inferior
cattle, either old or young, in his herd, and I am sure any good judge of Jersey
affairs could not fail to be satisfied with the results, in every particular, of
his management.
Any breeder of Jerseys will be both interested
and profited by a visit to this choice herd, and an acquaintance with its
courteous owner and family."
From the American Dairyman, February 19,
1885: "We have lately been the recipients of two baskets of butter,
addressed to the proprietor and editor of this paper, that were the finest
samples of winter butter we ever put into our fathomless editorial maw.
The latest style, you know, for butter on the table is in small lumps,
fashioned after strawberries or other convenient forms. Well, in the center of
these baskets was one large lump, slightly figured, while surrounding it like a
basket of nuts, were two or three pounds of double cones, containing an ounce of
butter each, fresh, crisp, nutty-flavored, hard and dry as rocks, and with an
aroma almost as rich as June butter. It was worked almost perfectly dry and yet
the grain was perfection. The
color was a light straw, natural, we take it, as the butter was made from Jersey
milk, and there was just a trace of salt in it.
It reminded us more closely of the unsalted butter we ate in the best
restaurants of Paris, than any butter we have ever tasted outside of that heaven
of high living.
That butter was made by Mr. Edward Harrison, Springfield, Ohio, from his herd of Registered Jerseys, and we will let him tell his own tale. He says: "Our butter is made in strict accordance with the best dairy rules, from healthy and gentle Jerseys that are kindly treated, being fed with the best that can be given them, and in the making, neither milk, cream or butter ever comes in contact with the hands. The sample I send was made principally from the granddaughters and great-granddaughters of 'Match1ess,' a cow of some considerable fame. Mr. Hardin will remember her and her daughter Dimple." Ah! well do we remember old Matchless and her beautiful daughter Dimple. She was the first imported or registered Jersey we ever owned, and the best. We bought her off shipboard at Baltimore, and got her cheap because she had a white tail. We always felt grateful to that white tail. The old cow died the property of Mr. Burden, of Troy, N. Y., and we know her blood tingles now in the veins of a number of offspring high up in the fourteen pound list. Dimple, that we believe has made over fourteen pounds a week, was bred exactly after our choice; but alas, for us! the Club would not register her sire, "Wallace Barns." We sold the bull, and never had the luck to get so good a one again. The Club subsequently relented, and allowed him to be registered, but too late to save our system of breeding."
30 Jan 2000