CHAPTER XXVII (Part 18)
BIOGRAPHICAL
The mother of Samuel Harnett was Barbara Lutzenheizer prior to her marriage. The great-great-grandfather of Mrs. Rusk was James Harnett, who served in the American Revolution and whose wife was a girlhood friend of Martha Washington, nee Custis, and it is a matter of family tradition that one time when the women were doing a washing down by the sea coast, they covered their heads with a large kettle and a clothes basket and ran from hostile Indians on the banks of the Potomac. The Harnett historical kettle is still preserved as an interesting relic by members of the Harnett family.
Samuel Harnett, father of Mrs. Rusk, located in Ohio in 1855, and in 1866, removed to Illinois, where a brother of Mrs. Rusk, named Joseph M. Harnett, became very prominent in Champaign County, was a soldier of the Union and served as special pension examiner for the United States Government, with offices in Washington.
He was high in Masonic circles. Mary S. Harnett was first married in Illinois to James Sweazy, who died. Later, William Rusk came on from his new home in Missouri, and wooed and won her for a wife. The town of Enon Valley was built upon the farm owned by Samuel Harnett in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, and upon his farm is located the famous spring which furnished water for the Pittsburg and Fort Wayne railroad for many years. The first train which Mrs. Rusk saw passed over this road and it was the first train to go over the road. The Harnett children were all well educated. Mrs. Elizabeth Frederick, Mrs. Rusk's oldest sister, who lived in Henry County, was a classmate of Mrs. James A. Garfield, nee Rudolph, at Hiram College, Ohio. John and Ezra, her two oldest brothers, were classmates of James A. Garfield and completed their classical education at Bethany College, West Virginia. They taught in the South for a number of years.
The children of William and Mary S. Rusk are as follows: William Harnett Garfield Rusk, born March 4, 1881, married Daisy Barker, and has three children, Gladys Dimple, aged fourteen, William Wilson, twelve years old, and Ethel Gertrude, aged ten years; Sarah Corey, born October 7, 1885, married Robert Arthur Faris and lives at Cimmarron, New Mexico, mother of four children, William Theodore, eight years old, Barbara Evelyn, aged seven, Harry Arthur, four years of age, Robert Leonard, an infant of four months. Robert Arthur Faris volunteered for service in the National Army for overseas service, enlisting in the 115th Regiment Regular United States Army, the Engineering Corps, and is located at Camp Kearney, California.
William Rusk's first marriage was with Rebecca A. Farhner in Illinois and took place in 1862. The first Mrs. Rusk died in 1876, leaving five children: Jacob Humphrey, accidentally killed at the age of fourteen years; Horatio Seymour, Norwood, Colorado; Margaret Elizabeth, wife of Alfred Dunham, Colorado; James McDonald, California; Otha Perley, Norwood, Colorado.
Since 1880, William Rusk has been allied heart and soul with the Prohibition party and has devoted many years of his life to the cause of prohibition. For years, he stood alone as the only Prohibitionist in his township, but has lived to see actual prohibition in Henry County became an accomplished fact. If he is spared for a few more months or years longer, he will see his heartfelt wish realized - national prohibition. He was one of the charter members of the Westfield Presbyterian Church at its organization in 1870 and has been a ruling elder of this church for nearly fifty years, a record of which any citizen can well be proud. Mr. and Mrs. Rusk are kindly, intelligent and hospitable people who are highly regarded in Henry County.
Charles H. Mertel, who for forty-five years has been a citizen of Henry County, a useful and successful citizen, whose geniality and public spiritedness is marked, is one of the best known of the "real old settlers" of the county. Mr. Mertel was born in Saxony, Germany, October 25, 1852, the son of Frederick and Natalia (Witchell) Mertel, natives of Saxony. The parents of Charles H. Mertel immigrated to America in 1856, crossing the Atlantic in a sailing vessel, which required seven weeks to make the voyage to New Orleans. The family journeyed up the Mississippi from New Orleans to St. Louis, arriving there on New Years day just when navigation on the Mississippi closed for the winter. After a year's residence in St. Louis, they removed to Iowa and lived there for two years, then, after a six months' stay in St. Louis, they located in St. Charles County, Missouri, and resided on a farm there during the Civil War period. In 1871, they located in Johnson County on Clear Fork.
Two years later, they came to Henry County and settled on section 14, Davis township. Mertel, Sr., was a great hunter and was constantly engaged in hunting expeditions during the deer season. In 1878, while he was absent on a deer hunt near Warsaw, Missouri, with others, he was shot and killed by natives who objected to the hunters being in the neighborhood. He was father of four children: The firstborn died in Saxony; Frederick W., is deceased; Edward L., deceased, and Charles, the subject of this review.
When Charles H. Mertel attained the age of twenty-five years, he began his own career. After tilling his father's farm for one year, he obtained possession of the tract and built up the farm to a splendidly improved tract of 200 acres, rated as one of the finest improved farms in western Missouri. In the meantime, he purchased his present home farm in the northern part of Davis township and in 1902, he sold the old home place and located on the farm of 170 acres, where he is now making his home. He has lived in this county for forty-five years, with the exception of three years, from 1911 to 1913, inclusive, which time he spent in Oklahoma. He was the prime promoter in the building of the town of Wynona on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad, situated between Parsons and Oklahoma City, and was town manager, filling the offices of mayor, justice of the peace and editor of the Wynona Enterprise.
Mr. Mertel is a Republican in politics. He is a member of Mt. Carmel Presbyterian Church and is one of the best citizens of Henry County. He was married in 1876 to Miss Kate Cook, born at Cook's Mill, on Grand River in Henry County, a daughter of Jacob and Amelia Cook, the former of whom erected and operated the mill which bore his name.
Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Mertel as follows: Annie Florence, wife of L. J. Hendricks, Davis township; Fred C., a banker at Minneapolis, Minnesota; Edna May, wife of W. F. Landrum, Monett, Missouri; Ella Augusta, wife of Newton Price, Walters, Oklahoma; Edward, manager of the Farmers Elevator at Plaza, North Dakota; Walter O., a farmer living near Quincy, Illinois; Ruth C., a teacher in the Monett, Missouri, schools.
Mr. and Mrs. Mertel have nine grandchildren. Best of all they have the extreme satisfaction of having educated each of their children and have given them a good start in life so that they are all well-to-do, and prosperous and occupy important places in the various communities in which they reside. When a wedded pair such as Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Mertel can look back over the long years spent in doing good, and are satisfied that they have done their best and have given to the Nation such a splendid family of sons and daughters, they can well be content, and their later years can be lived peacefully and without regret.
