My Genealogy Hound

JAMES BIRNEY HARSH.
An enumeration of those men of the present generation who have won honor and public recognition for themselves and at the same time have honored the state in which they belong, would be incomplete were there failure to make prominent reference to the one whose name initiates this paragraph. He holds distinctive precedence as an eminent business man and as a statesman. He has been and is distinctively a man of affairs and one who has wielded a wide influence. A strong mentality, an invincible courage, a most determined individuality have so entered into his makeup as to render him a natural leader of men and a director of opinion. His name is widely known in political circles, while in business he has attained large success, operating in many fields that have shown his versatility and marked ability.

Mr. Harsh was born in Clinton county, Ohio, September 8, 1845, his parents being Daniel and Nancy (McKee) Harsh. His father was of Pennsylvania Dutch or old Holland stock, the ancestral history being traced back to General Harsch, of Holland. The “c” was dropped from the name upon the arrival in America of the direct ancestor of Daniel Harsh, who founded the family in the new world, so that all who spell the name without the “c” are of this branch. The maternal grandfather of James B. Harsh was a resident of Maryland and of English lineage, while his wife was born in the north of Ireland and was of Scotch-Irish parentage. Daniel Harsh died when his son James was not yet four years of age, and upon the death of her husband the mother removed with her family to Illinois, finally settling on a farm near Tiskilwa in Bureau county.

Thus it was that James Birney Harsh became a pupil in the district schools of that county. During the fall in which he attained the age of sixteen years he began teaching and for some time followed that profession through the winter seasons, while in the summer months he worked at farm labor, being thus engaged until he enlisted for service in the Union army, becoming sergeant of Company K, One Hundred and Forty-eighth Illinois Infantry. He proved a valiant and faithful soldier and upon his return from the south he began teaching in the villages and towns. Ambitious to promote his own education, he attended for a time Lombard College at Galesburg, Illinois, and afterward taught in the schools of that city. In 1867 he became still more closely associated with the educational development there through the establishment of the Western Business College, which he conducted for two years.

On the 1st of July, 1869, Mr. Harsh was married to Miss Anna Eliza Slater, a daughter of Dr. S. D. and Amanda (Stafford) Slater. Leaving Galesburg, Mr. and Mrs. Harsh came to Creston, Iowa, in 1870, and have since resided in this city. A son, Samuel Davis, was born to them in Galesburg a few months before they left that city and died in Creston when about twenty-four years of age. Further mention is made of him on another page of this work. A daughter, Clara, died when about three years of age, and another daughter, also born in Creston, is Grace S. Harsh, who is living with her parents.

Upon taking up his abode in this city Mr. Harsh engaged in the real-estate business, in which connection he has been prominently associated with the development and improvement of the city, platting several additions thereto. He likewise practiced law and conducted a general broker age business. In the former field of activity he was originally a member of the firm of Harsh & Stafford, and subsequently practiced as the senior partner of Harsh & Higbee. He gave proof of his capability before the court in the trial of a number of important causes, and throughout his business career has manifested his keen foresight and sound discrimination in the success which has attended his investments. It was the logical and legitimate step from the brokerage to the banking business in which Mr. Harsh has been actively engaged since 1870. He began operating in this connection under the style of J. B. Harsh & Company, later Harsh & Perrin, and subsequently again J. B. Harsh & Company. The private banking house was then merged into the Creston National Bank, with the Creston Loan & Trust Company, now the Land Credit Bank, taking over the farm loan and investment part of the business. Mr. Harsh is president of all these institutions. His seems to be almost a natural discrimination as to investments and the complex problems of finance. His judgment has at all times been sound and reliable and the banking and moneyed institutions which he has promoted have become among the most prominent of this character in this section of the state.

In the field of journalism Mr. Harsh has also figured, having in 1872 established the Creston Gazette, now the Advertiser-Gazette, and was active editorially and in its management for many years. He attained prominence in connection with farming interests that made him a leading representative of the agricultural life of the state, for at one time he had oversight and management of more than three thousand acres of farming land. When active in journalistic circles his political and farm editorials attracted wide attention and did much toward molding public thought and opinion. His ideas were the result of a close study of the questions of the day, combined with a broad knowledge of the needs of the state and gained from practical experience in connection with widely extended business affairs. He now conducts the Hub Dry Goods Store and the Annex Grocery, and is thus a factor in the commercial life of the city. He is president of the Colorado Smelting & Refining Company, which has a plant at Florence, Colorado, erected at a cost of over three hundred thousand dollars.

It is not alone as a businessman, however, that Mr. Harsh has left the impress of his individuality and worth upon the public life. On the contrary he has been called to various positions of honor, trust and responsibility. The first office which he filled was that of justice of the peace and he became one of the early mayors of Creston taking, during his administration, an advance step in favor of law and order. In his official capacity he stopped horse racing and other sports of that character on Sunday and enforced in large measure all of the laws, both municipal and state, which were being broken by the citizens of Creston. He cleared out the saloons and had the license raised to a sum that was almost a prohibitive figure. In later years Mr. Harsh again served as mayor, giving to the city a businesslike, just and progressive administration. In all of his public service he has been actuated by fidelity to the general good that none have questioned in sincerity. He is ever loyal to his honest convictions and fearless in defense of what he believes to be right. He never questions whether such a course will endanger his popularity or awaken strong opposition. If he feels it to be a duty he does it and performs each public service with a sense of conscientious obligation. He has ever stood for opposition to misrule in municipal affairs and in all that pertains to the commonwealth and the nation. In 1885 he was elected on the republican ticket to represent his district in the state senate, where he served until 1892, when he declined a reelection. He has been a prominent candidate before his party for the nomination for congress and for governor and is recognized as one of the leading and influential republicans of Iowa. He has served his party as chairman of state conventions and during various campaigns has addressed the people upon the questions of the day, handling his subjects so successfully and presenting his cause so clearly that he has never failed to make a deep impress upon the minds of his hearers and oftentimes has won supporters for the party. When anything of large importance has been attempted in Creston his cooperation has been sought and his support thereof has proven an influencing factor toward the success of the enterprise. He conceived the plan and was the moving spirit in building the Creston waterworks and though it proved a losing money venture to him was of the utmost value to the city.

Mr. Harsh has always studied the possibilities of the country, its natural resources and its opportunities for development along various lines, and realizing what might be accomplished in agricultural circles he accepted the presidency of the Creston District Agricultural Fair and Blue Grass Palace, putting forth every effort in his power to make it a success that it might prove a stimulus in the development of farming interests. He also organized the Blue Grass League of southwestern Iowa, of which he served as president. He was president of the Reunion of the Southwestern Iowa and Northwestern Missouri Veterans Association, which held a reunion in Creston, where General Sheridan made the only speech of his life and when there gathered in Creston “the biggest crowd ever seen in the town.” It surely was a memorable occasion to all those who participated therein.

In religious faith Mr. Harsh is a Universalist and with his wife and daughter holds membership in the First Universalist church at Galesburg, Illinois. He has always been interested in that city which witnessed much of his initial work in the business world and where he pursued his collegiate course and is now president of the board of trustees of Lombard College of that city. He has filled this position for many years and among his colleagues of the board have been the late Hon. E. H. Conger and C. L. Hutchison, of Chicago. Mr. Harsh is a member of the Phi Delta Theta, a college fraternity, is associated with the Elks, the Grand Army of the Republic and the Masonic fraternity and is president of the Creston Masonic Temple Association. He has done as much to develop Creston and southwestern Iowa through the building of the waterworks and the Blue Grass Palace and other varied and extensive interests as any other one man. Tangible proof of his work was seen when as a result of the Blue Grass League land throughout this part of the state was advanced ten dollars per acre.

No plan or movement for the upbuilding of the city along lines of progress and improvement seeks his aid in vain. The public work that he has done has largely been of a nature that has brought no pecuniary reward and yet has made extensive demand upon his time, his thought and his energies. Opportunities that others have passed by heedlessly he has noted and improved to the betterment of the city and the state in many ways. He is unostentatious in his claims in this regard but all who know him speak of him in terms of praise. In his life are elements of greatness because of the use he has made of his talents and his opportunities, because his thoughts are not self-centered but are given to the mastery of life problems and the fulfillment of his duty as a man in his relations to his fellowmen and as a citizen in his relations to his city, state and country.