My Genealogy Hound

J. W. HARREL is a representative business man of the town of Gibbon, Buffalo county. He is not an old timer, and the record of his experience does not therefore run back to the early days of the colony. He settled in Gibbon in February, 1879, and is a man of comparatively recent growth. As the common saying goes, he started “at the bottom round of the ladder,” and although not yet rich or famous, he has secured a footing, and is in a fair way to get on in the world. Given the case of a young man age twenty-five, married, thrown into this new western country, among strangers and without a dollar to go on, what will he do? His first impulse will be to return home. If he overcomes this impulse and decides to stay, the chances are that he will hear in a short time of some more attractive place further west, and, catching the migratory fever, will move on toward the front. If he “strikes it rich,” he will settle down, but failing in this he goes out with the next exodus, and so he drifts from place to place in his wandering pursuit of wealth till fortune graciously smiles upon him or death comes at last to his relief. The race for wealth, the contest for glory, become too absorbing to admit of the tedious process of growth and development, the idea being to get to the front, to get there on territory, to get there in time, to get there in point of success, and to get there fully, freely and unmistakably. The subject of this sketch, when he decided to stay West, made up his mind to locate in one place and remain there. In April following the date of his locating in Gibbon, Mr. Harrel engaged in the mercantile establishment of A. D. George, in whose employ he remained for six years. Here he gathered the knowledge of the local trade and formed an acquaintance with the buying public which have since stood him in good stead. At the end of the six years he had saved enough from his earnings to begin business for himself. He opened a grocery store in Gibbon in the spring of 1885, and has been engaged exclusively in the grocery business since. His business has been reasonably prosperous, and measured by his means and opportunities, he may be considered a fairly successful man. The secret of what success he has attained, if there be any secret about it, is to be found in his industry, economy and strict application to business. He has followed steadily one purpose — that of developing his business interests in accordance with his means and opportunities. He has allowed no distracting pursuits or diversions to lead him away from this purpose.

In politics Mr. Harrel is a republican — a stanch believer in the principles of his party — but not a politician even in the mildest sense of the word. As a citizen he is alive to the welfare of his community, ever ready to help, to the extent of his means and ability, any enterprise of general interest — a liberal contributor to all charitable purposes and a zealous worker in that most benevolent organization, the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

Mr. Harrel possesses an agreeable presence. He is large of mold and generous of heart. He has an open, frank face, and a hearty manner. He is somewhat of the style of “rough and ready.” He has his own opinions and speaks them freely to friends and strangers. He is broad in his views and believes in each one having the largest amount of personal liberty consistent with the public good. He asks nothing for himself that he is not willing to grant to others. He is, in short, an industrious, useful citizen, a successful business man, a clever companionable fellow, whom everybody knows and familiarly greets as “Joe.”