Biography from History of Clay Co., Indiana, Vol. II
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<CENTER> <P> Biography from History of Clay Co., Indiana, Vol. II, <BR> au: William Travis, publ. 1909 <P></CENTER><CENTER><H3>Isaac Shelby HARGER</H3></CENTER> <PRE> Prominent among the representatives of industrial interests in Brazil is numbered Isaac Shelby Harger, a painter and a decorator with an extensive and growing business. His careful management, combined with his unwearied industry, constitute important elements in the success which he is now enjoying and have won for him a place among the substantial residents of his adopted city. He was in Bardstown, Nelson county, Kentucky, January 11, 1846, his birthplace being one of the historic points of the south and especially identified with the early founding of the Catholic church in that section of the country. In the earlier portion of the nineteenth century Bardstown had acquired such a standing as a center of education and culture as to he christened by Henry Clay the “Athens of the West.” In 1774 Bardstown was first settled as Salem, but when it was incorporated by the Virginia legislature four years later it adopted its present name. Its original settlers were English Catholics, and one explanation of its name is that among the earliest and most prominent were the Bairds. Later came the Jesuit missionaries, and the Sisters of Nazareth founded a seminary for the higher education of gentlemen’s daughters.” The town also became a large manufacturing center, and its importance as a center of industry and culture induced the pope to create it an episcopal see, the first west of the Alleghany mountains. This, however, was transferred to Louisville in 1841, the Jesuits abandoned their college, and Bardstown commenced to wane. Although still a picturesque place, it is mainly noted for its past. It is a village of 1,800 people and the county seat of Nelson county. The parents of Isaac S Harger trgcr were Samuel Preston and Margaret Elizabeth (Taylor) Harger The father was a native of Deerfield, Ohio, and he died of cholera in St Louis Missouri, in 1851, his wife, who was born in Nelson county, Kentucky passing away in 1853. They were mar- ried in Kentucky, and the two of the four children who are living are as follows: Isaac and Samuel P., the latter being a resident of Haywards, California, The father was a shoemaker by trade and after locating in Nelson county engaged in the manufacture and sale of boots and shoes. He employed ten or fifteen men in the manufacturing department, de- veloped a good business and died in St. Louis, while on a western pros- pecting tour looking for a larger and more favorable field. At an early day he was a member of the state militia of Kentucky and gave his politi- cal allegiance to the Whig party. Isaac S. Harger spent his boyhood days in Owen county, Indiana, whither the family removed after the marriage of the widowed mother to Henry Townsend. As the son was only six years of age when he lost his father and eight years old when his mother died, he returned to Ken- tucky and made his home with his uncle, Arthur Taylor. When ten years of age he again became a resident of Owen county and was bound out to William Phillips, whom he was to serve until he was twenty-one years of age. At seventeen he enlisted for service in the Civil war, becoming a member of Company K, Fifth Indiana Cavalry, on the 15th of November, 1864, and later being connected with the Sixth Indiana Cavalry. After participating in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee, the regiment was de- tached to collect government supplies and to establish martial law at Eastport, Mississippi, and Florence, Lebanon and Gallatin, Tennessee. From the last named point the troops crossed the Cumberland mountains to Murfreesboro, where they were discharged, being formally and honora- bly mustered out of the service at Indianapolis, on the 15th of Septem- ber, 1865. Mr. Harger then returned to Owen county and continued his work for Mr. Phillips until he was twenty years of age, when he became identified with mercantile interests in Vandalia, Indiana. Afterward he established himself in business at Spencer, Owen county, where he re- mained until 1872, when he sold his store and became a collector for Dr. Bruell for about a year. In 1873 he located at Cory, Indiana, building the first house at that place. He took a contract with the railroad company to furnish 12,000 railroad ties between Terre Haute and Middlebury, as well as to supply all the timber for the building of trestles and bridges along this line. In the spring of 1874 he traveled through the states of Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin, and at Stevens Point, in the last named state, he assisted in building a lumber raft of 1,600,000 feet of lumber, which, with others, he floated down the Mississippi river to St. Louis, Missouri. He then returned to Owen county. It was at this period of his life that Mr. Harger was married to Miss Carrie Reynolds, who was born in that county and died five years after their union. Afterward Mr. Harger removed to Brazil, where he engaged in the business of contracting and carpentering, being thus associated with the building interests of the city until 1883. During that period he erected over forty houses for the Brazil Block Coal Company. Since 1883 Mr. Harger has been engaged in the painting and decorating business, as a contractor, and enjoys a liberal patronage. Soon after Jerome Bogle’s arrival in Brazil, he was associated with that gentleman in the painting business, the two also succeeding Mr. Oswell in a restaurant business. Mr. Harger withdrew from the latter, and has since confined his energies and abilities to the field which has embraced some of the finest homes and business houses in Brazil. Mr. Harger’s second wife, to whom he was united on the 25th of April, 1893, was Miss Minnie C. Schnerenberger. A native of Ohio, she was born in 1862, daughter of George and Martha (Otterman) Schneren- berger. Her father was born in Germany and died on his farm near Brazil, at the age of sixty-one years, while her mother was a Pennsyl- vanian, her marriage occurring in the Keystone state and her death, at Brazil in 1907, aged seventy-three. Mr. Schnerenberger had come to America in early life, crossing the Atlantic on a sailing vessel and locat- ing in Pennsylvania, where for several years he followed the wagon maker’s trade. Subsequently he removed to Ohio; then to a farm in Jack- son township, Clay county, and finally became a citizen of Brazil. There he worked at his trade with Eli and John Hendricks, while later he pur- chased a farm near the city upon which he spent his last years. His life was one of well directed activity and strict honor. He was an exemplary member of the I. 0. 0. F., which he joined in Ohio, and was devotedly attached to the Methodist church. Politically he was associated with the Democracy. The five children born to Mr. and Mrs. Schnerenberger were: Mrs. Harger; Jennie, now the wife of Charles Oeffinger; May, Mrs. George Anderson; Eva, wife of William Daken; and George. Mr. and Mrs. Harger are well known socially in Brazil, where they have a warm as well as a large circle of friends. They are the parents of Frederick S., Earl L. and John C. Harger. Mr. Harger has been a Re- publican since he attained the right to vote, has served as a member of the city council for four years, and his devotion to the public good is above question, being actively interested in temperance reforms and law enforce- ment. He and his wife are loyal members of the First Methodist Episco- pal church and are connected with William Black Chapter No. 8o, 0. E. S., and Mayflower D. of R. No. 62, while Mr. Hargar is also identified with Brazil Lodge, No. 264, A. F. and A. M.; Brazil Lodge No. 215, I. 0. 0. F., and Iron City Encampment No. ii8, and Patriarchs Militant No. 47. Throughout his entire life he has made it his purpose to hold closely to a high standard of conduct, and in citizenship, his social rela- tions and private life, as well as in his business career, he has earned the high honor of his associates. From the very commencement of his inde- pendent career he has made steady advancement in the business world, utilizing his opportunities to good advantage, and his entire record is characterized by an orderly progression that has led to good results. <CENTER><H3>Nathan A. HARRIS</H3> <P> Blanchard, Charles, editor. County of Clay, Indiana: Historical and Biographical. Chicago: F. A. Battey & Co., Publishers. 1884.<P> p. 430. <P></CENTER><PRE> BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Clay City and Harrison Township NATHAN A. HARRIS was born July 16, 1851, in Morrow County, Ohio, and was the youngest of five children born to Jesse and Jane (Hall) Harris, both natives of Ohio, and of German extraction. Nathan's early youth was spent in town, where he attended school, but losing his father at an early age, and his mother remarrying, when he was fourteen years of age he was apprenticed to a harness-maker, where he worked eighteen months; then going to Wooster, Ohio, he worked under better instruction eighteen months, afterward working six months in a whip factory: then in a carriage shop. He then came to Middlebury in the fall of 1868, and started a harness-shop, keeping it about three years, when he started a saloon, which he carried on five years.