Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Harbor siblings


The late Ross Robison, of Tremont and Hernando, shared this photograph of his mother and her siblings. The Harbor family was a prominent one in Tremont's early history. Thomas Harbour/Harbor moved his large family from Perry County, Alabama to Itawamba County, Mississippi around 1840, and suffice to say, most every Tremont native could probably trace their ancestry back to this Harbor family. Although I do not have direct kinship to the Harbors, there are plenty of connections as members of my Evans, Cofield and Robinson families intermarried with the Harbors. E. A. "Rip" Harbor was my grandmother Cofield's surrogate father who raised her and her two sisters after the death of my Cofield great-grandparents; he was known as "Granddaddy Harbor" by my own father even though he was actually an uncle by marriage.

Rip Harbor is pictured on the back right, and his sister, Mary Myrtle Harbor Robison, is seated immediately to his right (our left). I believe the other brother is the photograph is actually a half-brother to the rest: James B. Harbor. The two other sisters are Effie Lee Harbor and Darthula Harbor, and I'm taking a stab at who's who in this picture, based on other photographs I have, but I think that Effie is probably seated front left with Darthula on the far right.

These siblings were the children of Talmon Harbor, and great-grandchildren of Thomas Harbor and Mary Green, the earliest Itawamba Harbor settlers. Talmon Harbor married, first to M. A. Lyle, the mother of James B. "Jim" Harbor. Jim was married to, Selina Elmira Stone, the niece of my great-great grandfather, George Emerson Robinson. Selina's parents were Carroll M. Stone and Moran Parthenia Robinson.

Jim Harbor's mother, of whom we have only her initials - no first name, died when he was just three years old, and his father Talmon remarried to Martha "Mat" Evans, the sister of my great-great grandfather, John Thomas Evans. Talmon and Martha's four children - Rip, Myrtle, Effie and Darthula - would thus be my first cousins three times removed, except Rip, who also was my great-great uncle by marrying Vannah Cofield, but served more like a great-great grandfather. Confused? Hey, this is Tremont!!

Mary Myrtle Harbor married Carlton McKindrey Robison, brother of my great-great grandfather George Emerson Robinson. Her sister Effie Lee Harbor married Earnest Nox McFadden, and the raised their family in Itawamba County. Darthula was married to Bunyan Hartsell, and they moved to Texas with their daughter Chlois sometime before 1930. "Thula" made many trips back home to see her family however.

It has been said that Talmon Harbor, who was named after his great-grandfather Talmon Wright Harbour, a Virginia native, owned several acres of land which he divided among his children. Today, you can see this land as you drive east of Tremont along old Highway 78 . Look on the left, and you can spot old cedar trees leading away from the old highway. Each of Talmon's children received close to 200 acres each for their own homeplace. I imagine the above photograph was likely taken on one of the sloping hills that can be seen from the old highway. Rip was a professional photographer and could have set this one up.

1 comment:

Carolyn said...

This pictures hangs in my house! The women in front with the bow in her hair is my great-grandmother, Darthula Harbor Hartzel. I am the granddaughter of her daughter, Chlois. I remember mamaw mentioning the family in Mississippi and have lots of family photos from MS (well, my aunt has them). I still remember mamaw (Chlois) telling me stories of how the family moved from MS to TX, she would say proudly, "We were pioneers." When they arrived in south TX many from MS gathered together and the locals referred to that spot as Mississippi Row. Someone once told me that mamaw (Chlois) would teach many of the others how to read as she was one of the few who could.

Thanks for posting the picture and the story. Would love to hear more.