Although we all enjoy reading the fortunate individual's "success story," who "made it big" - those stories are usually few and far between. Studying family history, I've learned most of us live a life of continual struggle and trials. While today we may complain of our occasional troubles, I've found they pale in comparison to those of our ancestors. However, as I write this our country is in the midst of one of its greatest unprecedented health and financial crises in its history - at least in most of our lifetimes - the Coronavirus 2019 - or "Covid-19."
We can learn much from studying the past and the lives of those who have gone before us. How did they handle adversity and hardship? How do we choose to deal with trials and trouble today? Many of them - as well as most of us - choose to run from it! But the folly of this strategy was made quite eloquently in a very profound and yet simplistic statement by the fictional character Uncle Remus…
We can learn much from studying the past and the lives of those who have gone before us. How did they handle adversity and hardship? How do we choose to deal with trials and trouble today? Many of them - as well as most of us - choose to run from it! But the folly of this strategy was made quite eloquently in a very profound and yet simplistic statement by the fictional character Uncle Remus…
You can't run away from trouble. There ain't no place that far…
- Uncle Remus
The most successful individuals are those who have faced their hardships head-on! While we don't have to like trouble and adversity, we do have to learn to deal with it! Oliver Wendell Holmes put it quite nicely…
If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, or you'll see a lot more of it and had better be on speaking terms with it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
There are no perfect people and no perfect families… The HARBERT family and their stories are the same. We have our "Heroes and Villains" as well as our "skeletons in the closet." I present their stories and lives here as delicately but as honestly as I can. I hope you find them entertaining and intriguing, but most of all… inspiring.
Thomas Harbert [Sr] - 1st of the HARBERT Family to settle in present day Harrison County, West Virginia in 1775. Thomas - born in Monmouth County, New Jersey on July 4th 1734 - marries and moves his young family westward - first to the Winchester, Virginia area, next to Decker's Creek in Monongalia County, (West) Virginia, and finally settles on Jones' Run, West Agusta County, Virginia [present day Harrison County, WV].
Thomas Harbert III leaves Harrison County, (West) VA after having served in the war of 1812 and moves to Ohio and marries Elizabeth Huston. There they raise a family and in March 1854 eventually move with their other children (who had already relocated) to Putnam County, Missouri.
John Harbert, son of Thomas Harbert [Sr] - Indian fighter, miller, and slave-owner... Stories of his early life following his father's death on the Virginia frontier to his Last Will & Testament...
My grandfather Hallie L. Harbert's booklet "History of the Descendants of Noah J Harbert" (his grandfather) - as well as some of his personal recollections...
David Titchenal moves his family to Harrison County, (West) Virginia and meet the Harbert family. Includes details of life on the Virginia frontier - by Oliver Ray Titchenal [Great, great, great, great-grandson of Thomas Harbert (Sr.)
Eileen Harbert-Convery recounts her memories of her grandparents, "Davy" W. & Zora Harbert and family of Last Chance, Colorado - early pioneers on the prairie of the eastern Colorado frontier.
Elbert Francis Harbert & wife Sarah Ellen Shriver-Harbert leave Mason County, West Virginia and their family back home in Harrison County, West Virginia for Custer County, NEBRASKA. A tragic story of the hardships they endured as they struggled to keep the family together after Sarah Ellen's tragic death within a year of their arrival in 1888. Their story which is presented in a chronological format is one which has taken me over 3 years of research to complete. I dedicate it to their descendants who still embody their rugged and resilient spirit.
The History of Brown, West Virginia -written in 1936 by Lowell Smith (grandson of Marquis Lafayette "Lafe" Harbert), with notes added in 1966 [Submitted by Diane Zimmerman]
History of Lumberport and Surrounding Communities - Revised Edition 1977;
Copyright 1977 by Gary Martin Sr of Salem, WV - Reprinted here with permission granted 7/21/2010.
Interesting collection of stories about Lumberport from its early history in 1770 to the 1970’s. The first
section “Born in the Shadow of the Fort” was written by Ivadell Harbert - aunt of David E Harbert - who mailed me the book a year or so ago. Thanks Dave for sending me the book, and thanks to Gary Martin, Sr. of Salem, WV for granting me permission to publish it here. I hope you all find it interesting…
Send me your Harbert family story!