Jacob Clover married Catherine Harness. The following is a short synopsis of her family. It is not intended to be complete. It is simply what I have accidentally collected while researching the Clovers.
On this page:
Excerpt from the Harness Family History
Excerpt from Early Records, Hampshire County, Virginia, Now West Virginia [Will of Michael Harness, and early tax records.]
Item from the Hammes papers in which Jacob Harness lists the heirs of Leonard Harness.
Excerpt from Early Illinois
Excerpt from Illinois, Historical and Statistical
Excerpt from Hampshire and Hardy Counties, (W) VA Abstracts
Group Sheet for Leonard Harness Family
Harold Duncan Harness, Harness Family History, (Bel Air, Maryland: H.D, Harness, 1983). This book is available through any LDS Family History Center on microfiche set no. 6089057 Thanks to Pat Vaseska for typing this up for me. This is just a few pages from this fascinating book. According to the book, Leonard's father provided supplies for the American Revolution. Therefore this would be a DAR/SAR line. That probably explains why everyone has assumed that all unknown wives of Clovers in the area were daughters of Leonard. In fact, the only Clover married to a Harness was Jacob.
The
Leonard Harness Family
The
dates of the birth, marriage,
and exact date of Leonard’s death are not known.
The first date in his estate record is 4 July 1808. The same is
true for his
wife and children. Such
records were not required to be
recorded as they lived in a wilderness area.
Such events were usually recorded in the family Bible. They owned a Dutch Bible.
It was purchased by Jacob,
one of the sons,
when Leonard’s estate was settled.
But
if it exists today, it is not known who has it.
We do not know for sure who Leonard’s wife was. Mrs. Black’s
letter states “and Leonard
married a Hatch and went to IL.”
No
record could be found of any Hatch’s in that area.
However, there were Heaths.
Some, if not all, were of Dutch (Holland) descent.
Land records also did not
provide a clue as
to her identity. It
is the belief of
some genealogists that she was Rachel Catherine
Heath.
The 1790 Census of Virginia was
destroyed, but one was reconstructed from the 1782 and 1784 tax lists. Leonard Harness was one of
those listed for
Hampshire Co. The
1782 list shows him
as having six whites and no blacks.
The
1784 list shows him twice. The
first
listing shows seven whites, one dwelling, and no other building. The other shows seven
whites one dwelling,
and one other building. The
double
listing for 1784 was probably the result of him owning more than one
parcel of
land. Records
reveal that he owned two
parcels on Looney’s Creek and one on the South Branch of the
Potomac in the
vicinity of Petersburg, W.V., which is approximately seven miles from
Michael’s
home. However,
Leonard’s land holdings
and home could not be pinpointed.
The
payroll of Stephen Ashby’s
Company of Rangers included Leonard Harness; Source- the Records of
Militia
Service, Dunmore’s War (1774), Executive Dept. Romney Payroll. This company of Rangers
was not paid for
their 1774 service until October 1775.
Leonard served eight days and received 0:12:0, which was
12 shillings
for his eight days of service.
It is
believed Leonard and family
left the South Branch area about 1785/1786 and arrived in Illinois
County of
Virginia about 1786, which later became The Territory of the Northwest
of Ohio,
then Illinois Territory before becoming the State of Illinois. The exact route they took
is not known. They
probably went down the Ohio to the
Mississippi by flat-boat then north up the Mississippi River to
Whiteside
Landing Station or some other landing station near Cahokia, where there
was a
French settlement. Leonard’s
family
located in the area which is now southwest of Columbia and northwest of
New
Hanover, Illinois. When
he claimed the land,
it was in L’Aigle Township, St. Clair Co., Illinois.
This land was located in
the Mississippi bottoms. Dimpsey
transferred 400 acres, 57 perches (1
perch = 16.5 feet), to Leonard Harnish (Harness),
6 April 1793 and Robert Creighton sold Leonard Harnish
(Harness)
372 acres, 17 perches, 28 November 1798 and Leonard had 100 acres, 118
perches
granted him as a militia man (Perrin Collection: Register of Land
Claims, 1798,
page 31).
These
lands are now in Monroe
County, IL and are described as: Claim 571, Survey 434,
West part of section 19, T 1 S, R 10 W and
east part of section 24, T 1 S, R 11 W which contains 372 acres 17
perches;
Claim 572, Survey 410 – Northeast corner of Section 1, T 2 S,
R 11 W and
Northwest corner of Section 6, T 2, R 10 W which contains 400 acres, 57
perches. The
location of the militia
land grant was not found.
This land
was sold by Leonard Harness to John Singleton for $60.00 on 28 Dec.
1804. He obtained
this land as the result of his
service with the militia of Prairie DuPont, County of St. Clair, IL and
is
shown on their roll, dated 1 Aug. 1790, as having served during the
period 1783
– 1790. A
copy of Claim 572, Survey 410
for 400 acres, 57 perches was obtained.
It was registered 13 Feb. 1799 and recorded 13 Dec. 1804.
Leonard
Harness and his family
were considered to be among the early American settlers of St. Clair
County
prior to the formation of Monroe County, IL in 1816.
Of course, by that time, Leonard and his wife were
deceased and
probably most of his children had grown up and moved elsewhere. Some had moved to
Jefferson County, Missouri
and prior to 1819 Joseph had migrated to Bond County, Illinois.
Clara McCormack Sage and Laura Sage Jones, compilers, Early Records, Hampshire County, Virginia, Now West Virginia, (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1969), 117.
The last sentence was added to the abstract. No further explanation was given. I suggest getting a copy of the original as some of these names are difficult.
“State Census of Hampshire County, Virginia, 1782 and 1784" page 92: This is a combined listing of the tax lists from 1782 and 1784. The initials after the name refer to the initials of the enumerator. Two individuals with the same initials after their names would live near each other.
1782 tax list numbers indicate free whites, sl is number of slaves. In the 1784 tax list, the first figure is free whites, the second, dwellings, the third, other buildings.
I suggest that interested parties should check the original tax lists.
1782 1784
Adam Harness (WB) 7 gone in 84
George Harness (AR) 6-2sl (AR) 6-1-2
John Harness (AR) 14-2sl (AR) 12-1-2
John Harness (not in 82) (MqC) 6-1-2
Leonard Harness (MS) 6 (MS) 7-1-1
Leonard Harness (not in 82) (MS) 7-1
Michael Harness Sr (AR) 3-12sl (AR) 3-1-3
Michael Harness Jr (AR) 5 (AR) 9-1-1
Peter Harness (MS) 6-1sl (MS) 7-1-1
Edward G. Mason, Early Illinois, (Chicago: Fergus Print. Co., 1890)
This is an odd little book which lists the early militia in what was St. Clair County before 1800. This is important because it is the first proof that I have seen that the Clovers were in Illinois by 1795. Note that John is not on the list. Perhaps he was the youngest of the set.
Page 79: First Militia Regiment, 26 April 1790: Leonard Harness 14, David Guice 37 [The number after the name indicates the position on the list. This number is included in the book although the lists are alphabetized.]
Page 90: General return of St. Clair Militia, 1 August 1790: Leonard Harness, David Guice (Guice received 100 acres of land)
Page 93-94: Capt. Piggot’s Company of First Militia Regiment 1795: Settlers at New Design and Belle Fountain: Jacob Clover, Wm Clover, Leonard Harness. Settlers at Whiteside Station: Adam Clover, Solomon Guice.
Page 96: Names of persons entitled to donation of 100 acres of land for militia service in Randolph and St. Clair Counties: Leonard Harness, David Guice. They were marked as coming from St. Clair County, not Randolph County.
Larry G. Shuck, Hampshire and Hardy Counties, (W) VA Abstracts, (Apollo, Pennsylvania: Closson Press, 1996),
Moses, John, Illinois, Historical and Statistical, (Chicago: Fergus Print. Co, 1889), 227.
“A settlement was also made about the same time [1782] east of the Kakaskia River” by several men, including Leonard Harness.
[Consequently, he was in Illinois some years before the Clovers. This date fits with what is known of his children. It should also put to rest the theory that Jacob Clover married Catherine in Virginia. This error has been floated past me.]
Leonard Harness, born ca. 1748, died prior to 4 July 1808, in St. Clair County, Illinois. The following children are from the information in the Harness History and the sale of land in the Hammes papers. Both of these list the children and agree on their names. Family researchers have a record of a Rebecca Harness, born ca. 1760, died ca. 1763, Hampshire County, Virginia. I do not have a source for this.
Children of Leonard Harness:
1. Dorothy Ann Harness, born ca. 1780, Virginia. She married 17 June 1800, William Null in St. Clair County, Illinois. Dorothy’s age is based the fact that she is shown as aged 70, born Virginia, in the 1850 census of Jefferson County, Missouri, 42 District, page 476. Dorothy Ann (Harness) NULL is 10 Feb 1860 in DeSoto, Jefferson County, Missouri.
The person who sent the death date says he does not know where it came from. However, she is in the 1850 census and not in the 1860 census.
2. Catherine Harness, born ca. 1781?, died 15 September 1828, married Jacob Clover. They probably married about 1799, implying she was born ca. 1781. We do not know the date. We do not know the exact ages of her children, but for various reasons, I think 1799 is a fair date for the marriage. We know that she was a daughter of Leonard Harness for several reasons. For one thing, her daughter, Rebecca Nelson, made reference to her Uncle John Shehan and her Aunt Sally Shehan who were deceased. Sally was also a daughter of Leonard Harness accoding to the estate records.
3. Jacob, born 1786, Illinois. Married Mary Coleman. Jacob Harness, is in the same census as his sister, Dorothy, in 1850, on page 434B. He was aged 64, born in Illinois. In the above deed, he said he was late of Jefferson County, Missouri. If so, this may explain the lack of a marriage record. The county was formed in 1819 but the marriage records begin in 1825. I am told he may have had more than one wife.
4. Elizabeth, possibly married Stephen Terry. There is no evidence of her age anywhere. I also don’t have the marriage date, but I am told it was prior to her father’s death which was in 1808. However, I have not seen his estate papers so this may all be wrong.
5. Sarah “Sally” Harness, married 12 July 1810, in St. Clair County, Illinois, John Shehan. She had one daughter, Martha, who married a Walton. If Sarah married at about the age of 18 to 20, this puts her born ca. 1790, by which time her family was in Illinois. She apparently died young because John Shehan remarried.
Illinois DAR Genealogical Records Committee Report, Series 2, volume 88: Will Book A and Probate Book A to page 46, Monroe County, Illinois, 2001. Copy at NSDAR. Page numbers refer to pages in probate book.
Will of John Shan Shehan, jun'r Date of Will: 13 March 1825, probate 13 March 1825 page 111-114
Present wife, Mary Shahan to receive all personal estate as long as she remains unmarried. If she married to get equal 1/3. Children by present wife: John and Sarah Shahan to receive equal division of property. Daughter Maria Shahan when she arrives at 18 years or married a certain tract of land adjacent to tract now belonging to the heirs of Jacob Clover, dec'd which I possessed by my first wife. John Harrison to care for said land for use of my daughter, Maria. Executors Thomas Harrison and John Harrison. Witnesses W. G. Goforth, Obed Harrison, Cuthbert Harrison.
6. Mary “Polly”, born Illinois. She had to have been born just before or after Joseph because both of them needed a guardian in 1808. I do not know of a marriage for her. Since William Clover, her guardian died, she might have gone to live with one of her other siblings. If so, we may find her marriage elsewhere. It seems to me that she may also have married in Jefferson County, Missouri and thus left no marriage record as did so many.
7. Joseph born 31 July 1793, died 25 November 1881, Adams County, Illinois. He married Nancy Worley according to the county history. Joseph Harness married Nancy Wosley, 04 May 1819, Bond County, Illinois, Book A: 108. Joseph Harness is in the 1880 census of Lima, Adams County, Illinois, page 207A. He was 85. It is noteworthy that the census says that he was born in Illinois, and that both of his parents were born in Munich. The county history article on him says that the family was of German extraction.
David Wilcox, Lyman McCarl, and Joseph J. Freihur, Editors, Quincy and Adams County (Illinios): History and Representative Men, (Chicago, Illinois: Lewes Publishing Company, 1919), 773-4. This article is from Adams County. Thanks to Pat Vaseska for typing it for us.
Richard R. Harness. To mention the name Harness is to recall the earliest family identified with the permanent settlement of Lima Township. To record the time of that settlement it is necessary to go back ninety years, to the year 1828, when Joseph Harness, a native of St. Clair County, Illinois, invaded this section of the wilderness and erected the first house, about two miles northwest of where the Town of Lima now stands. The maiden name of his wife was Nancy Worley. Their daughter Julia was the first white child born in the township. Joseph Harness, who was of German ancestry, was a man of very distinctive character and many stories are told of his personality. The only picture he ever had taken shows a man of strength both physically and mentally. His ability brought him large possessions and at one time he owned 800 acres, partly in Adams and partly in Hancock Counties. This land he distributed among his children, and some of it is still owned by them. He was one of the pioneer raisers of cattle and mules, and his name was also identified with the early history of fruit growing in the county. About 1835 he established a nursery and sold much of the stock which supplied the early orchards of this part of Illinois. It is said he was the first man to graft and bud trees, a custom which is now the vital feature of fruit growing. At one time he was probably the largest apple grower in the county. He was also a noted hunter. In this sport, which he pursued largely as a means of supplying his table with meat, he relied upon the old fashioned muzzle loading rifle. He was an expert in its use, and it is said that he killed sixteen deer in seventeen successive shots. He also was fond of telling a story of killing five deer with one bullet. His reputation for veracity and uprightness was greater than that for a keen sense of humor, and few strangers on hearing the story would have disputed it. His son Richard R., however, who was about ten years old when he first heard the tale, was disposed to question its truthfulness, and showed an attitude of doubt until the matter was explained. His father satisfied him with the explanation that it was one bullet but five different shots that did the execution. Each time he recovered the bullet from the deer and used it over and over again until the one missile had slain five animals. Joseph Harness was a democrat, but had no fondness for local offices, and so far as known never held any. He died on the old farm in 1881, in his ninetieth year, and he and his wife had enjoyed their marriage companionship for sixty years. She survived him three years and passed away at the age of ninety. Joseph Harness was a member of the Masonic Order at Lima, and was representative two years in the Grand Lodge, and he also belonged to Mendon Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, the Knight Templar Command at Quincy, and the Medina Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Chicago. Among other characteristics Joseph Harness had a voice of wonderful strength and carrying power. From his farm to the Mississippi River a distance of seven or eight miles intervened, but old river men frequently claimed that they could distinctly hear him calling his stock. One night a prowling wolf came into his yard, and was attacked by his dogs. Thinking that the dogs were getting the worst of it Mr. Harness jumped up out of bed and barefooted and bare-legged, with only his hunting knife, started out and got close enough to make one stab at the wolf, but missed and then started in pursuit. He and the dogs kept up the chase for fully three quarters of a mile, until the wolf made its escape. He then realized that other dangers were present and made his way back home very carefully, fearing that every step would expose him to the bite of a rattlesnake.
Joseph Harness and wife’s three living children are: Julia Ann, widow of Jason Strickland, of Liberty, Missouri; Nancy, widow of James Ellis, living in California; and Richard R. Harness.
The old Harness home in Lima Township, 2 1/2 miles northwest of Lima and on the Hancock County line, where Richard was born on February 28, 1841, is now owned by Richard. Practically all his life has been spent in this community, and he now owns about half of the land formerly held by his father. The Harness home is in Adams County, while his barn is over the county line in Hancock. They are twenty-eight miles from Carthage and twenty-two miles from Quincy. Mr. Harness is a capable and progressive farmer and one of the leading grain and stock raisers in his vicinity. In politics he is a democrat.
At the age of twenty-three Richard R. Harness married Miss Rilla Ann Crenshaw, daughter of Paschal Crenshaw of Hancock County. The Crenshaws located in that community in the spring of 1827. Rilla Crenshaw was twenty years of age when she married Mr. Harness. She died at the age of sixty-five. Mr. Harness has three sons and two daughters; George M., the oldest lives in the same community with his father and married Lizzie Vinson. Charles C., who farms part of his father’s place in Hancock County, is the second in age. Callie Gertrude is the wife of Elmer Miller, and they live on part of the farm. Jasper, who is operating the home place, married Verna Nicholson, of Ursa Township, and their children are Hugh Carlton, Wilma Emaline, Richard Lafayette, Russell Paul, and Leo Elizabeth. Effie, the youngest of the family, is the wife of Dr. Parker, formerly of Lima but now of Clayton.
I have been sent information that Michael Harness was Michael Peter Harness, born York County, Pennsylvania, son of Jacob Harness, born Maryland. I do not know the source.
John Clover, the contemporary of Jacob, Adam, and William Clover, is sometimes said to have married a daughter of Leonard Harness. His wife was named Tabitha in the deed records. Since Leonard had no such daughter in his estate records, this information is not correct. Most Harness group sheets also have a Miss Harness who married William Clover. But there were only 7 children because Jacob was deeding one undivided 7th of the land. Obviously some could have died young without heirs, but this would not apply to a wife of William Clover. William left heirs. If William was married to Leonard's daughter, she had to be one of those listed. There is some evidence the name of William's wife was Elizabeth. She was deceased at the time of William's will. Leonard's daughter Elizabeth was married to a Stephen Terry.They were still alive at the time of William's will when he made Stephen a guardian of one of his daughters.
My suspicion is that since the Harness line is a DAR/SAR line, some early Clover researchers simply became hopeful. I have seen absolutely no evidence that either William Clover or John Clover was married to a daughter of Leonard Harness.
Return
to Clover Family Trees Page
Return
to Home Page 
For the Clover Family Historical Society
This page is copyrighted 2007 by June Clover Byrne
For contact information, please return to Home Page.
Search Engine for everyname index for full site is also available at the bottom of the Home Page.
Last Updated 3 October 2011