BLOOMING GROVE COLONY

Wendel Harmon

Wendel Harmon appears to have been the banker of the colony.  He was
a man of intensely exacting and parsimonious temperament.  He loaned
money to all in whom he had confidence, and exacted ony five percent
interest, but got very angry if the borrower failed to meet his
obligation on the appointed day.  On one occasion two men, one of
who had borrowed twenty-five dollars to buy a cow, went to his house
when the debt fell due, and found him awaiting them.  They had
walked seven miles, and it was about noon.  Mr.Harmon was seated at
the side of a table with a knife in one hand and the "heel" of a rye
loaf in the other, "dining". After taking his money he said "he
would like to offer them something to eat, but that was all
he had". 



He claimed that Doctor Haller, at his death, authorized him to take
his place as spiritual leader of the colony.  The people had settled
upon David Young, so that when he and Harmon met in the church they
contended for the leadership until it ended by their pulling the
Bible out of each other's hands.  Harmon disliked Young because he
had loaned him money and he had not met the interest when due, and
when he demanded both principal and interest,  Young collected it
all in old copper cents, and took it to Harmon, and poured the debt
out of a three bushel bag upon the floor.  Harmon said "Abe is that
the kind of money you got from me." "No," said Young. "Well then you
just take it away as soon as you can possible do it"-which he was
required to do.
 


Harmon's irritable and arbitrary manner in time wore out the
patience of the people and they lost their respect for him.  In 1840
he sold his property and with his wife (nee Margaret Matter, who had
gone blind) he removed to Larry's Creek.  He stopped with Joseph
Losch (who had married Margaret Heid) and built himself a small log
house, with two rooms and a loft, where he lived a year, when he
quarreled with Losch.  He then went to Michael Klutzenbicher and
built another house for himself and wife.  Here they lived for two
years, when Mrs. Harmon died, after a fall, at the age of 71 years.
Harmon then went to live with John Heid, where he died in 1844, at
the age of 81 years.
 


They never had any children of their own, but raised three, who were
distantly related to Mrs. Harmon.  Mary Heid, who was orphaned at
five weeks, went to Harmon's when ten years of age.  She married
Leonard Shanbacher.  Ursula Heid, (sister of Mary) when five years
old.  She married George Rothfuss.  Christina Schanbacher, daughter
of Mary Heid Shanbacher, when three yars old, who remained with them
as long as they lived, after which she married John Winters. She is
yet living, near Eder's Hill, in possession of a wonderfully clear
mind and vigorous body. 



Harmon and his wife lie buried in a private plot, on the farm of
George Heid, near the Freedens Methodist church, not far from
Salladasburg.  His estate was valued at not less than six thousand
dollars, a very large fortune for his day. 


  
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