Harless Family Tree Updated

Yesterday I wrote about the big corrections I had to make to the family of Anthony Harless Sr. I worked on it most of yesterday and today I have uploaded the latest version of the family tree. There are now 71,704 people. Lots of the new people are in Anthony's line, but also lots of new people and details from Indiana.

http://harless-homepage.com/tree/index.htm

Correcting Errors - an ongoing process

I have always tried to be quite clear that I make mistakes and implore people to point them out to me. My Harless database is quite large and contains over 70,000 people. I work on parts of it at a time - and here is something I don't think I have ever mentioned before, but if you want me to add more to your branch the best way to get that done is send me an update. Every time I receive updates and corrections I make those amendments but then I spend a couple of days checking and making my own corrections and additions to that branch of the family.

Why am I posting this today? I was transcribing a record to share on the blog when it occurred to me I should make sure I had already entered all the information into my own research database - and I hadn't!

Susannah B. Harless is getting a new daddy today (I had long doubted the accuracy of my data on this, but now I have convincing evidence to support the correction).

Francis Harless, wife of Enoch Lafon, is also getting a daddy today. I am now convinced and able to offer good evidence that she and Susannah B. Harless were sisters. I do not know who their mother is though.

I will upload the corrected family tree in an hour or two - if this is your line, please check your own records to see if they agree and let me know if they don't - and why!

Sporting Saturday - Taught Notre Dame How to Play

William Warren Harless

University of Michigan

William Warren Harless was a natural athlete and handsome with it. Born on 9 March 1867 in Chigago, Illinois to Thomas Henry and Barbara Ann King Harless, he was the youngest of 8 children (2 older half-siblings had died as children almost 20 years before William was born). William Warren was only 3 years old when his father died, but his mother was well provided for and was able to raise her children by herself until she chose to remarry when William was 11 years old.

William Warren Harless began his higher education at Notre Dame but transferred to the University of Michigan because Notre Dame did not play football.

For the 1886 season William was a substitute player, but was a rusher for the 1887 season and was invited, with his teammate, George Dehaven, back to Notre Dame for a training session to teach the Fighting Irish this new game. Perhaps William was a better player than a teacher, but when Notre Dame played their first ever game, against Michigan, they were defeated 8-0 and it would be 32 years before the Fighting Irish would achieve victory over the Wolverines.

William played football as a center, a rusher and a guard, but this was not the only sport he participated in. In 1887, he came first in putting shot (29' 3"), and the hammer throw (56' 10 7/8"), but was defeated by W. C. Malley in heavy weight wrestling. It was noted that both the hammer and the shot were overweight and that otherwise the distances might have been greater. The prizes were of interest too, a set of George Elliot's works for the hammer throw and Paradise Lost for the hammer throw.

After university William Warren Harless became a civil engineer and married Mary Jane Lennon in 1896. William and Mary had no children, and when the Spanish-American war broke out, William joined the US Army as a quartermaster in the 7th Illinois Infantry.

Following his stint in the army, William became the manager of an insurance company, but his love of sports had obviously not left him, as he served as the Secretary of the West Golf Association for a number of terms.

Thriller Thursday - Stabbing Affair In Evanston Leads to Operation

Stabbing Affair In Evanston Leads to Operation

To escape from under the shadows of the gallows through a surgical operation performed upon another man, was the peculiar, if not harrowing, experience of Jack Harless, an Evanston, Wyo., railway clerk, last Sunday. The man who underwent the operation is J. R. Schillerman, telegraph operator, who is now confined in the Dee hospital with a fighting chance for life.

Schillerman, according to reports from Evanston, was seriously stabbed by Harless last Wednesday, with a pocket-knife, the assault following a trivial quarrel. He received long and deep wounds across the abdomen, right breast and right shoulder. Harless was arrested on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and his victim was given surgical attention at the Evanston hospital.

Saturday night, the wounded man's condition became so serious that the attending physician apparently fearing on account of the depth of his abdominal wound that the intestines had been penetrated and that the infection had set in, order [sic] the man removed to the Dee hospital in this city. This was done and a thorough examination of Schillermn's condition by Dr. R. S. Joyce revealed symptoms of appendicitis. An operation was performed and the Ogden physician's diagnosis proved correct. It was found that the wound made by Harless had not penetrated through the abdomen, but that Schillerman's appendix had burst, causing his serious condition.

In the meantime, a rumor became current at Evanston that the operator was dead and Harless, who had been released on bond, was rearrested and charged with murder. He was again released, however, when the report was sent in Evanston that his victim was still alive.

Stabbing Affair in Evanston Leads to Operation, The Ogden Standard, Ogden, Utah, 8 August 1916, page 7, column 3.

Harless Family Tree Updated

I have just uploaded a new Harless family tree update. Over 450 new people have been added and a few duplicate entries were removed. Hundreds of records have been updated or corrected. In all there are now 71,354 people on 1,789 pages in the online tree. Most of the new entries are from the Ohio Marriage records, but I was surprised to see people from Indiana, Alabama, Michigan, Kentucky and West Virginia made up as many of the happy couples as Ohio born people did.

Click on this link to check it out and see if I have the correct information for your Harless family.

http://harless-homepage.com/tree/index.htm

Military Monday - Killed at Camp Perry

Charles Horneff [sic], Jr., of Wadsworth, a private in Company G, Eight Regiment, Ohio National Guard, was struck in the abdomen by a bullet from a rifle accidentally fired by an unknown member of Company F, Eighth Regiment, of Akron, at Camp Perry last Friday evening and almost instantly killed.

Later it was learned that the shot was from a rifle in the hands of Okey Harless who had borrowed the gun and thought it to be unloaded. The bullet went through five haversacks, a tent pole and heavy supply chest before striking the victim, 30 feet distant. Harless was exonerated by verdicts of the coroner and a military court of inquiry. This was the first fatal accident at Camp Perry since the camp was established.

Killed at Camp Perry, The News-Herald, Hillsboro, Ohio, 5 August 1909, page 4, column 1.

The dead man, Charles Hornoff, Jr., was just 23 years old, the same age as Okey Harless. Charles was born on 13 May 1886 in Guilford, Medina County, Ohio, to Charles Hornoff, Sr. and Emma M. Hartman.

Charles Hornoff, Certificate of Death number 37351 (30 July 1909), Bureau of Vital Statistics, Ohio.

Okey Harless was the son of William Henry Harless and Frances Fernelia Keffer. He was born on 11 June 1886 in Iola, Roane County, West Virginia. Okey died on 7 March 1957 in Vienna, Wood County, West Virginia.