Allen
Edward Harbaugh
'The Mountain Poet' of Mill Run, PA
(1849-1916)
Allen Edward
Harbaugh was born on
July 7, 1849 in Normalville, Fayette County, PA, the son of Leonard and Maria E. (Eicher)
Harbaugh Jr. He was a turn of the 20th century Renaissance man,
poet, journalist, sketch artist, sign painter, historian, economic development
champion and political analyst. His
home was Mill Run, Fayette County, in the years before it became famed as the home of
Fallingwater, the nation's most famous modern house. He
was nicknamed "The Mountain Poet" and his pen name was
"Al-Ed-Ha," an abbreviation of his full name.
He was the cover subject of a 1999 issue of Western Pennsylvania History Magazine, published by the Senator Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, and sold in newsstands all throughout the city.
Beginning
in the 1860s, when he learned the trade of printing and his word and math
puzzles appeared in a children's magazine, Harbaugh's name was known throughout
the Fayette County coal region, and at times beyond. His works were published in newspapers, books and magazines,
and at his death, the Pittsburg Press
and Pittsburg Gazette Times both
called him the "Mountain Poet" and noted his work as an editor.
As an artist and sign painter, "nobody was better known in the Connellsville region," eulogized a Fayette County newspaper. "Buildings, barns, fences, rocks and signboards from Uniontown to Mount Pleasant bear evidence of his skill."
His history of our family, written in 1913, has been an irreplaceable source of information.
Harbaugh
loved the public spotlight -- but the irony of his achievements is that his
myriad talents were played out to an audience primarily of laborers and their
families who made their livings on farms, railroads and coal fields.
In the eight-plus decades since Harbaugh's death, while he has faded largely from public memory, his works at times have resurfaced and have been published in local histories, a testament to the staying power of his creativity.
Since much of his art has been lost in the passage of time, perhaps his story will provide readers with an appreciation for his skill, and lead to the discovery of other lost works.
Harbaugh's Work in Context with His Community
Fayette
County is famed for its vast deposits of soft coal, which was burned into
virtually pure cakes of carbon (coke) at batteries of local ovens. (A typical
coke laborer is seen here.) The coke then
was shipped by rail to Pittsburgh for use as high-grade fuel in the steel mill
blast furnaces. Uniontown historian Walter "Buzz" Storey says the
pinnacle of the coal and coke age was "hectic, brawling and sometimes sad
but mostly glorious..." Workers could earn a meager wage without needing
any education other than on-the-job training. Literacy and art appreciation were
not universally valued, and while Harbaugh loved his visibility, locals
perceived him as both a source of pride and as an oddity.
Perhaps to stand out in such a hard-edged society, and to satisfy his immense ego, Harbaugh was prolific in his writing, drawing and painting. To add emphasis to his image, he often wrote his name prominently on the billboards and barns he decorated, and in the corner of his sketches. His signature flowed in large scrolled writing, often with bric-a-brac swirls all around in ink combinations of black, red and blue.
Harbaugh's artistry did not produce enough income to sustain him and his family over the years. His base source of income, which sustained him during the up-and-down cycles of commissions, especially during the winters, was shoe and boot making. The craft was handed down in the family, and basically the business was a one-man proprietorship. In 1875, when Harbaugh took over his father's small shop in Mill Run, the Genius punned that he was "doing good for men's 'soles'."
Personal
Allen was raised as an only child, until he was 16 years of age. In 1865, his parents brought into their home a foster son, Samuel Martin, who was renamed "Ulysses Grant Harbaugh." The boy was legally adopted by the Harbaughs in 1875. This no doubt caused Allen much envy, as he later often referred to himself as his parents' only "natural-born son." Adding insult to injury, Allen and his brother had birth dates one day apart (July 7 and 8) which no doubt meant sharing the spotlight of birthday celebrations.
Left
to right: William, Annie, Emma and John
At age 28, Allen married Margaret Williams of Ohiopyle, Fayette County, the daughter of Rev. John Williams. The couple had three sons and two daughters -- Chauncey Clinton Harbaugh, William Judson Harbaugh, Rev. John Austin Harbaugh, Annie Elizabeth Harbaugh and Emma Catherine Harbaugh.
Over the years, while trying to broaden his income with other ventures, Harbaugh's basic source of livelihood was shoemaking.
Sketch Artist
Harbaugh
was a self-taught pen and ink artist, underscoring the depth of his talents.
Surviving sketches show that his style was what we today call a
"folk artist." His
figures of people and buildings, though generally lifelike, were not always in
perspective or in proportion to their surroundings. Nonetheless,
his works were well-received. Connellsville's
Courier and Uniontown's Genius
covered his activities and referred to him in such glowing terms as a
"young and rising artist" and "an excellent sign painter."
He drew many pictures over the years, but most are lost. His first published work in 1867, when his sketches began to appear in Our Schoolday Visitor (seen here), a children's magazine published in Philadelphia. How Harbaugh landed this assignment is unknown. The first sketch in our archives was printed in 1869, a drawing of a rebus. According to a profile of him in the 1890 book, Local and National Poets of America, within "a few years [he] was known the world over as the most expert author of anagrams and palindromes."
Among his known works are two sketches he made of a coal mine disaster in 1890, after an explosion in Dunbar, Fayette County, PA killed 31 miners.
Harbaugh
was in Dunbar painting signs at the time, and he joined worried crowds to watch
smoke spewing out the mouth of the Hill Farm Mine. For days and weeks, rescue teams removed tons of coal, slate and rock,
trying unsuccessfully to reach the doomed men. The region waited in suspense for the gruesome outcome, as reflected by
extensive newspaper stories.
Today the scene would be covered by TV crews and news photographers. But in his day and age, Harbaugh knew that a drawing, and not just words, could convey the horror. He set up an easel and began sketching in oil, crayon and ink. The Uniontown Herald noted his presence "as he stood on the high bank outlined against the sky... Crowds gather around his canvass and praise his efforts."
One sketch showed the mine's entrance the day after the explosion, billowing out clouds of smoke. Another sketch depicted the huge fan at the man-way of the nearby Mahoning Mine, blowing out poisonous fumes. Photo prints were made and sold at Porter's Art Store in Connellsville, and have turned up today in various individual collections. The Hill Farm sketch was used nearly 100 years later, in 1983, in the book Dunbar: The Furnace Town.
"Man-way of the Mahoning Mine" sketch, 1890
The
Hill Farm sketch also was displayed in September 2002 at the
Dunbar Community Fest, seen here, from the collection of George and
Donna Myers of the Dunbar Historical
Society.
Harbaugh was commissioned to do many other drawings. During that era, before movies and television, lectures and debates were highly popular forms of entertainment. In fact, Carnegie as a young man organized a debating society in Pittsburgh to weigh issues of the day. In 1896, when Dr. Adam Deitz did a series of lectures in Mill Run on inhumane prison conditions, he hired Harbaugh to illustrate the talks with "a number of most striking views and scenes."
Sign and Decorative Painting
Another
of Harbaugh's talents was painting advertising signs, prized in an age when alternatives
were unavailable or unaffordable. He
traveled to many towns in Western PA to paint billboards and
buildings, and to decorate homes and churches.
The image seen at right is of his sign for Kobacker's Department Store in
Connellsville, PA. The
Genius once said that "Al-Ed-Ha
has no superiors in that sort of work."
Another of Harbaugh's major talents was painting advertising signs, and such hand-lettered work was prized in an age when alternatives to hand-painted signs were unavailable or unaffordable. He traveled to many towns in Western Pennsylvania to paint billboards and buildings, and to decorate homes and churches. Sign-painting was big business, and he belonged to trade associations and wrote articles for industry publications. The Genius once said that "Al-Ed-Ha has no superiors in that sort of work."
Billboards
today, for instance, are mass-produced and easily assembled, but at the turn of
the century they were painstakingly lettered in hues of hand-mixed paints. While few of Harbaugh's signs and paintings are known to exist today, his
grandson William Graden Harbaugh vividly recalls seeing murals of hunting dogs
on the walls of the family house that Harbaugh mixed in bright colors and that
lasted for decades.
Harbaugh received a large commission in 1885 to paint a huge advertising sign for George W. Campbell's general store in Normalville. The sign measured 70 feet in length and sat along what is now Route 711. In another commission in 1895, he painted a life-sized Indian on the front of the Independent Order of Red Men Hall in Mill Run. A large sign he painted on the side of Stickel's Store (later Livingston's Store) in Mill Run remained for years and depicted an owl with the caption, "We never sleep!"
In 1898, Harbaugh's spiritual home, the Indian Creek Baptist Church at Mill Run, was formally rededicated after a major facelift. The labor was donated by members, and Harbaugh frescoed the ceiling and painted and "grained" the woodwork. (Graining is a painting technique to simulate wood grain.) The Courier said his figures were "altogether a fine bit of workmanship. The frieze is an arabesque of blooming daisies, and the centerpiece is a floral design of a large wheel enclosed within a square bordered with daisies and roses. The other works of the artist are in perfect harmony with the surroundings."
As of 1970, his
"I Sell Wagons, Buggies and Goods" sign on the side of Dull's Store (formerly
W.S. Colborns's General Store) in Mill Run was still faintly visible. Later, it
was restored (seen here) and moved to a nearby restaurant.
One of Harbaugh's biggest customers was "The Famous" department store in Connellsville, the first of its kind in the town. Owner Morris Kobacker awarded Harbaugh the first of several annual commissions in 1897 to paint billboards for "The Famous," using large fancy lettering to name products and prices. One was in six colors on Peach Street, which the Courier said "presents an appearance equal to those of the larger cities. Business men should visit the spot and get a hustle on."
Many of Mill Run's older residents interviewed in recent years had a favorite Harbaugh story to tell. The late Carl Skinner of Mill Run recalled that Harbaugh strove to have sign painting accepted as an art, and bristled when locals inevitably poked fun. Skinner said that one local man, seeing Harbaugh at work, remarked, "I see you're doing some daubing," to which Harbaugh retorted, "I'll have you know I'm a professional painter!" One year he was appointed to the Committee of Arrangements for the Meeting of the National Sign Painters' Alliance in Cincinnati, Ohio, held in conjunction with the National Association of Master House Painters and Decorators.
He also is known to have painted memorial tablets on the windows of the United Brethren Church in Mill Run or Normalville, signs for the McCormick Drug Co. store in Dunbar, Eicher & Prinkey's mill, the interiors of the Indian Creek Baptist Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church at Normalville and signs in the Pennsville area for the Aaron Furniture House of Connellsville.
Journalism and 'The Guest'
Uniontown historian Storey writes that there were a "bewildering number" of weekly newspapers in the coal region in the late 1800s which chronicled the stories of the expanding economy. The weeklies were very different from today's newspapers. They were four to eight pages long, and the front pages carried advertising, major national and local news. Reflecting the region's bustling economy, stories focused on coal and coke production, railroad shipments, labor wages and industrial safety. Odd as it might seem, the front pages also carried occasional poems. Inside pages had political and national news, syndicated fiction and display advertisements. Back pages carried local news and gossip from correspondents in outlying towns.
With these newspapers needing new material each week, Harbaugh had plenty of opportunities to publish his work and make his fame with words. As a young man he learned the trade of printing at a Somerset weekly newspaper which today is unknown. For many years, he contributed poems to Uniontown's Genius and was the Mill Run correspondent for Connellsville's Courier, reporting on who was doing what and going where. Among other tactics, he liked to visit nearby counties and pen articles on their local history, economy and personalities.
In 1877, he wrote "Up the Youghiogheny" for the Uniontown Genius
which narrated an exhausting, nine-day railroad tour in neighboring Somerset
County. [Note -- a rare bird's
eye view of Ursina, from an old postcard photograph, is seen here.] His description
demonstrates his ability to capture the sights of the era:
[W]hile nearing Ursina Junction, the lofty spires of Ursina, glittering in glad sunlight, present an elegant appearance. Arriving at the depot, the handsome town, about 200 feet below road bed, with its numerous dwellings and broad avenues, stretches proudly up the gentle slope beyond the creek, crowned with splendid church edifices and a magnificent school building, speaking a lasting credit, as well as greatly enhancing the appearance of the little mountain city.
The year 1886 brought swings of fortune for Harbaugh, then age 37. His written voice and confidence had grown, he moved into a new house in Mill Run and was helping his wife with their fourth baby, Annie.
In April of that year, with help from friend I.N. Kooser of Mill Run, he helped found a small monthly newspaper and became its editor, calling it The Guest. It competed directly with an eight-page monthly from nearby Normalville, called The Mountaineer, which was edited by Harbaugh's one-time sign-painting client, storeowner George Campbell. Both were clamoring to gain readership in the Normalville-Mill Run-Ohiopyle corridor, and The Mountaineer later would claim a subscriber base of 1,000.
While the Genius praised his "pronounced success" as an editor and the Courier called The Guest "the brightest of all our smaller papers," Harbaugh's editorship lasted just seven months. In October, he quit to pursue other business. Why he gave up his high profile position is a still a mystery, given his love of being visible.
The
rival Mountaineer lasted until at
least 1910, though how long The Guest
remained in publication is not recorded. (Both
papers are mentioned in Nelson's
Biographical Dictionary and Historical Reference Book of Fayette County.)
Nonetheless, his interest in journalism never waned. Over the years, he penned by-lined articles on economic development,
politics and religion, and contributed stories to trade publications such as The Billboard (seen here), a Cincinnati journal on sign painting, bill posters
and advertising. He boasted about
his work on The Guest the rest of his
life, as reflected in his obituaries in the Pittsburgh and coal region
newspapers.
When a successor newspaper was published in Mill Run in 1909-1910, The Advance, he was a contributor, including a poem on the Indian Creek Valley.
Courting the 'Muse of Poetry'
In his poetry -- most of which, like his drawings, is lost -- Harbaugh never adopted a standard technique but used a variety of styles to form his rhythms of words and drive home important messages.
In
May 1875, the Uniontown Genius published
his first known poem, "Emma Belle," and the 60-line work was praised
in local newspapers. Later that
year the Genius published his second
known poem, the 32-line "Six Made Three," an inside-humor piece about three
bachelors wooed and won by three maidens.
The exact number of poems Harbaugh wrote is not certain, but some were distributed and noticed beyond the region. In 1877, Thomas A. Pugh, principal of the Grammar School of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, wrote a letter to the Genius analyzing Harbaugh's poetry: "I am favorably impressed. The narration is most striking -- uniting not only touching candor, but innocence absolutely refreshing..."
Perhaps
Harbaugh's greatest literary achievement was in 1890, when he achieved national
exposure. His photograph portrait, a short biography and two of his poems were
printed in a book entitled Local and National Poets of America (seen
here). The 1,025-page, three inch thick volume was published by Thomas W.
Herringshaw (Chicago: American Publishers Association). It contained
"interesting biographical sketches from over 1000 living American poets ...
profusely illustrated with over 500 life-like portraits." Other poets
featured are Walt Whitman, Julia Ward Howe, James Whitcomb Riley (the
"Hoosier Poet") and Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (father of the
Supreme Court Chief Justice). It's possible they might even have read Harbaugh's
entry, an intriguing opportunity for new research.
A newspaper article once revealed that when busy with his shoemaking or other pressing responsibilities, Harbaugh had little time to devote to poetry. However, when in the mood, his words would flow. Said the Genius: "He does not believe in machine poetry, but courts the muse until inspired, and then writes with ease and rapidity."
Local
residents may not always have appreciated Harbaugh's talent, but there were
times of crisis when his skills transcended biases. In 1890, at the death of three-year-old Roy Colborn, the son
of a friend, Harbaugh wrote a moving eulogy (seen here) which must have touched many souls
at the funeral:
...Tender
parting thrills our heartstrings
With a pang so dread and chill.
And a thousand recollections
Our sad aching bosoms fill.
How thy pure young life so guileless
Once was one of mirth and joy
But thy smile no more doth greet us
Here, our darling infant boy.
Economic Development Champion
Harbaugh
was a constant champion of Fayette County economic development and tourism.
He saw too well the county's dependence on just a few large industries,
which while providing the blessing of prosperity at times, also provided the
curse of crippling economic depression. The
unpredictable cycles of coal and coke demand, railroad strikes, and soft farm
prices left Fayette Countians vulnerable to forces beyond their control.
To encourage long-term, steady economic health, Harbaugh wrote many articles and poems over the years on the area's attractiveness for tourism as well as a business site. He once penned how the mountain region needed a commerce building to stimulate growth, "where the products of the soil, etc., could be exchanged for cash or other needed articles brought in. Could there be a market established, ready buyers from a distance would soon fill our pockets with solid cash, whereas we cannot find buyers here."
Another time he wrote that "We earnestly invite attention of capitalists and business men generally to the vast fields of Eastern Fayette. We have means of wealth and shipping facilities near; all that is necessary for advancement is the completion of a branch railroad through Indian Creek Valley and for the people to be energetic and watchful, striving for improvement and carefully guarding our interests."
He
loved the Indian Creek Valley, which played a small but vital role in the
employment and economy of the region, providing natural resources of water,
timber, coal, clay, ores and wild game. It
also was the location for the Indian Creek Railroad, a spur to the Baltimore
& Ohio Railroad at the Youghiogheny River. The
railroad line is seen here in a rare old postcard photograph.
In a piece on the "fairyland wonders" of the valley, Harbaugh once boasted that "It is not necessary to take a trip to Yellowstone National Park or to Atlantic City to behold beautiful scenery. We have it right here." Just before his death in 1916, he completed a poem on the scenery of the valley which he hoped to have published, but which is now lost.
In
Harbaugh's time, the town of Ohiopyle was a magnet for tourists and summertime
pleasure-seekers from all over Western Pennsylvania. Featuring spectacular whitewater rapids, falls and parks, and
several (now gone) large hotels and railroad stations of the B&O and Western
Maryland, the town enjoyed a superb reputation. A
rare old postcard of the world-famous falls is seen at right, set against
the backdrop of the "Little Alps of America."
Harbaugh once wrote that Ohiopyle was "the most stirring and enterprising place" on the railroad between Connellsville and Cumberland, and that "all honor is due to the energy of her populace for what she has attained." One muggy August, he wrote a poem for the Genius boasting about the town as a cool respite from the heat.
Here pleasures and
beauties are scattered around,
The river, cool groves, or the mountains renowned,
Deep fish-pools with treasures unnumbered abound,
Come, share in the joys at Ohio Pyle found.
Bathers enjoy a cool swim on the Ohiopyle riverfront, early 1900s
Political Analyst
Voters of Harbaugh's era were much more zealous and demonstrative than today. There was a greater feeling that individuals could make a difference through their vote. During election campaigns, volunteers from both parties held elaborate rallies, lit bonfires and gave passionate speeches to stir up public excitement.
Harbaugh
relished political debate and weighed in as a shrewd analyst.
He was a Democrat, but found the center to be popular and often called
himself an "independent Republican."
In 1892, he wrote two pithy poem-songs which the Uniontown Genius
said had "been pronounced 'the best things heard in twenty years'."
The poems were "Those Good Old Times" and "The Grover
Cleveland Wagon." He used the
poems to promote Cleveland and his tariff platform, invoke the memory of Thomas
Jefferson and Andrew Jackson and attack big business.
Here is an excerpt of "Old Times" to the tune of "Oh Susannah!":
Monopolists--"the
favor'd class"--
Grown fat with party spoils,
With taxes ground the poor men down--
We, sturdy "sons of Toil."
Oh, give me back those good old times--
The years when I was young,--
Again I'd live those happy days
When "Tariff" was unsung!
CHORUS:--
Cleveland and Stevenson
Are bound to win the race;
To cast your vote for honest men,
You'll find it no disgrace...
One of his "Wagon" verses sang as follows, to the tune of "Wait for the Wagon.:
Her broadsides are
decorated
With red and white and blue;
The gear is neatly painted
And varnished all anew;
She will reach her destination
O'er smooth or pebbly soil,--
Her axle grease is Tariff
Instead of "Standard Oil."
Hip! Hurrah! hurrah! the wagon,--
The Reform Tariff wagon,--
The Grover Cleveland wagon,
And we'll all take a ride!
Church
Leadership
Harbaugh led a deeply spiritual Christian life and from a young age was active in the governance and social life of the Indian Creek Baptist Church (seen here) in Mill Run. (The identities of the individuals standing in front of the building are unknown.)
His faith was partly based on what he called "mystical" experience, and he once stated that he was a "psycho-mental philosopher."
At age 21, he was baptized at a revival, and at 25 was elected church clerk. He often attended training programs for Sunday School teachers. Reporting on these events, he urged members to be always "seeking out destitute places, gathering in the poor from the highways and the hedges, and instruct them in the way they should go." He also attended annual "camp-meetings" of the county's Evangelical Association and wrote lengthy news articles about their results.
The church played a vital role in the spiritual, educational and social lives of Harbaugh's era. Then, as now, it served as a gathering place for people to share their needs and receive fellowship, inspiration and support. His church continues to flourish today with more than 360 members who worship in a relatively new building dedicated in 1980, with an active and strong outreach program.
Christmastime was especially important in the life of the Indian Creek church, and Harbaugh gave powerful messages from the pulpit to packed houses. After one such sermon in 1888 -- "Joys of Christmas - Christ Brought Us Life, Light and Divine Grace" -- the congregation broke into a storm of applause. The 2,400-word message was reprinted in the Genius.
Since
1865, the Indian Creek church annually has hosted Fourth of July celebrations
known as the "Gathering at the Grove." These have included picnic lunches, music, speeches, games,
humor and fireworks, along with patriotic salutes of local soldiers and the
flag. In his era, starting in
mid-morning on the holiday, Harbaugh and others would lead singing and scripture
reading, prayer, and recite the Declaration of Independence. After lunch, "all enjoyed sumptuous repast in the cool shade,"
where the celebration would continue into the late afternoon with singing and
speeches. The celebrations continue
today, more than 130 years later, and some of Harbaugh's Minerd-Miner-Minor
cousins take part, with emphasis on patriotism, tradition and fellowship.
A Passion for 'Back in the Long Ago'
As a boy, Harbaugh knew all four of his grandparents, giving him a strong value for the past, a time he called "back in the long ago." His mind raced as he listened to their stories of pioneer life. His beloved grandmother Martha (Minerd) Imel Harbaugh told him about how as a girl in 1791 she migrated to Fayette County, and her father Jacob Minerd Sr. "pitched his camp under a large tree until he built a cabin... labored rearing a home and clearing land... [and] boiled salt." He also heard how another great-grandfather, Casper Harbaugh, emigrated from Weisbaden, Germany, was a teamster in General Braddock's defeat during the French and Indian War and an eyewitness to Braddock's secret burial near Uniontown.
He held his strong passion for history all his life. In 1883 he was elected to a committee charged with erecting a monument honoring Mill Run's "heroic dead, who served the Union in the war of the rebellion...," though nothing ultimately resulted.
Genealogy
fascinated him, and he kept personal records in a specially printed record book,
Broaddus' Complete Family Record (seen here), going back three
generations. He logged facts about
his and his wife's forbearers such as birthplace, adult residence, occupation,
politics, hair and eye color, cause of death, burial site, and dates of birth,
marriage and death. His work
covered pioneers in his own Harbaugh, Minerd, Eicher, Kern, Cramer and Beeher
lines, as well as his wife's people, the Williamses, Galloways and Hannas.
In August 1913, Harbaugh wrote a landmark history of the Minerds and read it aloud at Ohiopyle at the clan's first-ever reunion. (Click to see the first version, written ahead of time, and a second, longer version updated after the fact.) Kinsman George Kern once paid him $5 to help write a history of their mutual ancestor, William Kern, a Revolutionary War soldier and pioneer. In 1914, he wrote a sketch about Normalville settler Samuel Scott.
The influence of his recordkeeping has been felt well beyond his lifetime. In 1935, his records were studied by cousin Charles Arthur Younkin, who was gathering data in connection with the Younkin clan's new national home-coming reunion. The notes opened up new avenues of research on Minerd-Younkin family branches, and were briefly summarized in a letter from Charles to reunion president Otto Roosevelt Younkin on Sept. 29, 1935.
In 1947, 31 years after Harbaugh's death, Harbaugh History, A Directory, Genealogy and Source Book of Family Records, was published. Authors Cora Bell (Harbaugh) Cooprider and J.L. Cooprider of Evansville, Indiana, credit him for having "prepared a family tree of the Casper Harbaugh line, from which much of the early data of this branch was obtained." The Coopriders often were houseguests of Harbaugh's son William on their 1940s research trips to Mill Run.
Mysteries
and Missing Works
The last 15 years of Harbaugh's personal life were difficult. In 1903, when he was 54, tragedy struck hard. His youngest daughter, the light-haired, blue-eyed Emma, died of typhoid fever. Heartbreak followed twice more in 1913, when his one-year-old grandson died of cholera and the boy's mother died of a series of ailments.
The end for Harbaugh came rapidly and unexpectedly in 1916 -- as a victim of kidney infection. A gold funeral remembrance poster, inscribed with his name, is seen here. He was widely eulogized in the newspapers of Pittsburgh, Uniontown, Connellsville and Mill Run, among others. The Uniontown News Standard published this tribute:
Your
works of art, in memory green,
How oft we have looked upon the scene,
Your pen so many times would cheer,
Your body sleeps until resurrection.
...Your pen inspired stronger faith in God,
and sweetly be your seat beneath the sod.
At
the time of his death, Harbaugh had just arranged to have a number of
his poems published, but the book apparently never made it into print. A
profile of
his literary career in the Uniontown Peoples
Tribune in the 1890s has not been located.
How many more of his privately penned poems, eulogies and letters are
locked away in private collections or, worse yet lost or destroyed, can never be
known.
For as widely as he was known in his lifetime, Harbaugh's fame faded after his death, though he has remained a local legend in his hometown.
Perhaps the most ironic twist of fate is that his grave at the Indian Creek Baptist Church was never marked. For someone whose identity was staked on highly visible work, Harbaugh rests anonymously.
Epilogue
His
works live on. The 1970 volume, A History of Mill Run, contains a short biography, one of his poems
and an informal survey of his works that were still existing in the community.
A photo of one of his billboards for The Famous department store appeared in the 1994 calendar, Yesteryear in Ohiopyle.
Harbaugh was remembered in the 1930s in a letter written by his cousin's son, Charles Arthur Younkin, to a kinsman, Otto Roosevelt Younkin. (Click to see the entire letter.) Charles and Otto were founding officers of the National Younkin Home-Coming Reunions, held at Kingwood, Somerset County, and they learned that they also shared Harbaugh bloodlines. In the letter, dated Feb. 19, 1935, Charles wrote:
I have found the Harbaughs a tangle pretty much the same as the Younkins... Sure would like to see the book called Harbaugh Stars, which is written in Dutch. Am not just sure if I know who its author is as there were several of the Harbaughs who wrote poems at one time. A.E. Harbaugh of Mill Run was called the Mountain Poet. Many years ago there was one who lived in Indiana, and the Rev. Wm. Henry Harbaugh wrote the Harbaugh Annals, of which I have a copy."
The
1999 'Al-Ed-Ha' article in Western
Pennsylvania History has broadened public knowledge about Harbaugh's life
and work. The article has been included in the West Virginia University
Libraries' "Appalachian
Studies Bibliography - 1994-1999" as well as a list of biographies
in the eiNetwork (a collaboration of the
Allegheny County [PA] Library Association, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and
Commission on the Future of Libraries.
On June 19, 2002, Harbaugh's efforts to sketch the Hill Farm Mine disaster was featured in an article in the Connellsville Daily Courier. The story later was republished in the book, There's No Place Like Dunbar! 2002-2004 - Historical Vignettes and Personal Reflections from The Daily Courier's Dunbar Column, authored by Donna R. Myers and Bonnie L. Zurick of the Dunbar (PA) Historical Society. A thumbnail image of the book is seen at right.
Copyright
© 1999, 2000-2006 Mark A. Miner.
Mahoning Mine Man-Way sketch courtesy of Donna and George Myers.