Ethel
Irene
(Ream) Harbaugh
(1899-1975)
Ethel
Irene (Ream) Harbaugh was born May 17, 1899 in Lower Turkeyfoot Twp., Confluence,
PA. She
was the third of 16 children born to Joseph
and Sarah Ellen (Harbaugh) Ream.
Like her sisters before her, Ethel worked hard on the family farm near the old Jersey settlement. There was a daily routine of washing clothes, baking bread, scrubbing floors and preparing meals.
As the story goes, Ethel was teased about a certain young man named William 'Elliot' Harbaugh. It was reported that her reply was that “I wouldn’t marry him if he was the last man on earth.” Needless to say Ethel married Elliot (1899-1973), the son of Marshall and Annie M. (Shroyer) Harbaugh. (Note -- Elliot was a brother to Nora Harbaugh, who married Ethel’s brother Edgar. Eliot and Nora's grandparents were Joseph and Jane (Williams) Harbaugh.)
The
Harbaughs
had seven children -- Sara Elizabeth Scott, William Alfred Harbaugh, Anna Ruth
Bates, Marshall Lester Harbaugh, Wilma Marie Harbaugh, Tedford 'Ted' Frantz Harbaugh
and Eunice 'Dolly' Eileen Mraz. Sadly, daughter Wilma died Feb. 15, 1964.
The photo at right was taken after the birth of their seventh and last child.
Ethel and Elliot moved in about 1937 to Sandy Plaines, near Clarksville, Greene County, PA, where they lived the rest of their lives. Their home was at the top of Black Dog Hollow Road. There was a coal mine behind the barn on their property, and their sons and friends would occasionally dig coal for the family's use.
Elliot is known to have labored at the Vesta No. 5 coal mine of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation.
They were members of the East Bethlehem Church in Deemston, PA.
In the mid-1940s, Elliot provided family history information for the Coopriders' 1947 book, Harbaugh History, a standard reference in the Harbaugh family.
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Jones & Laughlin Steel's Vesta-Shannopin mines, where coal traveled by conveyor over the suspension bridge at right into the coal preparation plant for cleaning and loading into barges bound for J&L Steel plants |
Elliot and Ethel and their grown children
are seen in the photo at left.
A niece recalls fond memories of visiting the Harbaugh farm in Clarksville every summer. "It was a once a year trip," she said, "although now it doesn't seem that far. They always had home cured hams in the smoke house and our visit was an occasion for Uncle Elliot to bring in a ham. They had a huge table and the eating was 'good'."
Son in law Bert Mraz would haul milk from the farm to Cameron, WV.
The family enjoyed attending the annual Harbaugh Reunions and are known to have been present in 1961 and 1963 (when they received the "Largest Family Present" award). Son Ted kept the tradition going with the "Most Recent Married" award in 1957 and the "Largest Family" award (in 1969-72, 1978-82 and 1991-96). They also helped with children's games over the years, and Ted was elected Vice President in 1972-77 and 1985-86 and was President in 1983-85.
Elliot died of a heart attack Jan. 30, 1973.Ethel outlived him by two years, and passed away of leukemia on Jan. 19, 1975. They are both buried at the Maple Summit Cemetery, Mill Run, Fayette County, PA.
For more information, contact granddaughter Donna (Bates) Ogrisseg.
Copyright © 2001-2002, 2005, 2008 Doris (Sands) Hawker and Mark A. Miner