Volume 8 , Issue 11

George Alexander Harbaugh...

[This information came from the book, Pioneer Footprints Across Woods County, pg 279.] -- According to the family member who wrote the HARBAUGH history for this NW Oklahoma history book, "George Alexander Harbaugh was born Sugust 27, 1869 at Brighton, Iowa, the thirteenth child of Elias and Catherine Engel Harbaugh."

George's parents were both German born. They moved to Tuscarawas County, Ohio. In the 1850 census it shows them living in Warwick, Ohio. Before 1860 they moved to an Iowa farm. Catherine (Engel) Harbaugh passed away in 1871 and was buried near Brighton. Elias Harbaugh moved with his five remaining boys near Medicine Lodge, Kansas, after his wife's death. Elias's only daughter, Mollie Harbaugh Landis, had married and resided in Medicine Lodge, Kansas at that time.

From Medicine Lodge George and his older brother (William), both in their early twenties, rode horseback to stake their claim 10 miles south of Alva, at the Cherokee Strip Opening, September of 1893.

William developed typhoid fever and passed away at the age of 35 years. William was survived by his widow, Lillie, and small daughter, Mollie.

George had an early grain office in Alva, and was later President and Manager of the Alva Flour Mills. He later was President of the Central National Bank and organized banks at Freedom and Beaver.

George married Mary Deirn, daughter of Charles and Melissa Ewing Deirn, formerly of Princeton, Indiana, on November 1, 1899. They had 3 children: Paul Alexander, Melissa Kathryn and Helen Elizabeth.

Charles Deirn was the first County Treasurer of Alva Woods County when Oklahoma became a State.
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