Oregon Pioneers

5. Burr Oak Ridge, Iowa Territory

                      Voice of Cynthia Jane Bell Harry

                       As told in March 1851

 

                           My name is Jane Harry. I was born in Kentucky in 1796. My birth name is Cynthia Jane Bell. I have been married twice. Actually I married brothers. I was married when I was seventeen to John Harry on August 5, 1813 in Clark County, Kentucky. John’s parents are Charles Harry and Barbara Bowman Harry.

                           John and I moved to Harrison County, Indiana where our two children born; Barbara Catherine and John Alva. We were married for twelve years before we were able to have children. I was twenty-nine years old when Barbara Catherine was born. The sad thing is John always wanted children and then when we finally had children he died. Barbara was five and John Alva was only three years old when their father died in 1830 in Indiana. John was too young to die.

                           I was married to John for seventeen years. About four years after he died I married John’s younger brother, Elisha on August 7, 1834. Elisha’s wife had died and he also had children. He has a son named John who is about the same age as my John Alva. After a short time we all moved from Indiana to Burr Oak Ridge, Iowa where the children, Elisha and I lived with John’s family for a while. It is so good for children to have an extended family and Grandma and Grandpa Harry were so good to our children. Grandpa Charles Harry died in April 1843 and Grandma Barbara died last year in 1850.

                           We still all live in Burr Oak Ridge. John Alva and I live with my daughter Catherine and her husband Orris Collver, my one-year-old grandson John and Orris’s brother Hiram. Elisha lives with his son John, John’s wife Cynthia, and baby Rachel.

                           ‘John’ is a family name. John and Elisha’s Grandfather Johan Martin Herre was born in Zillhausen, Germany in 1720. He was the first of the John Harry family to live in America. Johan Herre married Anna Maria Sassle August 8, 1742 and later moved to America where they changed their name to Harry. They settled in Hagerstown, Maryland where my husbands’ father Charles was born in 1760. John Harry is a good name and there are many named ‘John Harry’ in our family.

                           There is so much talk around Burr Oak Ridge these days about going to Oregon. Some of my son-in-law Orris’s family moved to Oregon last year. John Alva is going to join the Rice/Cook wagon train. He has so many friends in that family. We have been neighbors for years. Hiram Collver is leaving soon but he doesn’t want to travel as slowly as the Cook group will be moving. He wants to get to Oregon this fall, and I don’t think the Cooks will be able to get there until next year because they are traveling with so many children. Orris’ brother Alfred is married to one of those Rice girls and they have two young children. Their little girl Mary died a couple of years ago. My son-in-law Orris was first married to Lucy Ann Cook so I guess John Alva is some how related to the Rice Cook families.

                           I sure don’t want to move again. I will miss John Alva so much. He is always such a help to me. I must let him go and let him start a new life for himself. I think he is a good man and will be successful in whatever he does. I may never see him again. I know I will never be going to Oregon. I hope John Alva comes back to Iowa to visit me some day. I can’t imagine moving and I am glad that Catherine and Orris are planning to stay here. I guess Polly Cook is going to go to Oregon with all of her children and grandchildren. John Alva is not married yet so I don’t have any grandchildren leaving me. I suppose some day John Alva will marry and have children and I will miss knowing his family. But now my only grandchild is Catherine’s son little John. I will stay in Iowa.