364 - History of Vermillion County

January 1, 1810. His father, John Harrison, removed from Baltimore, Maryland, to West Virginia, and later settled with his family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he died when the subject of this sketch was a child. He was a nailer by trade, and was engaged in the manufacture of nails at Pittsburgh. After his death the family returned to West Virginia, remaining there until 1819, then moved to Monroe County, Ohio. The mother was a second time married, to William Harris, who died in the United States army, and to this union two sons were born named Charles and Samuel. In 1834 the mother immigrated with her family to Vermillion County Indiana, where she died April 9, 1861, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. Thomas Henry Harrison, whose name heads this sketch, arrived in Perrysville for the first time December 20, 1834. January 29, 1835, he was united in marriage to Miss Marinda Henthorn, a daughter of William D. Henthorn, who came to Vermillion County at the same time as the Harrison family. He then settled on the land now occupied by our subject where he lived until his death, his wife also dying at the homestead some time before. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Henthorn only four daughters are living at the present time. Eleven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Harrison, of whom seven are yet living -- Virginia, Richard, Susan, Marinda, Mary C., Charles and Margaret M. Their eldest son, William M., was a member of Company K, One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Illinois Infantry, in the war of the Rebellion. He was wounded at the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, but died of pneumonia at Gallatin, Tennessee, January 13, 1863, in his twenty-sixth year. The remaining children who are deceased are -- John who died August 18, 1846 aged six years; Thomas B., died in his thirty-second year, July 4, 1883, at Jonesboro, Arkansas, and one who died in infancy, unnamed. In April, 1835, shortly after his marriage, Mr. Harrison went to Porter County, Indiana, returning to Perrysville, Vermillion County, in October of the same year. In August, 1838, he settled on the place where he has since resided, with the exception of one year. As will be seen Mr. Harrison has been a resident of Highland Township about fifty-four years, and is now the only representative of his father's family living in Indiana. He has always been an active and public spirited citizenm being interested in all enterprises which tend toward the advancement of his township or county. In politics he was in early life a Whig but in later years a Republican.

FRANCIS M. RILEY, of Rileysburg, was born on the homestead which he now owns and occupies, April 14 1844 and is one of the representative citizens of Vermillion County. Jacob Riley, the father of our subject, was one of the early pioneers of the county, settling on the farm now occupied by his son in 1842. He was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, in 1803, where he was reared and received a fair education considering the lack of educational advantages in that early day. He came to Perrysville, Vermillion County in 1827 and engaged in teaching school, in which he had considerable experience. He was married at Perrysville in 1831, to Elizabeth Nichols, sister of William Nichols, of Highland Township, and to this union were born four sons and one daughter. Three of the sons yet survive -- George Harding, Frank M. and Jacob. William, the eldest son, died in Green County, Wisconsin, March 3, 1865 and the daughter,

Biographical Sketches - 365

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