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ANDREW J. HARTER
Vol. 3, p. 1128-1129

A prominent place among the agriculturists of Woods County must be
accorded Andrew J. Harter, who has accumulated a handsome property by
hard labor, prudent economy and business shrewdness, and who is now
occupying a well improved farm located 3-1/2 miles southwest of
Dacoma. Of late years he has also branched out into financial lines,
being at this time president of the Bank of Dacoma, and has also been
well known in public affairs, having served in a number of offices
within the gift of his fellow citizens.

Mr. Harter was born October 21, 1848, on a farm in Carroll County,
Indiana, and is a son of Lewis and Catherine (MAYER) Harter, natives
of Virginia. His father was born in 1814 and as a young man removed
to Carroll County, Indiana, where he passed the remaining years of
his life in agricultural pursuits, dying in 1869 in moderate
circumstances. He was a member of the Dunkard Church. Mr. Harter was
married three times, his first wife being Catherine Mayer, to whom he
was married in 1835 and who died in 1852. They became the parents of
four sons and three daughters, namely: John; Martha, deceased;
Martin, deceased; Polly; Moses, deceased; Andrew J., of this notice;
and Elizabeth. Mr. Harter was again married in 1859 when united with
Mary Ann BETTS, who died in 1867, having been the mother of five
children: Jacob; David, deceased; Nathan; and a son and a daughter,
twins, who died in infancy. Mr. Harter was married the third time, in
1868, to Lydia H. HUMBERT, and they became the parents of one son,
who died in infancy.

Andrew J. Harter grew up amid the surroundings of the farm and
passed his boyhood days between attending the public schools of
Carroll County, Indiana, and assisting his father in the operation of
the homestead farm. He received somewhat better educational
advantages than the majority of farmers' sons of his day, completing
his schooling at Bourbon College, Bourbon, Indiana. His education
finished, in 1869, Mr. Harter embarked upon his career as a teacher,
and shortly thereafter went to Oregon, where for three years he had
various schools. At the end of that period he returned home, and in
1874 engaged in business at Atwood, Indiana, where he became
proprietor of a drug store. This business he conducted until 1878,
when he went to Kansas and again took up farming on a Government
tract in Stafford County, and there resided for seventeen years. He
became one of the substantial and influential men of his community
and in 1892 was elected a member of the board of county
commissioners. Mr. Harter came to Oklahoma in 1895, in which year he
purchased a tract of land in Woods County, 3-1/2 miles southwest of
Dacoma. Here he has developed an excellent property, all now under
cultivation, on which he does scientific diversified farming,
following modern methods and making his land pay him in full measure
for the labor he expends upon it. He has also been successful in this
operations as a stockraiser, particularly of sheep, of which he ships
a large number annually. Mr. Harter bears an excellent reputation in
business circles, and is honored and respected not only for what he
is, but for what he has accomplished in the promotion of the county's
growth and the establishing of its material prosperity. In 1908 he
became connected with the Dacoma Bank, and since becoming the
directing head of this concern has made it one of the sound and
substantial financial institutions of Woods County. His operations
have been safe and conservative and his depositors' interests have at
all times been closely protected.

On March 5, 1874, Mr. Harter was married to Miss Mary Melissa
BOWLING, who was born May 1, 1855, on a farm in Piqua County, Ohio, a
daughter of Thomas and Eliza (BOWMAN) Bowling. Mr. Bowling was born
in 1820 and spent practically all his life in the Middle West in
farming pursuits, passing away after a long, active and useful life,
in 1913, aged ninety-three years. Mrs. Bowling, who was born in 1837,
died in 1883. To Mr. And Mrs. Harter there have been born three sons
and three daughters, namely: Mattie Bell, born December 9, 1874;
Claude LeRoy, born March 27, 1877, who died January 5, 1894; Thomas
Lewis, born June 10, 1879, died July 20, 1890; Edward Ernest, born
October 18, 1881; Lula Maude Grace, born October 7, 1884; and Eva
Blanche, born October 25, 1888.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Dorothy Marie Tenaza on October 31, 1989.