William Harms

WILLIAM HARMS, farmer, P. O. Council Bluffs, was born in Germany in 1830, son of Albolt and Sophia Harms, both dead; mother died when subject was very small, and father when he was about eight years old. Mr. Harms was educated in Germany. He had one brother, who was drowned when five years old; also one half-brother and two half-sisters, all of whom are dead. His father was a farmer, and Mr. Harms has followed the same occupation all of his life. He came to America in 1850, and settled in Dixon, I1l., where he lived till 1863. He was married, in 1854, to Miss Henrietta Minssen, born in 1829 in Germany, daughter of Folgett and Wilhelmina Minssen, both of whom died in Germany. Mrs. Harms came to America in 1853. She has one brother living in this country. After moving to Jones County, Iowa, in 1863, Mr. Harms went into the army in 1864, staying till the close of the war. He was in the Seventeenth Army Corps, Fourth Division, Fifteenth Iowa, and was with Sherman in his march to the sea, being also with him when Atlanta was burned. Mr. Harms came out without a wound. In 1871, Mr. and Mrs. Harms came to their present place, it being then unimproved prairie. Mr. Harms bought eighty acres first, but has since added to it till he now has a farm of 190 acres, mostly under cultivation and general improvement. He does general farming. Mr. and Mrs. Harms have six children, all at home except their oldest daughter, Katie, who married George Young, of Norwalk Township, Pottawattamie Co.; oldest son, Henry, is twenty-one years of age; second daughter, Sophia, was born in 1862; second son, Edward, in 1864; third son, William, in 1868; third daughter, Emma, in 1870. Mr. Harms and wife are members of the Lutheran Church.

SOURCE: John H. Keatley, History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p. 259