Harley F. Hardin
In emphasizing the consistency of this publication it is deemed most fortunate that is possible to accord within its pages specific recognition to a large and thoroughly representative percentage of those sterling and honored citizens who are aiding definitely in upholding the high standard of the bench and bar of Grant County, and to such consideration Mr. Hardin is fully entitled, as he is one of the able and successful practitioners of law in the city of Marion, the county seat, with a clientage whose prominence and importance affords voucher alike for his technical ability and the confidence reposed in him by the community. He subordinates all else to the demands of his profession and considers it well worthy of his closest application and unqualified fealty. He is a resourceful advocate and excellent counselor, true to the ethical code of his exacting and responsible calling in which he does all in his power to conserve equity and justice. His success has been largely due to his careful preparation of all cases presented by him before court or jury, and he has been a member of the bar of Grant County since 1901.
Mr. Hardin was born near Livonia, Washington County, Indiana, on the 29th of June, 1876, and is a son of Isaac A. and Susan F. (Thomerson) Hardin, both representatives of honored pioneer families of the southern part of this State. The lineage of him whose name introduces this article is traced back to Elisha Hardin, who was a native of South Carolina, from which commonwealth he immigrated in an early day to Tennessee. His son John came from Tennessee to Indiana in 1816, the year which marked the admission of the State to the Union, and he became one of the first permanent settlers of Washington County. He was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, on the 12th of June, 1799, and thus was a youth of about seventeen years when he established his home in the wilds of Indiana. He contributed in generous measure to the initial development of Washington County and the family name has been most prominently and worthily identified with the history of that favored section of the Hoosier State. John Hardin was the great-grandfather of the representative lawyer to whom this sketch is dedicated and was a grandson of the founder of the Hardin family in America, the first representative of the line having immigrated from Scotland and established a home in North Carolina in the colonial epoch of our national history. The paternal grandparents of Harley F. Hardin were Andrew Jackson Hardin and Mar A. (Jones) Hardin, both of whom passed their entire lives in Indiana. John Hardin, the founder of the Indiana branch of this staunch old colonial family, was one of the most honored and influential citizens of Washington County in the early days. For many years he served as clerk of all public sales in the county, and he drafted the greater portion of the deeds and mortgages of the people of that county during the pioneer days. He was a man of superior education, as gauged by the standards of his time, and he did much to make educational provisions for the children of the pioneer community. Three of his sons were valiant soldiers of the Union in the Civil War and one of the number met his death in an engagement in Kentucky. Another was Captain John J. Hardin, who was an officer in an Indiana regiment and who is still living, his home being at Salem, Washington County.
On the maternal side the great-grandmother of the subject of this sketch bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Ash, and she was of sturdy Holland Dutch lineage. Mrs. Susan F. (Thomerson) Hardin still maintains her home in Washington County, and is held in affectionate regard by all who have come within the sphere of her gentle and kindly influence, her devoted husband having been summoned to the life eternal in 1896, at the age of forty-four years, and having devoted virtually his entire career to agricultural pursuits, in his native county. Mrs. Susan F. Hardin is a daughter of Isaac and Caroline (Patton) Thomerson, the former of whom still resides in Washington County, having passed the age of four score years, and the latter of whom died a number of years ago, she having been a representative of an old Virginia family. William Thomerson, grandfather of Isaac Thomerson, was a native of Ireland.
Of the four children of Isaac A. and Susan F. (Thomerson) Hardin the eldest is Harley F., of this review; Eva L. is the wife of Emerson H. Hall, a representative farmer of Washington County; Edgar K. is in the employ of the firm of Graves & Company, general hardware, Salem, Indiana; and Heber C. is a prosperous merchant in the village of Campbellsburg, Washington County, these four children being scions of the fourth generation of the family in Indiana.
Harley F. Hardin gained his early experiences in connection with the sturdy, discipline of the home farm and in the meanwhile made good use of the advantages afforded him in the public schools of his native county. After the completion of his studies in the high school he entered, in January, 1898, the University of Indiana, at Bloomington, where he completed a partial course in the academic or literary department, after which he entered the law department, in which he was graduated as a member of the Class of 1901, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He likewise gained concomitant admission to the bar of his native State, in grant county, and the same year witnessed his admission to practice in the supreme court of the State and in the United States District Court, before each of which tribunals he has presented various cases.
Mr. Hardin initiated the practice of his profession at Matthews, Grant County, on the 1st of August, 1901, and about two years later he came to Grant County and established himself at Fairmount, in which village he continued his professional labors until May, 1908, when he removed to Marion, the county seat, in which city he has since continued in active general practice, with a law business of substantial and essentially representative order.
Deeply appreciative of the attractions and advantages of the thriving city in which he maintains his home. Mr. Hardin is liberal and progressive in his civic attitude, and in politics he is found as a staunch and vigorous advocate of the principles of the Republican party.
He is affiliated with the local organization of the Masonic fraternity, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and benevolent Crew of Neptune, and both he and his wife are zealous members of the First Christian Church of Marion, in the social circles of which city they are distinctively popular.
On the 15th of September, 1901, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hardin to Miss Mar E. Burgess, who like himself was born and reared in Washington County, and who is a daughter of Henry Burgess, a well known and highly esteemed citizen of that county. Mr. and Mrs. Hardin have four children -Belva L., Esther M., Forrest F., and Frances E.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.