John R. Harrold, M. D.

    John R. Harrold, M. D., Dundee, Indiana, was born in Forsythe County, North Carolina, March 24, 1848, a son of Ithamer and Ruth (Clampett) Harrold, natives of North Carolina, the father born in June, 1809, and the mother march 15, 1811. They were married in their native State, and in September, 1852, moved to Wells County, Indiana, where the father died in 1878. The mother is still living, making her home with our subject. They had a family of ten children, nine born in North Carolina and one in Wells County -Melinda and Elizabeth (both deceased); Rebecca J., wife of Isaac Richards, of De Kalb County, Missouri; George E., of Wells County; Lewis F., of Huntington County, Indiana;  Albert H., of Pottawatomie County, Iowa; William A., of Warren, Indiana; John R.; Elias, deceased; and Christina, wife of Thomas Forest, of Wells County.

    John R. Harrold was four years of age when his parents came to Indiana, and was reared in Wells County on a frontier farm. He completed his literary studies at the Bluffton High School, and subsequently taught eight terms in Wells County, seven terms in the district where he attended when a child. He closed his last school March 3, 1874, and immediately began the study of medicine with Dr. J. J. Good, of Warren, remaining under his preceptorship a year. Before beginning his medical studies he bought forty acres of unimproved land and after completing a year's study he bought tools and began clearing his land, working at it a year. He then renewed his medical studies and went to Broadway Medical College, Fort Wayne, from which he graduated in the winter of 1878-79. He practiced a few months before his graduation in company with Dr. Edmonson, at Dundee, but subsequently practiced alone, and has built up a large and lucrative business. He has served as county physician two years, and in the spring of 1884 was elected township trustee, and re-elected in the spring of 1886, by a handsome majority, although he is a Republican in a strong Democratic township, Dr. Harrold's mother was a distant relative of Generals Albert Sidney and Joe Johnston, and while his relatives were bending their energies to destroy the unity of our country he enlisted to assist in preserving it.

    He enlisted February 20, 1864, in Company I, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Indiana Infantry, for 100 days. Prior to this he had served two years and four months in Governor Morton's provost guards, commanded by Captain Webb. The One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Regiment was assigned to the Fourteenth Army Corps. which they joined at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and were placed in the Third Brigade. They daily encountered Wheeler's and Forrest's cavalry forces, and at McMinnville half of his regiment was captured. They were in the Reserve Division at both Franklin and Nashville. He was discharged in the fall of 1864, and returned home to Wells County.

    He was married April 4, 1872, to Sarah A. Bevington, a native of Wells County, Indiana, born March 20, 1855, a daughter of Reason A. and Catherine (Shadd) Bevington, her father a native of Pennsylvania and her mother of Ireland. To Dr. and Mrs. Harrold have been born three children -Austin T., born February 20, 1873, Edwin O., January 26, 1875, and Myrta A., November 2, 1880. Mrs. Harrold is the sixth of nine children, her brothers and sisters being -Chambers, Clarinda, Melissa, Henrietta, Charles S., Orin, Ira and J. Oscar.

Source: Biographical and Historical Record of Jay and Blackford Counties, Indiana by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1887.