Robert Hargitt

    Robert Hargitt, merchant, Guilford, one of the older residents of Dearborn County, was born in Miller Township, in 1826. His father, Thomas Hargitt, located in the same township in 1814. He was a native of Yorkshire, England, and is still living in his eighty-seventh year. He married Ann Mason when about twenty-three years of age, and located on land deeded to him by his grandfather, Thomas Hargitt, and has since chiefly resided in the same locality. From early manhood he was engaged in the local ministry, until his advanced age compelled him to retire from that field of labor. His wife passed away many years ago.

    Robert Hargitt, whose name begins this notice, passed his early years on the farm, and received the ordinary common school education of those days. In 1851 he married Eliza Fuller, a native of this county, and they have three children living: Allie (wife of John Eagle), Harry M. and Dolly.

    After his marriage, Mr. Hargitt took up agricultural pursuits, which he followed till 1862, when he, with his brother, George W. Hargitt, purchased the stock of general merchandise owned by Daniel Chitister, at Guilford, and engaged in mercantile business in that village. In this pursuit he has since continued, except during two years spent in the West, and his efforts have met with fine success. His stock of goods is valued at about $3,000, and he enjoys a fine country trade. For fifteen years, Mr. Hargitt acted as agent for the American Express Company at Guilford. He spent about twenty years more or less, engaged in the local ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but has given up work in that capacity. He was for many years a member of the I. O. O. F., but at length asked and received a card from that organization.

Source: History of Dearborn and Ohio Counties, Indiana by F.E. Weakley & Co., 1885