Harmon Batterson
Harmon Batterson, farmer, P. O. Ravenna, was born March 29, 1819, in Ravenna Township, this county. His father, William Batterson, of Litchfield County, Conn., married Miss Matilda Iles, and moved to this county about 1816. Soon after the grandfather, William Batterson, Sr., came, and he and his wife resided here until their death. Harmon's mother died when he was about seven years of age, and his father married a second time and moved to Williams County, Ohio, where he lived the remainder of his days. William Batterson, our subject's father, was the pioneer cooper of Ravenna, and people came far and near to him for barrels, tubs, pails, well buckets, and gallon bottles for carrying water and whisky in. Whisky stills were numerous at that time, and a good deal of cooper work was needed. Our subject lived for a time with a Rev. Ebenezer Williams, then with Perry and Ethan A. Babcock, near Ravenna, and after he was fourteen years of age he worked by the month summers, and did chores nights and mornings for his board winters, going also to school; in fact, Mr. Batterson avers, he always found plenty of good folks to take him into their families to live in return for what they could get out of him. At twenty-two years of age he learned the cooper's trade, which he followed for many years. He married, October 6, 1847, Miss Mary Hull, born in Edinburg Township, this county, March 27, 1820. Her parents, Gilbert and Abigail (Harris) Hull, of Ontario County, N. Y., came to this county in 1819, and settled in Edinburg Township same year, where they resided until his death, which occurred December 16, 1880, at the age of eighty-six. Mr. Gilbert was a skillful mechanic. He erected many of the buildings in that township. His widow, who is eighty-four years of age, resides with her daughter, Mrs. Batterson. To Mr. and Mrs. Batterson have been born three children: Ellen A., Mrs. Emily M. Robinson and Clinton R. Our subject and wife paid about a ten months' visit to Williams County, Ohio, but with the exception of that trip have always resided in Ravenna Township. About 1853 they purchased the place where they now live, and where they own a fine farm of seventy-four and a half acres, besides another farm of forty acres in the same township. Mr. Batterson is a life-long Democrat.
From History of Portage County, Ohio, Warner, Beers & Co., Chicago, 1885