Michael D. Harter
Michael D. Harter is one of the most prominent citizens of Mansfield. He has been there since 1869 and has been prominently connected with every public enterprise and he has been a leader in politics and business. He was born at Canton [Ohio] April 6, 1846. He was the son of Isaac Harter, a business man of Canton. He comes from a good stock, his grandfather, Robert Moore, being a Democratic Congressman when Andrew Jackson was President. Mr. Harter was educated in the common schools of his native city. His first experience with the world was in a dry goods store. After a few years he abandoned the yardstick for the banker's desk and manifested such business ability in both lines that at the age of 23 he was elected treasurer of the Aultman & Taylor company and has held that position since then, looking after its business and superintending the mechanical department. He is the main man in that company which does a large thresher and engine business. Besides his large interest in this concern he is one of the principal stockholders in the Isaac Harter milling company of Fostoria. He also holds considerable stock in Mansfield banking, insurance and manufacturing companies. With all these business interests he finds time to devote a great deal of attention to church work and is a prominent member of St. Luke's Lutheran church. He is a Scottish rite Mason and has taken the highest degree attainable in the United States. In 1869 he married at Massillon [Ohio] Miss Mary Brown. His brother-in-law, J.E. Brown, is associated in business with him, and Huntington Brown, another brother-in-law, is manager of the Hicks-Brown company, which Mr. Harter was instrumental in forming. Besides the attention given to business, Mr. Harter has found time to take a deep interest in politics and the tariff, and when the discussion of that question was up during the campaign of 1888 he made many speeches advocating tariff reform, such as is outlined in the Democratic platform. In the state campaign of 1885, when he was the Democratic candidate for senator in the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-ninth joint districts, figuratively speaking he made Senator Sherman "hunt his hole" by challenging him to a joint debate either in Mansfield or before the students and faculty of Oberlin College. The Senator declined to meet Mr. Harter on the platform. In the campaign of 1885 Harter ran about 500 ahead of his ticket but was defeated by Ex-Senator Codding. He is ever ready to make a tariff speech and none of the Republican defenders of the present tariff care to meet him in joint debate. He is not a "silver-tongued orator" but he states facts timely and well. After Mr. Harter's election Mansfield will have what no other city in the union has -- two members of Congress who reside in the same town, upon the same street and whose houses are opposite to each other. Mr. Harter's residence is on the south side of Park Avenue West and Senator Sherman's is on the north side, and they are warm personal friends and never indulge in neighborly quarrels.
From the Worthington Enterprise: July 3, 1890, Vol. II, No. 32