Son of Jacob Dove Harter and Elizabeth Smyzer.
He married Jane Fairbanks Abbott, daughter of Dr. Nicholas Abbott and Mira Jane Jewett.
An article by Thomas Wheeler in the Troy Daily News, 18 December 1972:
Troy Doctor Finds Gold Fields Empty
"Mathias L. Harter had far more than his share of misfortune during his life. Born on a farm in Elizabeth Township in 1821, a year after his parents with their three children moved from Kentucky, Mathias became a doctor by virtue of studying three years under Dr. Nicholas Abbott in Troy and in a medical school in New York City and one in Vermont.
"First he practiced medicine in the then flourishing hamlet of Little York in Montgomery County, and later in Ithaca in Darke County. In 1849 he moved his office to Greenville and fell in love with Cecilia Potter. Just before they were to be married, the cholera epidemic struck Greenville and she died within a few days.
"The Gold Rush was in full swing to California and with no ties Dr. Harter took the $1,200 he had saved and started out for the gold fields by way of a river boat to New Orleans. He took ship for the Isthmus of Panama. He crossed to the Pacific side and boarded the Chesapeake, a steamship which burned either wood or coal and used its sails when the fuel ran out.
"The vessel put in at Acapulco, Mexico, for wood as its coal was all but gone. Then it made two other stops along the coast of Lower California for wood until a storm carried it 1,200 miles out to sea. With fuel gone and no fresh water, no food except salt beef and weevil infested bread, both of which had seen a year on the ship, the Chesapeake managed to sail back to the coast and land its passengers on the beach after a ninety-three day trip from Panama. Half-starved, Harter and the passengers bought mules and rode 300 miles over the mountains, living on roots and berries until they came to San Diego.
"On May 20, 1850, Harter arrived in San Francisco without a cent in his pocket and his clothes and medicines and doctor's supplies still on board the Chesapeake.
"Within a few days of his arrival Harter was sorry he had left home and wrote back to Troy advising one and all not to come to California. The big money had been made, but prices were still sky high and work was scarce. Boarding houses charged $3.00 a day for food and hotels $5.00 a day and more for meals. Rent for a small doctor's office was $300 a month, and for a two-room office $1,000 a month. In order to borrow money one had to pay the incredibly high rate of interest of twenty per cent a month.
"Dr. Harter had seen enough of California so he made his way across the plains and the mountains to the Missouri River where he took a boat for Mississippi to practice. Next a course in surgery and a return to Troy and a resumption of his doctor's practice. By this time he had had his fill of a wanderer's life and he had recovered from the heartache of Cecilia Potter's death. He married in 1857 Jennie. F. Abbott, a daughter of Dr. Abbott with whom he began the study of medicine.
"He bought an interest in a flour mill in Piqua, the one run by water power at the lock on the Miami & Erie Canal, where the flour mill of the Piqua Milling Company in now located. In 1860 the mill failed and Dr. Harter was not only penniless but in debt. The business boom of the Civil War Years and those immediately following put him back on his feet and in 1870 he bought an interest in the Harter Medicine Company of Saint Louis and moved to that city with his wife and two children. A month or two later the factory caught fire and Dr. Harter narrowly escaped with his life. Less than two years later he died of typhoid fever.
"In 1880 his younger brother, Samuel K. Harter, by then the richest man in Troy, built a new residence for himself. The house was three stories high of stone and brick and was located at Cherry and Franklin Streets, and is now the Elks Club."
Go your way to the land of the Ancestors,
where they wait for you with open arms, there on the edge between this world and the next.
See; there they stand.
Ancestral spirits, welcome this one
to the place where we all must go.
(Ceisiwr Serith)
He married Jane Fairbanks Abbott, daughter of Dr. Nicholas Abbott and Mira Jane Jewett.
An article by Thomas Wheeler in the Troy Daily News, 18 December 1972:
Troy Doctor Finds Gold Fields Empty
"Mathias L. Harter had far more than his share of misfortune during his life. Born on a farm in Elizabeth Township in 1821, a year after his parents with their three children moved from Kentucky, Mathias became a doctor by virtue of studying three years under Dr. Nicholas Abbott in Troy and in a medical school in New York City and one in Vermont.
"First he practiced medicine in the then flourishing hamlet of Little York in Montgomery County, and later in Ithaca in Darke County. In 1849 he moved his office to Greenville and fell in love with Cecilia Potter. Just before they were to be married, the cholera epidemic struck Greenville and she died within a few days.
"The Gold Rush was in full swing to California and with no ties Dr. Harter took the $1,200 he had saved and started out for the gold fields by way of a river boat to New Orleans. He took ship for the Isthmus of Panama. He crossed to the Pacific side and boarded the Chesapeake, a steamship which burned either wood or coal and used its sails when the fuel ran out.
"The vessel put in at Acapulco, Mexico, for wood as its coal was all but gone. Then it made two other stops along the coast of Lower California for wood until a storm carried it 1,200 miles out to sea. With fuel gone and no fresh water, no food except salt beef and weevil infested bread, both of which had seen a year on the ship, the Chesapeake managed to sail back to the coast and land its passengers on the beach after a ninety-three day trip from Panama. Half-starved, Harter and the passengers bought mules and rode 300 miles over the mountains, living on roots and berries until they came to San Diego.
"On May 20, 1850, Harter arrived in San Francisco without a cent in his pocket and his clothes and medicines and doctor's supplies still on board the Chesapeake.
"Within a few days of his arrival Harter was sorry he had left home and wrote back to Troy advising one and all not to come to California. The big money had been made, but prices were still sky high and work was scarce. Boarding houses charged $3.00 a day for food and hotels $5.00 a day and more for meals. Rent for a small doctor's office was $300 a month, and for a two-room office $1,000 a month. In order to borrow money one had to pay the incredibly high rate of interest of twenty per cent a month.
"Dr. Harter had seen enough of California so he made his way across the plains and the mountains to the Missouri River where he took a boat for Mississippi to practice. Next a course in surgery and a return to Troy and a resumption of his doctor's practice. By this time he had had his fill of a wanderer's life and he had recovered from the heartache of Cecilia Potter's death. He married in 1857 Jennie. F. Abbott, a daughter of Dr. Abbott with whom he began the study of medicine.
"He bought an interest in a flour mill in Piqua, the one run by water power at the lock on the Miami & Erie Canal, where the flour mill of the Piqua Milling Company in now located. In 1860 the mill failed and Dr. Harter was not only penniless but in debt. The business boom of the Civil War Years and those immediately following put him back on his feet and in 1870 he bought an interest in the Harter Medicine Company of Saint Louis and moved to that city with his wife and two children. A month or two later the factory caught fire and Dr. Harter narrowly escaped with his life. Less than two years later he died of typhoid fever.
"In 1880 his younger brother, Samuel K. Harter, by then the richest man in Troy, built a new residence for himself. The house was three stories high of stone and brick and was located at Cherry and Franklin Streets, and is now the Elks Club."
Go your way to the land of the Ancestors,
where they wait for you with open arms, there on the edge between this world and the next.
See; there they stand.
Ancestral spirits, welcome this one
to the place where we all must go.
(Ceisiwr Serith)
Son of Jacob Dove Harter and Elizabeth Smyzer.
He married Jane Fairbanks Abbott, daughter of Dr. Nicholas Abbott and Mira Jane Jewett.
An article by Thomas Wheeler in the Troy Daily News, 18 December 1972:
Troy Doctor Finds Gold Fields Empty
"Mathias L. Harter had far more than his share of misfortune during his life. Born on a farm in Elizabeth Township in 1821, a year after his parents with their three children moved from Kentucky, Mathias became a doctor by virtue of studying three years under Dr. Nicholas Abbott in Troy and in a medical school in New York City and one in Vermont.
"First he practiced medicine in the then flourishing hamlet of Little York in Montgomery County, and later in Ithaca in Darke County. In 1849 he moved his office to Greenville and fell in love with Cecilia Potter. Just before they were to be married, the cholera epidemic struck Greenville and she died within a few days.
"The Gold Rush was in full swing to California and with no ties Dr. Harter took the $1,200 he had saved and started out for the gold fields by way of a river boat to New Orleans. He took ship for the Isthmus of Panama. He crossed to the Pacific side and boarded the Chesapeake, a steamship which burned either wood or coal and used its sails when the fuel ran out.
"The vessel put in at Acapulco, Mexico, for wood as its coal was all but gone. Then it made two other stops along the coast of Lower California for wood until a storm carried it 1,200 miles out to sea. With fuel gone and no fresh water, no food except salt beef and weevil infested bread, both of which had seen a year on the ship, the Chesapeake managed to sail back to the coast and land its passengers on the beach after a ninety-three day trip from Panama. Half-starved, Harter and the passengers bought mules and rode 300 miles over the mountains, living on roots and berries until they came to San Diego.
"On May 20, 1850, Harter arrived in San Francisco without a cent in his pocket and his clothes and medicines and doctor's supplies still on board the Chesapeake.
"Within a few days of his arrival Harter was sorry he had left home and wrote back to Troy advising one and all not to come to California. The big money had been made, but prices were still sky high and work was scarce. Boarding houses charged $3.00 a day for food and hotels $5.00 a day and more for meals. Rent for a small doctor's office was $300 a month, and for a two-room office $1,000 a month. In order to borrow money one had to pay the incredibly high rate of interest of twenty per cent a month.
"Dr. Harter had seen enough of California so he made his way across the plains and the mountains to the Missouri River where he took a boat for Mississippi to practice. Next a course in surgery and a return to Troy and a resumption of his doctor's practice. By this time he had had his fill of a wanderer's life and he had recovered from the heartache of Cecilia Potter's death. He married in 1857 Jennie. F. Abbott, a daughter of Dr. Abbott with whom he began the study of medicine.
"He bought an interest in a flour mill in Piqua, the one run by water power at the lock on the Miami & Erie Canal, where the flour mill of the Piqua Milling Company in now located. In 1860 the mill failed and Dr. Harter was not only penniless but in debt. The business boom of the Civil War Years and those immediately following put him back on his feet and in 1870 he bought an interest in the Harter Medicine Company of Saint Louis and moved to that city with his wife and two children. A month or two later the factory caught fire and Dr. Harter narrowly escaped with his life. Less than two years later he died of typhoid fever.
"In 1880 his younger brother, Samuel K. Harter, by then the richest man in Troy, built a new residence for himself. The house was three stories high of stone and brick and was located at Cherry and Franklin Streets, and is now the Elks Club."
Go your way to the land of the Ancestors,
where they wait for you with open arms, there on the edge between this world and the next.
See; there they stand.
Ancestral spirits, welcome this one
to the place where we all must go.
(Ceisiwr Serith)
He married Jane Fairbanks Abbott, daughter of Dr. Nicholas Abbott and Mira Jane Jewett.
An article by Thomas Wheeler in the Troy Daily News, 18 December 1972:
Troy Doctor Finds Gold Fields Empty
"Mathias L. Harter had far more than his share of misfortune during his life. Born on a farm in Elizabeth Township in 1821, a year after his parents with their three children moved from Kentucky, Mathias became a doctor by virtue of studying three years under Dr. Nicholas Abbott in Troy and in a medical school in New York City and one in Vermont.
"First he practiced medicine in the then flourishing hamlet of Little York in Montgomery County, and later in Ithaca in Darke County. In 1849 he moved his office to Greenville and fell in love with Cecilia Potter. Just before they were to be married, the cholera epidemic struck Greenville and she died within a few days.
"The Gold Rush was in full swing to California and with no ties Dr. Harter took the $1,200 he had saved and started out for the gold fields by way of a river boat to New Orleans. He took ship for the Isthmus of Panama. He crossed to the Pacific side and boarded the Chesapeake, a steamship which burned either wood or coal and used its sails when the fuel ran out.
"The vessel put in at Acapulco, Mexico, for wood as its coal was all but gone. Then it made two other stops along the coast of Lower California for wood until a storm carried it 1,200 miles out to sea. With fuel gone and no fresh water, no food except salt beef and weevil infested bread, both of which had seen a year on the ship, the Chesapeake managed to sail back to the coast and land its passengers on the beach after a ninety-three day trip from Panama. Half-starved, Harter and the passengers bought mules and rode 300 miles over the mountains, living on roots and berries until they came to San Diego.
"On May 20, 1850, Harter arrived in San Francisco without a cent in his pocket and his clothes and medicines and doctor's supplies still on board the Chesapeake.
"Within a few days of his arrival Harter was sorry he had left home and wrote back to Troy advising one and all not to come to California. The big money had been made, but prices were still sky high and work was scarce. Boarding houses charged $3.00 a day for food and hotels $5.00 a day and more for meals. Rent for a small doctor's office was $300 a month, and for a two-room office $1,000 a month. In order to borrow money one had to pay the incredibly high rate of interest of twenty per cent a month.
"Dr. Harter had seen enough of California so he made his way across the plains and the mountains to the Missouri River where he took a boat for Mississippi to practice. Next a course in surgery and a return to Troy and a resumption of his doctor's practice. By this time he had had his fill of a wanderer's life and he had recovered from the heartache of Cecilia Potter's death. He married in 1857 Jennie. F. Abbott, a daughter of Dr. Abbott with whom he began the study of medicine.
"He bought an interest in a flour mill in Piqua, the one run by water power at the lock on the Miami & Erie Canal, where the flour mill of the Piqua Milling Company in now located. In 1860 the mill failed and Dr. Harter was not only penniless but in debt. The business boom of the Civil War Years and those immediately following put him back on his feet and in 1870 he bought an interest in the Harter Medicine Company of Saint Louis and moved to that city with his wife and two children. A month or two later the factory caught fire and Dr. Harter narrowly escaped with his life. Less than two years later he died of typhoid fever.
"In 1880 his younger brother, Samuel K. Harter, by then the richest man in Troy, built a new residence for himself. The house was three stories high of stone and brick and was located at Cherry and Franklin Streets, and is now the Elks Club."
Go your way to the land of the Ancestors,
where they wait for you with open arms, there on the edge between this world and the next.
See; there they stand.
Ancestral spirits, welcome this one
to the place where we all must go.
(Ceisiwr Serith)
Family Members
Siblings
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Darius Smyzer Harter
1814–1842
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Dr Milton George Harter
1817–1872
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Bennett Jasper Harter
1819–1881
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Samuel Kyle Harter Sr
1823–1898
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Malinda S. Harter Lilly
1827–1847
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Marthy (Martha) Harter
1830–1834
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Catherine S Harter Randolph
1832–1910
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Newton Jasper Harter
1835–1866
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Sabin D. Harter
1837–1859
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Franklin Lair Harter
1840–1889
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