Notes:
Standard History of Adams and Wells Counties , Indiana , Vol. I & II, 1918; p. 708-709
JAMES C. HARKLESS. The farm home in Root Township where James C. Harless resides is appreciated and valued the more by him because of the fact that on that land he was born, and as a boy he witnessed and helped in converting it from a portion of the original and primeval wilderness into land that would respond to the efforts of the plow.
On this farm he was born February 4, 1879, a son of Benjamin P. and Rebecca J. (Mumma) Harkless. His father was a native of Indiana and his mother of Pennsylvania . The father died after a long and honorable career in Adams County on August 19, 1910. The mother is still living, with a home in Decatur .
James C. Harkless spent the years from 1890 until he was well past his majority in assisting his father to clear off the land. He swung the axe and cut down the trees, rolled the logs together in piles, burned the brush, and made himself a helpful factor in every one of the operations by which the land was brought into its present high degree of cultivation. Many days he hauled logs to Decatur , where they were delivered to a local sawmill. He also did that back-breaking work which has a special distinction as one of the early vocations of Abraham Lincoln - splitting rails. He split rails by the thousands and helped make many of the old-fashioned fences which are now rapidly going out as a feature of fence improvement around Adams County farms.
Some years ago Mr. Harkless bought the sixty acres from his father's estate and he also owns forty acres in Union Township of Adams County. Both farms are cleared and well improved. A part of the original log house where his father lived in early times still remains among the building of the home farm. Mr. Harkless has two sisters, Nettie, wife of Ross Harden, Union Township , and Mary, wife of Ed Ahr, of Root Township .
Mr. Harkless as a boy also attended the district schools of Root Township , but the work of the farm was at least equally important to the instruction he received from books. Mrs. Harkless' brothers and sisters are: Ann ie, wife of Louis Woodward, of Root Township ; Simon, who married Katie Beltz, of Union Township ; Edward Frances and Edith, all unmarried.
May 12, 1907, Mr. James C. Harkless married Alvina Bucher, daughter of John and Minnie Bucher. Mr. and Mrs. Harkless have four children: J. Frank, born in 1907; Fay, born in 1910; Bennie, born in 1911; and Jimmie, born in 1917. Mr. Harkless is an independent voter and is a member of the United Brethren Church .
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Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams Co, IN; Monday, September 9, 1940
J. C. HARKLESS DIES SUDDENLY
Root Township Farmer Drops Dead in This City Saturday
Funeral services will be held Tuesday afternoon for J. Clifford Harkless, 61, well known Root township farmer, who died in Decatur suddenly Saturday evening.
Mr. Harkless was proceeding to his parked car near the corner of Jefferson and Second streets when he stopped, leaned against a mail box and then slumped to the ground. He succumbed soon after.
The deceased was born in Root township February 4, 1879, the son of Benjamin and Rebecca Mumma-Harkless. He was married to Alvina Butcher, who survives. He was a loyal and devoted member of the Pleasant Grove U. B. church.
Surviving also are the following children: Frank, Mrs. Faye Michaels, Benjamin, James and Miss Chloe Harkless, all of this community; a sister, Mrs. Ed Ahr, of near Decatur.
Services will be held Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock (CDT) at the home and 3 o'clock at the Pleasant Grove church. Burial will be in the Decatur cemetery.
The body was taken to the S. E. Black funeral home and then returned to the residence, where it may be viewed until time for the services.