William Wallace Harney (1832 - 1912)

Born 20 Jun 1832 in Bloomington, Indiana

Ancestors

Died 28 Mar 1912 at age 79 in Florida, United States

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Biography

This profile is part of the Harney Name Study.

Known as Will Wallace, he was born 20 June 1831/32 in Bloomington, Monroe, Indiana, the son of John Hopkins Harney and Martha Wallace. He taught in the public schools of Louisville, KY, and became the first principal of Louisville Male High School (1855). He was later professor at the State Normal School, in Lexington, Kentucky. While there, he studied law and later practiced in Louisville. He was professor at Transylvania Univ., Lexington, KY (1856-8), until withdrawal of the State's endowment. He was associate editor of the Louisville Democrat newspaper (1858-69), and later was editor-in-chief. He was also a published poet, called by some a literary genius. Will's work in promoting free public schools earned him the title "Father of Public Schools." He was also an editor of a Florida newspaper, as well as contributor of verse and prose to various magazines and newspapers.

On 12 August 1868, Will married Mary St. Mayer Randolph, of the Virginia family, eldest daughter of Hon. W.M. Randoph, of New Orleans. Child:

• William Randolph Harney

After the birth of their son, Will Randolph Harney, her health failed, and they moved to Florida, which was thought would be good for her health. There he had a 160-acre estate he called Pine Castle. When his young wife died, 8 Jan 1870, he survived his grief by contributing articles to magazines. He cleared his land for an orange grove, and built his residence with the help of his father-in-law, Judge Randolph, who also moved in Florida. He purchased 155.89 acres on 24 June 1878 (Sec.24 T 23S R 29E) per BLM records. Will established a post office, a schoolhouse and school, Sunday school and church service, and promoted a railroad and station at Pine Castle. When his estate burned down 20 years later, the community kept the name. He started a newspaper at Kissimmee which he called 'Bitter Sweet,' a reference to the sour bit of wild oranges from the old Spanish groves. While living in Kissimmee, Will published a book of poems titled "The Spirit of the South," and was called The Poet of Kissimmee." Many of his essays, sketches and poems evoked images of Florida's natural beauty or retold romantic or amusing tales of its people and opportunities. He wrote articles for the Cincinnati Commercial, the New Orleans Times-Democrat and the Boston Courier. Harneys writing attracted many settlers to Florida, and he was called a "one-man Chamber of Commerce." But his reporting uncovered the dark side of the land boom, too. He wields his pen to expose mismanagement in state and federal agencies during the Reconstruction era of Florida politics. Harney's readers learned of a "scandalous system of fraud." Land that pioneer families had cleared for their crops and homes was open to being taken by someone else who merely paid a $14 fee to make a homestead claim of his own. An infuriated Harney wrote that hundreds - perhaps thousands - of Florida pioneers were thrown off their property because of a technicality the government should have spotted but failed for years to correct. Copies of his newspaper columns are on file in the library collection of the Orange County Historical Museum. He died 27 March 1912, age 81 years. One source indicates he was buried beside his wife in the Randolph home cemetery on Lake Gem Mary (the lake named after his wife). Another says they are buried at the Greenwood Cemetery . Perhaps this is the same place, but known by a different name. [Find-a-Grave date 28 March 1912, but obituary of that date says he died "yesterday" which would be the 27th.]

"Following his wife's death, Harney became a recluse, which in some part contributed to the community's lack of appreciation of his talents. A short, small man with a white goatee and drooping mustache, he seldom came to Orlando and was known only to a few literary-minded residents. On the few occasions he appeared in public he always carried an umbrella, had a preoccupied air, and did not invite casual acquaintance. Miss Agnes Person, who remembers Col. Harney, recalled he was usually dressed in clothes that seemed too large for his frame, his small feet peeping out from his trousers as he walked." - From Orlando: A Centennial History, V. II, by Eve Bacon, 1977.

Another account: Will Wallace Harney was the son of Indiana University mathematics professor John Hopkins Harney and the former Mary Wallace. He was named for his maternal uncle, the famous poet William Ross Wallace (1819-1881), and was thus encouraged from birth to become a writer himself.

As a young man, Harney studied at Louisville College in Kentucky, and worked as a teacher and high school principal. During the War Between the States, he worked for The Louisville Democrat rather than serving in either army.

After the war, Harney married Miss Mary Mayer Randolph, daughter of Judge William Mayer Randolph of New Orleans, Louisiana. Mary was a sickly woman, and they came to Central Florida from Kentucky in 1869 in hope the warm climate would improve her health. Sadly, she died at their Orange County homestead in 1870, leaving Harney a young widower with a small son (William Randolph Harney) to raise by himself. He would pine for Mary the rest of his life, a tragedy he frequently conjured in his poetry.

After his wife died in 1870 form complications from the birth of their son, he became a recluse and acquired the Bitter Sweet Newspaper, which he published in Kissimmee. After about a year he returned to the south end of Orlando and settles on Lake Conway. He communicated with the outside wourld through his articles which appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Harper's magazine, the Cincinnati Cimmercial newspaper and other publications. His stories of early Florida inspired hundreds of people throughout the country to settle in and near Orlando.

He built an English style house with turrets at each corner, which he named "Pine Castle" It was made from the pine trees which grew on his land, and it was unusual because the boards which formed the exterior walls were attached vertically, rather than horizontally which had been the style. By 1874 a community had grown up around his large home and it took on the name of "Pine Castle. All but one turret of the home burned down in 1894 but the name remained.

Late in life, Harney retired to Jacksonville, where he lived with his son and published a collection of his favorite poems: "The Spirit of the South." He died in that city, but was buried next to his much-beloved wife Mary at Greenwood Cemetery in Orlando.

Mr Harney wrote a number of poems which had a wide vogue a number of years ago. His verses appeared in most of the leading publications of the country. Among the most noted of his writings is a poem called "The Stab." 'Milking Time" is another poem of Mr. Harney's which was very popular, also "Echo and the Lover".

Sources

• *"Poet of Kissimmee" article by Jim Robison of the 'Orlando Sentinel'.
• Biography Index (Bioin)2
• Preface to "The Spirit of the South", by William Wallace Harney.
• Orlando: A Centennial History, v.II, 1977, by Eve Bacon.
• Copies of his newspaper columns are on file in the library collection of the Orange County Historical Museum.
• Land Records, Bureau of Land Management.
• Obituary of Will Wallace Harney, Florida Times-Union, 28 March 1912, p.24, c.3.
• Find-a-Grave # 25625441.
• 1850 • Louisville District 2, Jefferson, Kentucky, USA
• 1860 • District 2, Middletown, Jefferson, Kentucky, USA
• 1870 • Division 17, Orlando, Orange, Florida, USA
• 1880 • Precinct 4, Orange, Florida, USA
• The Courier Journal, Louisville KY, 5 June 1898, p.28 "Will Wallace Harney, the Kentucky Poet, Who Lives a Hermit Life in Florida.