Harriet (Leaman) McFarland

Born [date unknown] in Owensboro

Biography

Captain Ben Field and Adam Shoemaker, and the same year Joshua Griffith put up a house, which he occupied with his family the next season. There were no other persons living except at a distance of several miles, and the whole number of families living within the present limits of Daviess County was less than a dozen. Robert McFarland bought 200 acres of land south of Owensboro, and made the first whisky and brandy ever made in this county. He died in 1811, aged forty-six years. John was fourteen years old at the time of his father's death. The first school he attended was kept by an Iris man named Andrew Kelly, two miles southwest of Lewis Station, and was probably the first taught in Daviess County. Oct. 26, 1816, when under nineteen years of age, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Joshua Griffith, of Baltimore, Md., and immediately went to farming, which occupation he has followed the greater part of his life. He was the most extensive farmer and tobacco- raiser in the county, often realizing $5,000 a year from the crop. Each year he planted 130 acres. After a married life of seventeen years, Mrs. McFarland died, leaving eleven children. In 183i Mr. McFarland married Harriet Leaman, the first child born in the city of Owensboro. By this marriage there have been seven children.

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