Merlin and Evelyn Hanson

Merlin and Evelyn had 3 children: Davis, Martha and Joyce. Davis was born at Decorah. He graduated from Mabel-Canton High School in 1980 and went to Iowa State College at Ames, IA and graduated in 1984 with a degree in Dairy Science. He worked four years for Petes Photo and Auction in Wykoff, MN. He married Brenda Lippe on 16 Apr 1988 at St. John’s Lutheran Church at Locust, IA. He then came back to help run the home farm, they have 2 children: Erin and Carl.

Martha was born at LaCrosse, Wl. She graduated from the Mabel-Canton High School in 1981 and from the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA in 1985 with a degree in accounting. She worked as a bookkeeper for Spahn and Rose Lumber Co. of Decorah for one year and then went to Cedar Rapids, IA and works for Aegon nine years. She married Scott Svenson 29 August 1987 at First Lutheran Church in Decorah. They have 2 children: Justin and Joshua.

Joyce graduated from Mabel-Canton High School in 1982 and Luther College in Decorah, IA in 1986 with a degree in Elementary Education. She taught third grade at the North Winneshiek School for three years. She married Phillip Richert 17 Nov 1990 at the Hesper Lutheran Church. They have 2 children: Nicholas and Collin..

Merlin served two years in the U.S. Army with 19 months in Germany. After returning home he farmed his parents’ farm in Canoe Twp. for five years. After he and Evelyn were married he moved to her home farm two miles west of Hesper, IA. They lived there until 1993 when they moved to a new home they built on the former Koppen farm which they purchased in 1963.

Merlin and Evelyn are members of the Hesper Lutheran Church, the American Legion and the V.F.W. Their farm consists of dairy, hogs and grain.

Harmon, Bernard and Ida (Gibson)

(James Skurdall)

Bernard Harmon, the son of Irish immigrants Bernard Harmon and Elizabeth Fox, was born on 16 Dec 1848, in Parish Bayou Fouche, Louisiana. Other siblings were brothers John and Mike, and sisters Margaret (Madden) and Katherine (Keefe). In 1849 the family came north to Winneshiek Co. and preempted land in Canoe Twp.

On 9 Jul 1863, at the age of fourteen, Bernard was enrolled in Company F of the 9th Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, the youngest man in the county to enlist for service in the Civil War. In later years, when asked about this, he would laugh and say: "I was a big boy for my age - big enough to stop a bullet for the man behind me.” Most of the action he saw was in Louisiana and Missouri, and he received his discharge on 3 Feb 1866 in Little Rock, AR.

Bernard Harmon, early 1900’s.

Although he pursued a number of occupations during the next 15 years, he spent most of his time in the blacksmith trade, principally as a horseshoer. In 1885, at the age of 36, he graduated from the veterinary college in Toronto, Canada.

1901 Decorah Baseball Team

Names known: Daubny, Vance, Bernatz, Harmon, Chinoock, Schenck, Burman, Bidne, Weiser and Knowlton.