An Illustrated History of Central Oregon, Western Historical Publishing Company,
Spokane, WA. 1905, page 323

ROBERT E. HARBISON, proprietor of a fine eighty acre fruit and hay ranch, known
as Meadow Farm and located some five miles south from Hood River, is one of the
leading citizens of the valley. He was born in Warren county, Iowa, on September
30, 18651, the son of Matthew H. and Mary L. (Weir) Harbison, natives of South
Carolina. His parents' ancestors were of Scotch-Irish lineage, who came from
north Ireland to the colonies prior to the Revolution and were stanch American
patriots. Our subject's father was born on May 18, 1833, and his wife was born
on August 3, 1833. When they were two years old the two families moved to
Indiana, and at Bloomington, in that state, they were married on September 28,
1854. They soon moved to Iowa and when the war broke out the father enlisted in
Company C., Thirty-fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, on August 13, 1862, under
Colonel Clark, and Captain Dan Lyons, and died in service, on January 20, 1863.
He is buried in an unknown grave in the national cemetery near Memphis. The
mother, still a widow, resides at Tangent, Oregon, with a son. Our subject was
raised principally in La Crosse county, Wisconsin, and received a good education
from the grades and high schools. When twenty-two he went to California and did
various work for two years, then came to the Big Bend country, Washington,
where, in 1885, he and his brother, J.S., and Charles Davis, started the town of
Almira, then called Davisine. A year later he came thence to Hood River, where
his mother bought a quarter section on the east side of the valley. Later she
sold one hundred and twenty acres and deeded the remaining forty to our subject
and his brother, John S. They erected a saw and grist mill in 1889 and operated
the same until 1901 when the brother sold to Mr. Harbison, and he continued the
operation of the mill until February, 1903, then sold out to Wilson Fike.
Immediately afterward Mr. Harbison purchased the eighty where he now lives,
which was a part of what his mother had sold. Mr. Harbison has thirty acres of
apple orchard, mostly young trees just beginning to bear, and he has frequently
taken prizes at the fairs. He has the famous banana apples, of which there are
very few in the state, He has an elegant thirty acre meadow which produces about
four tons of hay to the acre annually, it being irrigated from Neal creek.      

On January 1, 1887, at Hood River, Mr. Harbison married Miss Lucy Rand, a native
of La Crosse county, Wisconsin, and the daughter of Martin V. and Elizabeth
(Feak) Rand, natives of Virginia and New York, respectively. The father enlisted
in Company E, Second Wisconsin Infantry and served four years in the Civil war,
and is now retired, living in University Park, Portland. Mr. Harbison has two
brothers, John S., of Tangent. Oregon, and Luther J. at Vacaville, California.
Mrs. Harbison has the following brothers and sisters: Jason, Bert, Harvey,
Minnie Clelland and Lulu Horning, all of Portland. To Mr. and Mrs. Harbison four
children have been born, Blanche, Hester, Ruth and Mary.      

Politically, Mr. Harbison is a stanch Republican, although not very active. He
and his wife belong to the Congregational church, and Mrs. Harbison is a member
of the Women's Relief Corps. They are highly esteemed people and Mr. Harbison is
looked up to as one of the enterprising and successful farmers and fruit raisers
of the valley.      

Every genuine American loves to read accounts of patriotism and brave acts in
defense of country. Among other incidents occurring in the Harbison family of
earlier generations, we mention the following, which is taken from Elizabeth E.
Ellet's "Women of Revolution," now out of print. William Strong, relative on the
mother's side to our subject, was a stanch patriot in the time of the Revolution
and did all in his power to forward the cause of the struggling colonists. On
June 11, 1780, on his own farm, in South Carolina, he was faced by a detachment
of British, led by one Huck, and refusing to renounce his loyalty to the
colonists and the cause they all loved, he was shot in cold blood.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2005 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. 
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.