The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

HARMON, John B. (1815-1883) and (first wife) Dorcas N. (?-c. 1842) and (second wife) Abigail (c. 1824-c. 1850) and (third wife) Lucy J. (1829-1911)

John B. Harmon was Ellen G. White's older brother. Born in Portland, Maine, he married Dorcas N. Gould in 1836 and soon left Maine. Their first son was born in Georgia in 1838. The following year the Harmons moved to the village of Portage, in St. Charles County, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River, where John Harmon apparently worked as “boatman” during the 1840s. By 1850 the Harmons moved across the river to Jersey County, Illinois. John Harmon probably remained in that general area for the rest of his life, apart from some time spent in Iowa in the mid 1850s. According to the 1860 census he had turned to farming, and by 1870 he owned real estate valued at a comfortable $10,000. Dorcas died young, probably in her 20s, as did his second wife, Abigail Bagby, whom John Harmon married in 1843. Whether Lucy J. Bagby, his third wife, was a sister of Abigail is not known, but they both came from Virginia. 1EGWLM 838.2

From available records it appears that Ellen White only met her brother John once after he left Maine in the 1830s. On July 22, 1859, while at home in Battle Creek, Michigan, she noted in her diary, “My brother that I have not seen for twenty years came from Illinois with his wife to visit us.” By 1873 Ellen had lost contact with John, having written repeatedly but receiving no replies. In 1879 the Whites planned to visit John Harmon while en route from Texas to Michigan, but subsequent events defeated their plans. Finally, some time before 1883, there were plans afoot for John to come to California to visit Ellen. “I had so many fond hopes that he would come west,” Ellen wrote to her sister. “He gave me this encouragement in his last letter.” Unfortunately, John Harmon's death intervened. According to obituary information supplied by Mary Plummer Foss, John Harmon joined the Methodist Episcopal Church about 10 years before his death. 1EGWLM 838.3

See: Artemas C. Harmon, ed., The Harmon Genealogy, p. 79; 1840 U.S. Federal Census, “Jno. B. Harmon,” Missouri, Saint Charles County, Portage, p. 11; 1850 U.S. Federal Census, “John B. Harman,” Illinois, Jersey County, Township 8, Range 13, p. 92; 1870 U.S. Federal Census, “John B. Harmon,” Illinois, Calhoun County, Hardin, p. 10; “Bagby, Abigail” in Jordan Dodd, Missouri Marriages to 1850 (database online), (Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 1997); History of Greene and Jersey Counties, Illinois (Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Co., 1885), p. 364; James White to “Edson and Emma,” Mar. 8, 1879; James White to W. C. White, Feb. 20, 1879; Ellen G. White, Ms 7, 1859 (July 22 entry); Lt 2a, 1873 (Jan. 21); Lt 10, 1883 (Apr. 8); M. P. Foss to Ellen White, May 19, 1883. 1EGWLM 838.4