WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted by Valerie Crook
(vfcrook@earthlink.net)
The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 541-542
Harrison
HON. HARVEY WALKER HARMER. It is a privilege not
enjoyed by all men, to have stood in the front rank. of the
progressive movements that have, in the past few years,
brought the United States to its present position of proud
supremacy along the lines of humanitarianism and higher
citizenship. It is the justifiable claim of those who love
best their native land, that the lamp of liberty lighted by
their colonial ancestors so many generations ago still stead-
ily illumines the way along the path of real progress, and
that no better proof could be afforded than that given by
the nation-wide approval of the momentous additions to the
immortal Constitution that recent legislation has made ef-
fective. To have been a factor and potential influence in
legislation at this time, proves true patriotism and marked
public efficiency. In this connection attention may be cen-
tered on one of West Virginia's distinguished citizens, Hon.
Harvey Walker Harmer, a leading member of the bar at
Clarksburg, and twice a member of the West Virginia State
Senate.
Harvey Walker Harmer was born at Shinnston, Harrison
County, West Virginia, July 25, 1865, a son of Benjamin
Tyson and Margaret (Shepler) Harmer. The first repre-
sentative of the Harmer family in America was an English
Quaker who came to Pennsylvania with William Penn.
During the Revolutionary war, the great-grandfather, Jacob
Harmer, and possibly his father, despite the peaceful prin-
ciples of their religious belief, served in the Patriot army,
in the contingent from Philadelphia. In that city Jacob
Harmer (2), the grandfather, was born January 23, 1794,
and he was the founder of the family in Winchester, Vir-
ginia, where Benjamin Tyson Harmer was born on January
1, 1824. In 1851 he married Margaret Shepler, and in the
spring of the following year they came to Shinnston, in
what is now West Virginia. Benjamin Tyson Harmer re-
sided there until his death, December 4, 1890. He was a
wagonmaker and undertaker, a competent, reliable busi-
ness man, an active influence in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, a faithful Odd Fellow, and a conscientious supporter
of the principles of the republican party. For four years
he served as president of the County Court.
Harvey W. Harmer attended the public schools in his
native place and then entered the State Normal school at
Fairmont, from which he was graduated in 1889, following
which he taught school for some years, in the meanwhile
preparing for a course in law at the West Virginia Uni-
versity, from which institution he received his degree in
1892. Mr. Harmer immediately entered into practice at
Clarksburg, where for many years he has ranked as a leader
of the bar. In addition to the distinction won in profes-
sional life, he has served in many positions of trust and
responsibility, and in public affairs has achieved results
that reflect credit and honor on his name.
Early in his political life, Mr. Harmer served two years
as deputy circuit clerk, for nineteen years was secretary
of the Board of Education at Clarksburg, and from 1895
until 1901, was a member of the State Board of Regents
of the State Normal schools. In 1894 he was first prom-
inently called into public life by his election to the House
of Delegates, where he served two years, and in 1900 was
elected state senator, serving as such for four years, and
re-elected in 1918 for a second term of four years.' When
first elected to the Legislature, back in 1894, Senator
Harmer was termed the "boy member of the legislature."
Nevertheless he made a profound impression at that time
by introducing and securing the passage of a number of
important measures among which may be named a bill to
take politics out of the state university and normal schools,
by making the Board of Regents non-partisan. At this
session he also introduced a resolution to give women the
right to vote. While this early resolution failed to carry,
it showed an enlightened understanding and a measure of
moral courage that brought him considerable distinction
as a pioneer advocate of what, at that time, was an un-
popular measure with the majority in West Virginia. That
his early opinions had undergone no change was proved
when, in the special session of 1920 he introduced in the
Senate a resolution to ratify the nineteenth amendment
to the Federal Constitution granting suffrage to women.
The resolution on a tie vote failed of passage, but when
a like resolution passed the House and was reported to
the Senate he took the leadership of what proved to be
the most memorable fight for the suffrage amendment in
all the states. It was by his splendid leadership and
thorough knowledge of parliamentary rules that he kept the
resolution pending before the Senate for ten days, or until
an absent senator was located in California and brought
back, and with his vote the resolution was adopted and
made it possible for the suffrage or nineteenth amendment
to be ratified in time to give the women of all the states
the right to vote at the presidential election of 1920. In
like manner, the cause of national prohibition has for years
engaged his earnest support. In 1903 he voted in the
Senate for a state-wide prohibition law, and again in the
Senate in 1919, offered the resolution to ratify the eight-
eenth amendment, and led the fight for its passage. As a
statesman, his record is without a blemish. Senator Harmer
acquitted himself we'll in still other capacities. From
1906 to 1907 he served as mayor of Clarksburg and gave
the city a fine business administration. He was supervisor
of the United States census in 1900 and 1910, and was
referee in bankruptcy from 1899 to 1901. During the
World war he was a member of the Harrison County local
advisory board and was active in every patriotic movement
of the time. From his youth he has been a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church and actively identified with its
various agencies for good. In 1908 he was lay delegate
from West Virginia to the General Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church held at Baltimore, and for
several years past has been a trustee of the West Virginia
Wesleyan College at Buckhannon.
In 1901 Senator Harmer was married to Miss Nellie
Marten, a daughter of Henry C. and Dora (Britner) Marten,
residents of Shepherdstown, West Virginia. An ardent
republican throughout the entire period of his political life,
Senator Harmer has always been faithful to his political
obligations and his chosen friends are men whose public
careers and private lives have been as irreproachable as
his own. Aside from political, professional and social con-
nections of a more or less responsible character as usually
claims attention from a man of marked importance, Sen-
ator Harmer has definitely identified himself with no
fraternal organization except the order of Odd Fellows.
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