Hiram Hamilton Hartley, known as H. H. to friends and family, was my great-great-grandfather. Born in Davidson County, NC, in 1839, he was lucky enough to inherit his father’s land and must have been a land speculator because deeds show that at one time he owned over 5,000 acres of land in Davidson and Davie counties. He was married three times because his first two wives died in childbirth. The third wife was an older lady who was the governess of his children. Altogether he had thirteen children who survived to adulthood.
I have written about him in great detail in a short story, so I won’t tell everything here; however, he did leave the farm and his young wife and child to go fight in the Civil War. He and a group of neighbors went to Raleigh to enlist in July 1862. He was 23 years old. According to the North Carolina Troops books, he was sent to Virginia and was captured and held at Ft. Delaware in that same September. He was exchanged once and captured again and spent over a year at Elmira, New York, the most horrid prison camp in which Confederate soldiers were held. Misery, cold, starvation, disease and all of the hardships of this place could have killed him as it did thousands of others. Yet he survived and must have been a very tough person! And definitely lucky!
I believe that his experience in the war led him into a life of public service because as he matured, he was active in both politics and business in his county. He was a magistrate for forty years and performed hundreds of weddings in his home (I had the pleasure of seeing his house once before it was lost to time, torn down to make room for a beautiful, modern house). He was also a county commissioner, and eventually a member of the North Carolina legislature from 1901 until 1903. He also was a generous man and helped save Yadkin College from financial ruin. He was faithful also to his family and his church.
In some ways, he was ahead of his time. In his will he prepared a prenuptial agreement with his third wife. He also, in a time when males usually inherited most of the property, left property to his daughter, Ellen, and educated her at Greensboro College while the boys were also sent to college.
What impressed me most about him was his dedication to public office, thus serving others. Although not on a state level, my dad and I have followed in his tradition. Daddy served 14 years on our town board, and I spent six years on the local school board. I feel that that is a noble calling. I never met him, of course, but I wish I had. In my mind, he looks like my dad and grandfather, tall, slim, with reddish hair and blue, twinkling eyes!