Samuel P. Harbison and Emma J. Boyd

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Husband Samuel P. Harbison ^{1 2}

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           Born: 26 Sep 1840 - Bakerstown, Allegheny Co, PA 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 10 May 1905 3
         Buried: 

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         Father: James Harbison (      -      ) 1 2
         Mother: Martha Pollock (      -Aft 1893) 1 2

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       Marriage: 1 Feb 1870 3

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Wife Emma J. Boyd ³

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Aft 1915
         Buried: 

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         Father: William Boyd (      -      ) 3
         Mother: 

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Children

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1 F Fanny Harbison ³

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: when fourteen years old
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Did Not Marry

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2 M William Albert Harbison ³

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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3 M Ralph W. Harbison ³

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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General Notes: Husband - Samuel P. Harbison

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He received his early education at Bakerstown, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, becoming, at the age of sixteen, an instructor in a school at that place. At the end of a year he went to Allegheny, and taught first a school at Minersville, and later one situated on Marshall avenue, Allegheny. Later, being extremely desirous of more liberal educational advantages than he had yet enjoyed, he attended Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, and the Eldersridge Academy, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, where he obtained a thorough business training.
With this equipment Mr. Harbison entered his chosen field of endeavor, obtaining a position as bookkeeper with Colonel William A. Herron, then clerk of courts. This position he held for a number of years, at the same time employed his evenings in keeping the books of the Star Fire Brick Company. In 1873 he became a member of this firm, the style being changed to Reed & Harbison. Two years later the firm of Harbison & Walker was formed, and under this name a large and flourishing business was conducted for many years. In 1901 the firm was incorporated under the name of Harbison-Walker Refractories Company, and it became the most extensive of its kind in the country, operating twenty-seven plants in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Alabama, Wisconsin and Georgia. He was an authority on all matters relating to clays-especially those used in the manufacture of fire bricks and for the lining of high temperature furnaces.
For a long period Mr. Harbison was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Allegheny, but about twenty-five years before his death he withdrew from that body and united with the McClure Avenue Presbyterian Church, in which he held the office of elder. Early in life he became a liberal contributor to the support and work of the church, for many years giving ten per cent. of his income, and, as his fortune grew, increasing this from time to time until it included all his income above his living expenses. He gave liberally to the Western Theological Seminary and to Grove City College. He belonged to the board of directors of both these institutions, and on that of the former served as chairman. He was also chairman of the board of trustees of the Young Men's Christian Association, and a member of three committees of the Presbyterian General Assembly. He was a director of the Allegheny General Hospital, the Western Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Dixmont, the Presbyterian Hospital and the Pennsylvania National Bank. He gave the land on which the Brighton Road Presbyterian Church was built, and also assisted the Theological Seminary of the West, Omaha, Nebraska.
The uplifting of the negro was a cause especially near his heart. He was active in the Board of Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church, and contributed largely to industrial schools throughout the South. In addition to this he founded Harbison College, at Abbeville, South Carolina, an institution for the instruction of the negro race.

1 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 605.

2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 72.

3 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 74.