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Contributed by Dean Wood hammerwood@bellsouth.net
William ("Bill") Henry Harm was born November 21, 1865 in Stuvenborn, Germany, the third son of Claus Hinrich Harms and Margaretha Caroline Stegelmann. His father died in the 1866-67 period and his mother married Johann Storjohann in 1868. Bill Harm immigrated to Crawford County, Iowa, in 1882 by way of Quebec, Canada, with his stepfather, mother, two brothers - Chris and August, two half brothers - John and Carl Storjohann, and a half sister - Johanna Caroline ("Lena") Storjohann. (Lena Storjohann is the subject of a separate biography here.) He was attracted to the prairies of northeastern Nebraska and migrated to Knox County in the late 1880s.
His early days in Knox County were spent as a cattle hand with his partner Robert Alexander. He and Robert Alexander are said to have also established a livery in Bloomfield. His interest soon turned to real estate and in 1897 he and Paul A. Tulleys formed a partnership that lasted many years. Bill and Paul Tulleys are credited with re-locating many families to Knox County which was then little developed and sparsely settled. Ten years later Bill and Paul became affiliated with the Farmers and Merchants State Bank in Bloomfield, an enterprise that continued until 1929 when the bank closed.
Bill Harm married Minnie Elizabeth Stein in 1894. Minnie was the daughter of Philip Stein, Sr. and his wife, Elizabeth ("Jennie"). Philip Stein - a German immigrant - was known for being one of the first settlers of Morton Township in Knox County in the late 1870s. Minnie - born in 1876 - died a month after the birth of their son Alfred William Harm in August 1895. Bill Harm then married Julia Tulleys who also was born in 1876, the daughter of Lysander W. and Sarah E. Tulleys, in June 1913 at Council Bluffs, Iowa. Julia was the sister of his partner Paul. Three children were born to Bill and Julia Harm - Robert Tulleys, Paul, and Ruth.
Bill Harm and his family moved from Bloomfield to his ranch, which was located in the Devils Nest area of Knox County, in 1933. He passed away at his ranch home on August 16, 1951. Julia Tulleys Harm died in August 1962. Together they are buried in Bloomfield Cemetery.
Bill Harm served two terms as mayor of Bloomfield in the early 1900s. He did much to promote the development and welfare of Knox County and Bloomfield in particular including donation of the site of the city park and library lots as well as - with a man by the name of Ed H. Mason - part of the high school campus and the land used for the county fair grounds. Besides his ranch and many other properties comprising thousands of acres in Herrick, Hill, and Santee Townships - some in partnership with Paul Tulleys and others in partnership with Paul Tulleys and Ed Mason - Bill Harm owned properties in Bloomfield including a home at 414 West Main Street that he purchased from his mother-in-law Jennie Stein.
Bill's son Alfred lived his early years with his maternal grandmother and uncles who farmed in Morton Township. He married Doras Olive Soost (born in 1896). Alfred and Doras owned a farm in Hill Township known as the "Harm Hurst Farm." Alfred bred and raised Poland China hogs and Holstein cattle. Alfred died in Seattle, Washington, in November 1971. Doras died the same year. Alfred and Doras had two sons.
Robert Tulleys Harm was born at the home of his maternal grandparents in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on March 6, 1914. He graduated from Bloomfield High School in 1931. He attended Wayne State College and the University of Nebraska. He served as the Deputy Register of Deeds for Knox County from 1936 to 1940 and was employed by the Bureau of Reclamation during 1940-42. Following four years of duty with the U.S. Army during World War II, two of which were spent in the Southwest Pacific, he took over much of his father's land holdings and continued ranching until his retirement in 1986. He married Dorothy A. Hafner that year at Ardmore, Oklahoma. Robert and Dorothy then located to Richardson, Texas. Dorothy died in February 1992. Robert passed away in June 2002.
Robert Harm maintained a life-long interest in Knox County history and was well known for his philanthropic activities including a gift of land from his former ranch along the Lewis and Clark Lake on the Missouri River to the Nebraska Community Foundation as well as highly generous monetary gifts to the Bloomfield Historical Society and to the foundation established to promote and build a multi-purpose agricultural center at the Knox County fair grounds.
Paul Harm was born at Bloomfield in October 1917, graduated from Bloomfield High School in 1934 and then the University of Nebraska after serving in the military during World War II. He lived out his life in Omaha, Nebraska. Paul and his wife Margaret had two sons.
Ruth Harm was born in August 1920 and graduated from Bloomfield High School and Wayne State Teachers College. She married Robert Olsen, lived much of her life in Florida and Texas, and died at the home of her daughter in Nashville, Tennessee, in May 2000. Ruth had a son in addition to her daughter.
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