Harmonia, a now defunct village, was on the land where Fort Custer
Training Center in Augusta, Michigan is. Harmonia's name emphasized the
harmonious relationship between the physical and spiritual worlds. Harmonia was
established, in 1850, by Quaker pioneers who believed in Spiritualism.
Spiritualists believed one
could communicate with spirits. They believed in health reform, education
reform, women's rights, abolition of slavery, and the temperance movement.
Sojourner Truth is the most well-known resident of Harmonia.
Sojourner Truth statue in Battle Creek,
MI. Photograph taken by Brenda Leyndyke
Sojourner Truth can be found in the 1860 U.S. Federal Census in
Harmonia with her daughter, Elizabeth Banks and grandsons, James Caldwell and
Sammy Banks.[i] Harmonia
was in Bedford Township, Calhoun County, Michigan.
Sojourner Truth is best known for being an African American abolitionist
and women’s rights activist. Her well known speech, “Ain’t I a Women?” was
delivered at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, in 1851. Sojourner Truth lived
in Harmonia and Battle Creek Michigan. She is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery,
Battle Creek, MI.
Land that would become Harmonia
was purchased in June of 1835 by George Casey of Cayuga county, New York and
William Carr of Wastenau(sic) Michigan.[ii] Neither man, Casey nor Carr,
settled on this land. Carr sold his land to Casey, and in November 1842 Henry
Hopkins and Charles Nichols paid $850 for 390 acres to George Casey's heirs.[iii]
In 1850, Reynolds and his wife, Dorcas, Cornell paid $924 for 230
acres of land that became Harmonia. Other early landowners included Hiram and
Abbie Cornell, E.T. Cornell, Rufus and Lucy Houghton, and Louis Houghton.
Hiram Cornell was Reynolds oldest son. Hiram and Reynolds
established Bedford Harmonial Seminary or Bedford Harmonial Institute. It was
established in 1852 and disbanded in 1860.
Other early residents of Harmonia included:
1. Thomas E. Currier
2. Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, a New York senator
3. George H. Haskell, of Rockford, IL
4. J.H. Roffee
5. H. Sampson
6. L.B. Beecher
7. Melvin Terry
8. Edmund Cox
9. Mark H. Austin
10. James Watts
11. Johnny Lawler
12. Simon Lawler
13. Alice Clevenger
14. Frank Parmalee
15. Marion Mead
16. Mable Mead, Guy Mead
17. Fred Barr
18. Schuyler, Sojourner Truth’s grandson
19. George Swift
20. J.H. Bunnell
21. Chambers
22. Sophia Truth, Sojourner Truth’s daughter,
who married Thomas Schulyer.
Harmonia was a community of like-minded people until 4 August 1862,
when a tornado destroyed much of the village. J. H. Roffee was interviewed for
the 22 July 1917 edition of the Battle Creek Enquirer and told of the tornado
that destroyed his farm and killed his son.[iv] Roffee was 92 at the time
and believed to be the oldest surviving person who had lived in Harmonia at the
time.
The tornado, financial troubles, and the outbreak of WWI ended the
village. In 1917, Camp Custer began building a training camp on the former
Harmonia site. What was once a utopian
village became a place to train soldiers for war.
[i] Year: 1860; Census Place: Bedford, Calhoun, Michigan ; Roll: M653_539; Page: 308; Family History Library Film: 803539
[ii] Tract
Book, Original Purchasers, U.S. Land Office, Kalamazoo, MI, 8th day
of October 1847. p 305, 310 Office of County Clerk, Marshall, MI
[iii] Heritage
Battle Creek 4(Spring 1993) “Harmonia: Memories of the Lost Village” by Frances
Thornton p 16-23
[iv] Battle
Creek (MI) Enquirer, “Settled in Harmonia 64 years ago; was there when cyclone
struck”, 22 July 1917. p7
