Mary A. Harden (maiden name: Walker) was born around 1834 in Kentucky to Samuel and Sarah Walker. Her father was a farmer who owned $3,000 of real estate and $1,494 of personal property. The family eventually moved to Pleasant, Iowa, and she married James H. Harden on December 25, 1857. They had at least seven children: Alpha, born around 1859; Anna, born around 1862; Fannie, born around 1864; Clara, born around 1867; Edward, born around 1869; Nellie, born around 1876; and Harvey, born around 1877. They remained in Pleasant, and her husband worked as a farmer. By 1860, they owned $500 of real estate and $60 of personal property.

 

Her husband served in the Union army, and he was wounded on January 11, 1863. He returned home later that year. The family moved to Kansas in the late 1860s and then to Bartow, Florida, around 1882.   By 1910, they were living in their daughter Nellie’s household in Tampa, Florida. Her husband died in 1911. She applied for a widow’s pension in February 1912 and eventually secured one. She died at Lake Thonotosassa, Florida, on January 10, 1934.

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