Harriet Sweet Lyeth (maiden name: Hardon) was born on March 31, 1831, in Mansfield, Massachusetts, to Comfort Hardon and Anna Field. Her father was a “cistern builder.” The family moved to Martinsburg, Virginia (later West Virginia), in 1841, and she married Benjamin S. Lyeth there on November 28, 1850. They had at least four children: Clinton, born around 1852; John, born around 1857; Comfort, born around 1859; and Joseph, born around 1865.

 

Her husband worked as a tobacconist, and they owned $200 of personal property in 1860. She remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, and she rejoiced in 1862 when the “federal army came in here.” She declared that the “Union must be sustained,” and she denounced President James Buchanan for failing to hold the country together. Had “[Andrew] Jackson been in his place,” she insisted, “he would have done it.” They remained in Martinsburg after the Civil War, and by 1870, they owned $250 of personal property and employed at least one white domestic servant. Her husband died in Martinsburg in 1892. By 1900, she was living in her son Joseph’s household in Martinsburg. She died on July 11, 1909.

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