Harmon W. Ruliffson was born on 13. Jun. 1834. He was the son of
Harmon Ruliffson and
Susannah Wellman. Harmon W. Ruliffson married
Mary Fredenburg on 4. Sep. 1856. In 1832, his father decided to take the advice of his brother, Isaac, and go up to Western New York with the idea of purchasing a farm there near him. It was a long, hard trip with his family of seven children. They located in the township of Henrietta in Monroe Co. Mary their youngest child died here in March 1833 before she was three. Susannah begged her husband to go back to their old home in the Catskills. So about the first of June, 1834, they started the tiresome journey back by wagon. Then they reached Oneida, Susannah decided she could go no farther; and, there, Harmon W was born, June 13, 1834. WellsLR, p 34. They moved to Owatonna, Minn. in 1857 and took up a government homestead of 160 acres of land and lived on it 22 years. They then moved on a farm near Russell, Minn., in 1880. In 1913 he and his sons owned 1600 acres of land. He was twice elected to the lower house on the Minnesota Legislature, first in 1871 and again in 1903. His wife died March 12, 1915. She was born in Gilboa, Schoharie county, N. Y., Jan. 5, 1837. She was for many years a member of the Methodist church, and her life was a model for the present-day christian women. She was buried in the cemetery near Russell, Minn.