When you discuss Harman history you can always count on the conversation getting around to asking why the family changed its spelling. I don’t think anybody alive today really knows.

Lexington historians tell us Melchior Hermann came to the Dutch Fork in 1752 from Germany. By 1800 the name had been anglicized to Harman. Sometime much later some Harmans split to Harmon. There the mystery refusing to shed any light.

In Pilgrim Church cemetery, a genealogical seeker approached me with a plausible story that occurred during the Civil War. For now I will keep that one to myself.

When I wrote about the Harman/Harmon clan, the guardians of the ancestral secrets would give me what for if I got too close.

Even Uncle Josh Haman hinted of untold secrets using his cane to punctuate its importance. Perhaps they lay hidden along 18 Mile Creek where the Harmans first settled in Lexington District.

Running the local newspaper was a great way to encourage truthful reporting. Even after 150 years when memories have faded time is on the side of a good story.

Funny thing, the Harmans and my family, the Corleys, were neighbors and kinsmen when they lived along the Saluda River near St. Peter’s Lutheran Church long before there was a Lexington. My mom always told me we were kin to the Harmans.

The day Mom and I went to see Miss Winnie Harmon, she told us stories about the Yankees pouring syrup over the quilts in the Roberts’ house on Yachting Road. Some of the quilts were used as saddle blankets for their horses. Her family hid the mantle clock in the baby’s cradle.