History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/W. F. Harriman
W. F. HARRIMAN was born in Warner, New Hampshire, August 16, 1841. His education was acquired in the public schools of his native town and in the New London Literary and Scientific Institution. He worked on a farm and taught school until his parents removed to Iowa in 1860, when he began to read law. In 1869 he was admitted to the bar at Charles City and settled in Cherokee where he began practice. He soon became a large land owner and planted the first artificial grove in that county. In 1876 he removed to Hampton in Franklin County where he resumed the practice of law. Retiring from active practice in 1888, Mr. Harriman engaged extensively in farming and stock raising. In 1891 he was elected on the Republican ticket Representative in the House of the Twenty-fourth General Assembly, serving by reëlection also in the Twenty-fifth General Assembly. In 1895 he was elected to the Senate from the district composed of the counties of Cerro Gordo, Hancock and Franklin, serving in the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh General Assemblies. He was the author of the act creating the Department of Agriculture.