William Harmon Teaster, a victim of the explosion
It is my desire to hopefully collect as much data as possible on each person that was killed or injured. This website will be the point of all information collected. Here is one victim, Harmon Teaster.
Included here is a family photograph of Harmon whose legal name was William Harmon Teaster. We estimate the first photo to be in his early 20’s, making the photograph to be around the 1865 timeframe. The second photograph was taken closer to his death. This photograph came from his daughter Nancy Teaster Strickland. The photo hung in her house and her children inherited it, then passed down another generation until the great grandson sent it to me. The third photograph is on file at Digital North Carolina from Haywood County Library in North Carolina. The photograph somehow made its way to the Haywood County Library archives by an unknown source. This photo shows Harmon with his son Ransom and his oxen team. The last photo is a family photo showing all the children with the exception of the youngest who was not born at the time of this photo. His name was Robert Lee Teaster and he wasn’t born until 1888. This photograph is estimated to have been taken around 1886. Back row: Ransom Teaster, 20 years old; Harmon Teaster, 41 years old; Susie Hicks Teaster, 41 years old; Nancy Teaster, 21 years old; Hattie Teaster, 1 year old; Texie 22 years old. Front row: Sam Teaster, 12 years old; Bill Teaster, 10 years old; Louisa Teaster, 15 years old; Mary Caroline Teaster, 15 years old and Jethro Teaster, 4 years old. Notice in the oxen photograph and the family photograph Harmon appears to be wearing the same vest.
background photo ©2021, dawn teaster
Note: when past research has been done on Harmon Teaster, some researchers are rather confused on the actual William Harmon Teaster. To resolve this confusion one must understand that William Harmon Teaster had two son’s who both named their son’s Harmon Teaster. In the photograph below we see Bill Teaster at 10 years old. Bill’s legal name was William Council Teaster. He and his wife Tilda Jane (Hicks) Teaster named one of their son’s Harmon Jesse Teaster. Then Sam Teaster seen in the photograph below at 12 years old who’s legal name was Samuel Jay Teaster. He and his wife Nannie (House) Teaster named their son Harmon Lee Teaster. So this is where all the confusion over Harmon Teaster resides. For years the Teaster family has seen a photograph of a man named Harmon Teaster who appears to be laid out after the undertaker prepared his body. Strangely enough, he did not resemble William Harmon but many thought it was. It actually was not since the five men who died never received any sort of funeral preparation or embalming as far as we can tell. That photograph of Harmon Teaster I believe was Harmon Lee Teaster, the son of Samuel and Nannie Teaster. (Seen below)
