History

This history is adapted from the book We Are Harston by Ruby Taylor Davis. The Harston family in America traces its origins to Europe and Africa. The earliest known African-American ancestor, Bettie Harston, was born in Maryland, but settled in Mississippi in the 1840s. Her descendants left Mississippi in the 1880s to settle in Arkansas. The Harston family today has grown and spread all over America.

The name Harston, also pronounced Hairston, is the surname of a family that originated in Scotland and migrated to America after a stop in Ireland. The name was given to those who came from Harston, which means “Heoruwulf’s homestead or gray boundary stone.” The patriarch, Peter Hairston, was born in Dumfries, Scotland and moved to America in the middle 1700s from Ulster, Ireland. The Harston family members settled in Virginia and North Carolina. Their business was farming large plantations and owning many slaves. Not much is known about the African ancestors, except that they were taken from Africa against their will, brought to America and made to work as slaves on plantations.

Peter Hairston’s great-grandson, Harden, left Virginia in the 1840s and settled in Lowndes County, Mississippi. One of his possessions that he brought with him was Bettie Harston. Bettie also known as Elizabeth Hairston and Bettie Hairston, would bare three children for Harden before being willed to Harden’s family members after his death in 1862. Bettie and her family would remain in bondage until the ending of the Civil War in 1865.

Despite the harsh post-war environment, Bettie and her family remained in Lowndes County. By this time, Bettie’s family consisted of a husband and five children; Peggie, Mary, Bettie, Andrew, and David Butler. The siblings Mary and David Butler are responsible for all of Bettie’s descendants. They left Mississippi as part of a mass migration in the 1880s as opportunity and conditions diminished, settling in Arkansas. The descendants are divided into the following branches: Sada Alberta Harston Jones, Wardell Harston, Beulah Harston Hollis, Shedren Harston, Bettie Harston Stovall, and Harden Harston, Jr. From humble beginnings, Bettie (1838- 1894?) established a great foundation and legacy for the 2018 HARSTON FAMILY REUNION.