Horace Harned, Jr. papers

Horace Hammerton Harned, Jr. was born July 27, 1920 at State College, Mississippi to Horace Hammerton Harned (May 20, 1886-1962) and Harriet McFarland Rice (married 1919). One of six children, Horace Hammerton Harned, Jr. has two brothers, Arthur R. Harned, Wentworth V. Harned as well as three sisters, Helen (Mrs. Charles Deyner), Mrs. Agnes Goeller, and Ann (she died in 1933 at the age of five). His father was originally from Plainfield, New Jersey, a Quaker, Shriner, member of Sigma Chi, and Professor and Head of the Biology Department, Mississippi State College from 1913 to 1962. Harned Hall, 295 Lee Boulevard, Mississippi State University (MSU), was named in honor of his father, posthumously. In addition to academic work, his father was a jersey cattle breeder and operated a dairy east of the MSU campus. For an obituary of Horace Hammerton Harned, see the Jackson Daily News, November 3, 1962. Rice Hall, 180 Magruder Street, MSU, was named after Horace Hammerton Harned, Jr’s maternal aunt, Nannie Herdon Rice who worked to build and uplift the MSU library facilities and served as Secretary of the Mississippi Women’s Suffrage Movement. Horace Hammerton Harned Jr. graduated from Starkville High School and graduated from Mississippi State College with a degree in Geology in 1942.

During World War II, he served as a cartographer with the 3rd Mapping Squadron, First Mapping Group, 14th Air Force (China), United State Army Air Force. Following duty in China he, undertook mapping duties in South America. Commissioned a Second Lieutenant on November 7, 1942, he was discharged circa April 1946. Following his discharge from military service, Horace Hammerton Harned Jr. operated a diversified farm, focusing on dairy and livestock, since 1946. He married Nellie Jean Howell in 1949. Together they had four children, a son Horace Harned III and three daughters, Margaret Ann (Chandler), Helen Robey (Dillard), and Alice Maudine (Walters).

In 1951 Horace Hammerton Harned Jr. was elected to the Mississippi State Senate, serving from 1952 to 1956. He was the principal author for the Mississippi State Right to Work Law. Following his term in the state senate, he was elected State Representative, 24th District, Lowndes and Oktibbeha serving from 1957 to 1979. He unsuccessfully ran for Mississippi Second Congressional District circa 1980.

Horace Hammerton Harned Jr. was Chairman, Oktibbeha Country, First Congressional District, Association of Citizens’ Councils of Mississippi, (1955-56) later Starkville, until 1968. He was Chairman, Oktibbeha County Sesquicentennial Committee, in 1983. In 1986, the Oktibbeha County Soil and Water Conservation District, Soil Conservation Service recognized him as a Cropland Conservationist. Horace Hammerton Harned Jr. is a Mason, a charter member of the Faith Baptist Church, and a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Farm Bureau, the Oktibbeha County Agricultural Club, Rotary, Kappa Sigma, and the MSU Alumni association.