John Henry “Henry” Harbour was born on December 19, 1893, in Stuart, Patrick County, Virginia, the son of Samuel James Harbour and Mary Keziah “Kizzie” Foley Harbour. His roots ran deep in the Pole Bridge community, where his grandparents Marion J. Harbour, Nancy L. Terry, Mack Tyler Foley, and Elizabeth Ruth Wright had tilled the land before him. Henry grew up in the hills of Patrick County alongside his brothers, William Russell and George McCoy Harbour, and helped work the family farm.
Like so many young men of his generation, Henry’s quiet life as a farmer was interrupted by war. On June 5, 1917, he registered for the draft in Patrick County. His registration card describes him as of medium height and build, with blue eyes and black hair—a simple country boy whose world was about to expand far beyond the Blue Ridge.
In the summer of 1918, Henry boarded the troopship Titan at Newport News, Virginia, departing on August 22 with the 62nd Provisional Company, July Replacement Draft. Assigned Service Number 2967862, he entered service as a Private in Company B of the 6th Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army.
Though far from home, Henry’s heart remained in Patrick County with his sweetheart, Mattie Susan “Susie” Shively, the daughter of Peter David Shively and Louanna Jane Hancock Shively. Born on the very same day as Henry—December 19, just five years apart—Susie and Henry shared more than a birthday. They shared dreams of a future together. During his service, Henry wrote her letters whenever he could, pouring out his affection and his homesickness across the ocean.
Recently, a small collection of World War I letters written by Private Henry Harbour to his sweetheart, Mattie Susan “Susie” Shively, were shared with the Bassett Historical Center by one of Susie’s grandsons, Dr. Greg Foley. I am so grateful to Fran Snead and Pat Ross for posting them online on the historical center website. https://www.bassetthistoricalcenter.com/get-history2.php?GetID=108
May 30th, 1918
Dear Susie,
I will drop a few lines to let you know I am living and well. I guess you are having a good time up there. We are having a time down here. They are giving us double time.
Susie, I wish I could see you. Well, I will see you some day if I live. Well, until then tell people up on Pole Bridge that I am just as (sorry) as ever.
Well, I got to go to bed. Well, I don’t get any time to do anything.
So I will close and write soon and write me a long letter.
From your loving friend,
John H. Harbour
As the months wore on, the tone of his letters reflected the weight of separation. In his last surviving letter to Susie, dated March 27, 1919, he confessed:
Dear Susie,
I will answer your kind letter I got yesterday and was glad to hear from you. This leaves me well and hope when these four friends (promise) to __________ it will find you well and enjoying life.
Well, Susie I was thinking that you had forgotten me. This is the first letter I have gotten from you since August. You said I had forgotten you but I have not. I would like to see you and talk with you. I have a lot to tell you. Susie, you don’t know how bad I want to see you. I am thinking about you all the time.
I have gotten a good place to stay. I am staying with a Dutchman sleeping in the parlor but there is no time for me over here. I am getting the Army blues. Well, I guess my lady will be married by the time I get back. I don’t know when I will get home. I guess Tony has gotten back by this time. I think if they don’t send me home pretty soon, I will go wild. Well, I am getting sleepy for I have not been sleeping any for 3 nights.
So I’ll close. Answer soon.
From your loving friend,
PJHH
Tragically, Henry never made it home to Susie or to the hills of Patrick County. On May 11, 1919, at just 25 years old, Private John Henry Harbour died in France. Whether from wounds of battle, illness, or the devastating influenza pandemic that claimed so many young soldiers, his sacrifice was the same—the ultimate price for freedom.
His body was returned to Virginia and laid to rest in the Foley Cemetery in Elamsville, among family and the familiar ridges he had always called home. Decades later, his brother McCoy Harbour ensured his memory would never fade by applying for a military headstone, a flat bronze marker inscribed simply: “Pvt. U.S. Army, WWI.”
Henry Harbour’s story is not only one of duty and sacrifice, but also of love and longing. His letters to Susie remain treasured pieces of history—fragile paper carrying words that outlived the young man who wrote them. They remind us that behind every name carved in stone is a life full of hopes, dreams, and love left behind.
Private John Henry Harbour stands among the many young men from Patrick County who gave everything in the Great War. Though he never returned to the life he began in the Virginia hills, his name, his service, and his love story endure—an everlasting testament to the cost of freedom.
Thank you again to Dr. Greg Foley, Fran Snead, and Pat Ross for sharing these precious letters. If you have a question, comment, or idea for a story, you may reach Woody at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or 276-692-9626.
