History of Bates County, Missouri on Mr. William Harkins

{This Story was found in the History of Bates County, Missouri By William Oscar Atkeson}Historical Publishing Company, 1918 

The recollections of a conversation with Mr. William Harkins on the porch at his home near old Rich Hill in the summer of 1887 leads the writer to think that possibly others may be interested in simple incidents and folk lore of former days. Mr. Harkins had been a soldier of the war of 1812 his home at that time being in the wilds of western New York State.
A typical pioneer he soon found that the environments of that vicinity were changing too fast for him and he gradually drifted with the tide of emigration west until he reached his last abiding place near Rich Hill when Bates County was still in the wilds. He loved to tell of the incidents of the early settlements of the country from New York State west to Bates County, Missouri. He died near Rich Hill about 1886, one of the last survivors of  the War of 1812.
 He was a type of the first settlers, honest because it was natural to be so, he wore his rough side out, and what would have appeared to be refinement of the present day, as bruskness was simply the influence of surroundings that called  for positive actions  and resolutions to meet conditions and under the hardened exterior there glowed a kindly disposition. He was neither rich or poor as we term it today. When the conversation turned to acquiring property he would say "I have always been careful and have succeeded in keeping enough property to be independent." That sentiment prevailed largely with the early settlers. To him "independent" meant having enough to eat and wear and be comfortable in his home and sufficient land and stock to reasonably assure the continuance of that condition. I use him as a type because he was one of the most typical of the type that formed the better element of the first settlers.
Notes from Bart McClaughry: 

I think Mr. Atkeson  is wrong about  Mr. Harkins being from New York the Census shows  he was from Pennsylvania and there is a William Harkins which the War of 1812 Pension Application Files shows from Pennsylvania

Birth:	Oct. 29, 1796
Death:	Oct. 11, 1887
Burial: Green Lawn Cemetery Rich Hill Bates County Missouri, USA Plot: Robinson-Row 5-N