The Royce Oatman family lived in LaHarpe from 1832 to 1842, and four of their seven children were born there: Lucy, Lorenzo, Olive, and Royce Jr. In 1851, six family members were massacred by Indians in Arizona. Olive and her sister Mary Ann were captured, and Lorenzo was left for dead. Mary Ann Sperry Oatman, the wife and mother of the family, planted a lilac bush at each of their homes, and this bush comes from an original in Whiteside County, IL.