The Harris Families of Randolph County, Indiana

WILLIAM P. HARRIS, farmer, P. O. Trenton. He was born December 29, 1821, in Campbell County, Va., and came to this county in March, 1837. He was educated in the common schools of Virginia, and is one of the substantial farmers of the county. He w.as united in the holy bonds of marriage to Loui.a F. Butler, April li, 1843. She was born September 0, 1824, in Campbell County, Va. Theyhavesix children living— Henry E., born March 18, 1844; Lucy A., September 4, 181(j;.Matilda V., September 20, 1x48; Celia E., October 21, 1851; John C, April 10, 1857; and Selina F., May 11, 1869. Mr. Harris was elected Justice of the Peace in 1870, and w.is appointed in 1877 to the same office, there being some error in the date of his commission. He and his family are consistent members of the M. E. Church, and universally esteemed in their community. He is also an honored member of Huntsville Lodge, F. & A. M., 367. He owns a valuable farm of 251 acres of land in a high state of cultivation, and is an ment Republican from principle. His father, John Harris, was a native of Virginia, where he was born March 10, 1791; he was married to Celia It. Lamb, April 2, 1818. She was born in Virginia February 13, 1801, and died in this county November 28, 1874. His father immigrated to this county in the year 1837, and deceased November 28, 1801.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

WILLIAM HARRIS is one of the solid men of Union City, a man of sterling enterprise, who takes pride in his business, and is an honor to the city in which he resides. He was born in Ovid, Seneca Co., N. Y., in August, 1845, being the son of William Harris, a carriage-maker of that county, who died before his son William was born. William resided at Ovid till twenty years old, and in 1865 moved to Findlay, Hancock Co., Ohio. After clerking there for six months, he found his way to Union City, Ind. During three years he was in the employ of W. S. Osborn, egg and butter packer, having an " interest" in the establishment during the last year. In 1868, he entered the firm of Turpen 'i Harris, of which he has been a member ever since. In 1888, he married Anna E., daughter of Enos H, Turpen, and they have had six children, five of them living, all daughters. In political sentiment, he is a Democrat. He has been a member of the Board of Control of Union City, for four years, and Treasurer of the School Board for two years. Mr. H. is a man of enlightened business views and energetic temperament, having done much to advance the interests of the city, and is highly respected by his fellow-citizens. His career in the egg, butler and poultry business is a striking example of what maybe done, even in a small interior town, by intelligent skill and faithful devotion to business. We give elsewhere a detailed account of the establishment of which he is the chief manager, Mr. Harris, from being a poor man without means or the apparent prospect thereof, has become, in the course of twelve or thirteen years, and solely by his active, enlightened and judicious enterprise, one of the solid men of the city. In the fall of 1880. he purchased the beautiful and commodious mansion erected and owned by Dr. Joel N.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

ARON HARRIS, farmer, P. 0. Fairview, was born at Oxford, Ind. His parents, Samuel and Mary Hart moved to Montgomery County, Ohio

April of Virginio. They near Dayton, in 1827. There the subjccl'of this sketch received h In 1848, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Bond, and in 1855, came to Randolph County, locating upon a tract of heavily timbered land. His farm contains 240 acres, of which area 196 acres have been cleared by himself. His wedded life has been blessed hy nine children, seven of whom now survive, viz.: William P., Hiram J., James F., Eveline, John W., Henry F. and Ella J..Mr. Harris is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is highly esteemed as a good citizen. For several years after locating in this county, he worked at the carpenter's trade, and erected many of the first frame barns in this locality.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

EMMETT B. HARRIS.

It is no very rare thing for a poor boy in our country to become a prosperous man and occupy a commanding position in the business world, but many who have fought their way from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to prominence, retain some marks and cars of the conflict. They are apt to be narrow and grasping, even if not sordid and unscrupulous. Emmett B. Harris, the able and popular cashier of The Citizens Banking Company, of Modoc, Randolph county, although he did not come up from the ranks of the poverty stricken and has not reached the affluence of the rich, yet he has worked his way from a modest beginning to a comfortable station in the world of affairs, being an instance of a man who has achieved success without paying the price at which it is so often bought. His success has not removed him further from his fellow men, but has brought him into nearer and more intimate relations with them, and, although he has led a busy life, he has yet found time to devote to those interests which develop the intellectual and moral nature of man, living not to himself alone, but showing a desire all the while to aid his fellow men.

Mr. Harris was born July 12, 1876, in Farmland, Randolph county. He is a son of David T. and Mary V. (Botkin) Harris. The father was born in Hagerstown, Indiana, and was a son of John G. Harris, a native of Lynchburg, Virginia, from which place he emigrated to Indiana in pioneer times and spent the rest of his life engaged in farming near Hagerstown, and there also the father of our subject engaged in farming. The mother of our subject was born on the old Botkin homestead, which has come down through three generations from the great-grandfather, who was one of the earliest settlers in this part of the state, and from that early day to the present the Botkins have been influential citizens in Randolph county, where Mrs. Harris grew to womanhood and was educated in the early schools. She is still living, being now sixty years of age. The death of David T. Harris occurred November 27, 1908. To these parents four children were born, two sons and two daughters, namely: Emmett B., of this sketch; Chester R., who is employed by the Western Union Telegraph Company in New York City, married Mabelle Skeele, and they have one child, Franklin; Jennie G. married C. A. Davis of the Western Electric Company, of East Orange, New Jersey, and they have one daughter, Mabel Marie; Mabel N., who was graduated from a high school, and is a successful teacher in Modoc, was born September 20, 1889.

Emmett B. Harris grew to manhood in his native locality and he received a good practical education in the local schools, later was graduated from a commercial college, after which he worked for some time as bookkeeper for the Strawboard Company at Yorktown, Indiana. He gave eminent satisfaction in this position, and since 1904 he has been cashier of The Citizens Banking Company, of Modoc, Indiana, and has done much to increase the prestige and high standing of this solid and popular institution. It was established in March, 1903, with a capital of ten thousand dollars and has made a gratifying growth ever since, doing a general banking business in a safe and conservative way, thereby gaining the confidence of the people. Their surplus and undivided profits have now grown to over ten thousand dollars. Its president is John Christopher, of whom a sketch appears on another page of this work. The directors are W. T. Farquhar, H. A. Gaddis, B. C. Mendenhall, Arthur R. Moore, M. V. Maulsby, J. C. Cropper and John Christopher.

Mr. Harris was married July 14, 1907, to Inez Porterfield, of Richmond, Indiana, a daughter of M. C. Porterfield, a well-known citizen of that city, where Mrs. Harris was born, reared and educated. To Mr. and Mrs. Harris one child has been born. Freeman, whose birth occurred July 25, 1909.

Mr. Harris is Independent politically, but has never been active as an office seeker, but has been town treasurer of Modoc for some time. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He attends the Methodist Episcopal church.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.