My Genealogy Hound

John W. Harris is a worthy tiller of the soil of Ashley County, and although born at Elkton, Giles County, Tenn., April 9, 1828, he has been a resident of this section since February, 1845. His parents, Zeno T. and Harriet M. (Hawkins) Harris, were married in Tennessee about 1811, the latter being from Virginia, and two sons and a daughter blessed this union, of whom John W. is the only one now living. His father died in 1834, soon after which event his mother moved to La Grange, Ala., and as a means of supporting and educating her children, she kept Stewart’s Hall, the boarding-house of a college. John W. Harris attended school until the winter of 1844, then went to Memphis, Tenn., and from there came to Ashley County, Ark. (then Chicot County), and was engaged in managing his uncle’s farms on Bayou Bartholomew until 1850, when he was taken with the “gold fever” and went to California. He worked in the mines for some time, but not being very successful he then, with two or three others, went to gardening, at which he made considerable money. After remaining there for about two years he returned to Ashley County, and shortly afterward was married to Mrs. Martha Gregory, after which he settled down to farming, and for twenty-six years continued to till the soil. To himself and wife, whom he lost in 1873, five children were born, two of whom lived to be grown: Sarah and Fannie, now the wife of R. A. Moore, of Hamburg. Sarah married John Segars, and after the death of her husband, by whom she had one child, Ada, she married Byron Wilhite, bearing him one child, and dying in 1885. Mr. Harris’ second union occurred in 1874 to Miss Mary B. Hanna, a daughter of William Hanna, who resides in Indiana. They have two daughters: Maud, aged thirteen, and Mayme B., aged three years, both bright little girls. Mr. Harris served in the Confederate army about one year, entering about 1862, but in 1863 he took “French leave” and went North, where he remained until the war was over. He then came back to his old home, and here he has since remained. He was the only white Republican in the county who voted for Gen. Grant for the presidency in 1869. In 1871 he represented Ashley County in the State Legislature, making an excellent official, and has been a member of the local school board several times. In his religious views he is a Swedenborgian, and socially is a member of the A. F. & A. M., the K. of H., and the K. & L. of H. He is a wealthy citizen, and is the owner of about 1,200 acres of land on the Bayou Bartholomew, 350 of which are under cultivation, devoted to the culture of cotton and corn.