My Genealogy Hound

Hon. James B. Harrison, a successful legal practitioner of Rolla, is a native of Laclede County, Mo., and was born in 1854, being the son of Benjamin B. and Penelope (Dodson) Harrison. Benjamin B. Harrison was born in Phelps County, Mo., in 1818, and is the son of James Harrison, who was a native of South Carolina, and who immigrated to Missouri in the fall of 1817, settling in what is now Phelps County, where the village of Arlington is now located. He here engaged in merchandising, also in farming, and was postmaster of the burg. James Harrison was one of the first white settlers in Phelps County, and he had a brother by the name of Thomas who located in Callaway County the same year. James Harrison died about 1845. Benjamin B. Harrison was one of the first white children born in what is now Phelps County. He was married in Lebanon, Mo.; was the first merchant in the town, and donated the land for the county seat. He followed merchandising up to the time of the late war, and after that he devoted his time to farming. He died in 1886. His wife, and the mother of the subject of this sketch, was born in the State of Missouri, and died about 1854. She was the mother of three children, two now living: Lycurgus L. and James B. The last named was educated in the schools in Lebanon and at Missouri School of Mines in Rolla. At the age of twenty years he began teaching school, and continued this for three terms. During his teaching he studied law, and in 1876 entered the law department of the State University at Columbia, where he graduated in 1877. He entered upon his practice at Lebanon, but soon went to Waynesville, Mo., and in 1880 from there to Rolla, where he has since resided, engaged in the practice of his profession. He is a Democrat in politics, and in 1882 was elected as probate judge of Phelps County, serving four years. During the year 1886 he was elected prosecuting attorney, and served two years. He married a daughter of Judge V. B. Hill, of Pulaski County, Mo., by the name of Miss Ada Hill, who is a native of Pulaski County, Mo., born in 1856. They are the parents of four children: Benjamin H., Georgia, Lucile and James.