Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/160

128 order of St. Mary, now established in four dioceses with some six hundred members and associates, and includine; hospitals, schools, and reformatories. Mother Harriet was buried in the private cemetery of the sisterhood. See '• Harriet Starr Cannon, First Mother Superior of the Sisterhood of St. Mary, a Brief Memoir by Morgan Dix, Sometime Pastor of the Community" (New York, ISflti).

HARRIS, Cicero Richardson, A. M. E. Zion bishop, b. in Fayetteville, N. C 25 Aug.. 1844. He is of African descent, went with liis family to Ohio in 1850, and was educated in the Central high- school of Cleveland. He returned to his native place as a teacher in 186, became jiriiicipal of Zion Wesley institute (now Livingstone college) in 1880, and was professor of mathematics there in 18S3-'8. He was general secretary of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church in 1880-'4, and its general steward from 1880 till 1888, when he became a bishop. — His elder brother, John Dennis, became a physician, was surgeon in the U. S. freedman's hospital in Washington, and has written "Summer on the Borders of the Caribbean."

HARRIS, George Francis, contractor, b. in Chesterfield, Mass., 7 March, 1818; d. in Clayton, Ala., 18 March, 1888. He was one of the earliest railway contractors in this country, having built the Vermont and Massachusetts railroad in 1846 and the Great Western railroad of Cnna<la in 1853- '3. From 1876 till his death resided in New York city, being connected with various railroad enter- prises. He invented the Harris track-laying ma- chine in 1880, and subsequently devoted his atten- tion to that subject. In 1887 one-fifth of all the railway track in the United States was laid by the machine that is controlled by the firm of which Mr. Harris was the senior iiarlner.

HARRIS, Jonathan Newton, philanthropist, b. in Salem, Conn.. 18 Nov., 1815; d. in New Lon- don, Conn., 18 Oct., 1896. He was a member of the state senate, twice mayor of New London, and at the beginning of the civil war he equipf)ed the entire garrison at Fort Trumbull. He was long a director and promoter of the American board of commissioners of foreign missions, and founded the Harris school of science in Kioto, Japan, at a cost of |100,000. Mr. Harris also gave 150,000 each to the Moody sclujol at North- field and to the Mount Hermon school, and an- nually distributed that amount to various churches and beiu^volent organizations.

HARRIS, William Alexander, senator, b. in Loudoun county, Va., 29 Oct., 1841 ; was graduated at Columbian university and at the Virginia mili- tary institute. He served three years in the Confed- erate army, and in 1863 removed to Kansas, where he was employed as an engineer in the construc- tion of the Union Pacific railway. In 1868 he be- came agent for the sale of the Delaware reserva- tion and other lands in connection with farming and stock-raising, particularly as a breeder of pure- bred shorthorns. He was elected to the 53d con- gi'css as a Populist and indorsed by the Democrats. Mr. Harris was elected to the U. S. senate, and took his seat in March, 1897, for six years.

HARRISON, Benjamin, twenty-third presi- dent of the United States, b. in Nortli Bend, Ohio, 20 Aug., 1833. It has been stated that his lineage can be traced to Harrison the regicide. He came directly from the Virginia Harrisons, who were dis- tinguished in the early history of that colony, his great-grandfather, Benjamin Harrison, being one of the seven Virginia delegates to the congress which drew the Declaration of Independence. The Harri- sons owned large landed estates on the bank of the Ohio near the mouth of the Big Miami. Benjamin assisted in the work on his father's farm, which contained about four hundred acres. The products of the farm were annually shipped in flat boats to New Orleans, and his father usually went with the cargo, the crew being composed of men from the neighborhood who were familiar with the perils of transi)ortation on the Mississippi river. His first studies were prosecuted in the log school-house, and at the age of fifteen he went to Farmers (now Bel- mont) college, at College Hill, a suburb of Cincin- nati. After a two years' stay there he became a. student at Miami university, Oxford, where an ac- quaintance formed at College Hill ripened into a permanent attachment for Miss Caroline L. Scott, who afterward became his wife. The young lady had faith in liis star, and did not hesitate to ally her fortunes with his. They were married while he was yet a law student and before he had at- tained his majority. He graduated fourth in his class in 1852, Milton Sayler taking first honors and David Swing standing second. As a boy he dis- tinguished himself as an off-hand debater in the Union literary society. From the first he showed an aptitude for thinking on his legs, and a gift of utterance which enabled him to express himself in apt words. At a town meeting, where an aboli- tionist abused Webster and Clay for the part they took in the compromise measures of 1850, the citizens were amazed to see a slender, tow-headed boy of seventeen mount a bench and make a vigor- ous speech in vindication of the great statesmen. He studied law with Storer & Gwynne, of Cincin- nati, and in 1853 married and was admitted to the bar. In 1854 he put up his sign as attorney-at-law in Indianapolis, where he has kept his residence ever since. It was not long before his ability be- came known. His first effort at the bar was in prosecuting a man charged with burglary. He received a few dollars by acting as crier for the United States Court, and was glad to Uike a five- dollar fee now and then for a ca.se before a coun- try justice, though one half of the fee was neces- sary to pay for the hii'e of a horse to take him to the place of trial. Whoever employed him could count on his doing his very best, whether the in- terests involveil were small or great. Promptness and tlioroughness are characteristics which have been manifest in his whole career, professional and political. In 1855 he formed a partnership with William Wallace, and when that gentleman was elected ccmnty clerk in 18G1 he formed a partner- ship with W. P. Fishback. which was interrupted by his enlisting in the army in 1862. but the con- nection was resumed again in 186.5, when the firm became Po-ter. Harrison & Fishback, and so con- tinued until 1870. when Mr. Fishback retired. Judge Hines taking his jjlace. Gov. Porter retiring, W. H. H. Miller became a partner in the firm, and upon Judge Hines retiring. Mr. John B. Elam be- came a memt)er of the firm of Harrison. Miller & Elam. which continued until it was dissolved by Gen. Harrison's election to the presidency in 1888. While not always the senior in years, he was the senior in fact in every firm of which he was a mem- ber; such is the ungrudging testimony of all those who have been his paitners.

Though breaking the chronological order of events somewhat, it is as well to complete here the sketch of his professional career. He has been concerned in the most important litigation in In- diana for nearly thirty years. He was employed in all sorts of cases, such as came to attorneys engaged in general practice before the era of pro- fessional specialists. The panorama of human life