Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/119

 HARRIS

HARRIS

military committee, 1861-65; and was an active member of the Ohio state bar association, holding the presidency, 1893-94. He was a Republican representative from Ohio in the o-lth congress, 181)0-97.

HARRIS, Thaddeus Mason, clergyman, was born in Cuarlestowu, Mass., July 7, 1768. His father was a Revolutionary patriot and died dur- ing the war, leaving his family destitute. His first ancestor in America was Thomas Harris of Ottery Saint Mary, Devonshire, England. He was prepared for college by Dr. Morse, and grad- uated at Harvard, A.B., 1787; A.M., 1790. He taught in Worcester, Mass., 1787-88: studied theology; served as librarian of Harvard, 1791-93, and was minister of Fir.st parish of Dorchester, Unitarian, 1793-1839. He was a member of the Massachusetts historical society ; a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences, and corresponding member of the society Archeologi- cal d'Athenes. He received from Harvard the degree of S.T.D. in 1813. He published: Dis- courses in Favor of Free Masonry (1803) ; Journal of a Tour of the Territory Northioest of the Alle- ghany Mountains (1805) : A Natural History of the Bible (1831) ; The First Church of Dorchester (1830) ; and Memoirs of Jamrs Oglethorpe (1841). He died in Dorchester. Mass. April 3, 1843.

HARRIS, Thaddeus William, entomologist, was born in Dorchester, Mass., Nov. 13, 1795; son of the Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris, minister of the first church, Dorchester. He was graduated at Harvard, A.B. in 1815, A.M., in 1818. and M.D. in 1830. He practised medicine at Milton Hill, Mass., 1830-31; was librarian of Harvard, 1831- 56; originated the Harvard Students' natural history society, and gave instruction in botany and natural history to its members. He was a fellow of the American academy of arts and sciences, and a member of the Massachusetts his- torical society. He made a zoological and botan- ical survey of Massachusetts and catalogued 3350 species of in- sects. The Bos- ton society of natural history purchased his collection of in- jects and the exhaustive cat- alogiies which BosTOAi SOCIETY OF /VHTURAL HISTORY j^g jj^d pre- pared with the utmost care after verifying the respective species. The legislature of Massachu- setts published his report Insects Injurious to Vegetation (1841, enl. ed., 1853). He published upwards of fifty papers resulting from his re- search as an antiquarian. He died in Cam- bridge, Mass., Jan, 16, 1856.

HARRIS, Thomas Cadwalader, naval officer, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 18, 1835; son of Dr. Thomas and Jane Phillips (Hodgdon) Har- ris. His father was a surgeon in the war of 1813 and surgeon-general in the U.S. navy; his grand- father. Gen. William Harris, served in the Revo- lution and in the whiskj- rebellion, and liis maternal grandfather. Gen. Samuel Hodgdon, served throughout the American Revolution. He was warranted a midshipman in the U.S. navy in 1841; passed midshipman, Aug. 10, 1847; lieu- tenant, 1855; master, Sept. 14, 1855; lieutenant- commander, Aug. 5, 1863; commander, Aug. 7, 1866, and captain, Dec. 13, 1873. His active ser- vice included the commands of the Chippeica and the Yantic during the progress of the civil war. He was engaged on blockading duty off Charles- ton in 1863, and engaged Fort Wagner and the batteries on Morris Island as lieutenant-com- mander in charge of the Chi])j)ewa, and was in command of the Yantic in both attacks on Fort Fisher, December, 1864, and January, 1865. After the civil war he was on various duties and commanded the St. Mary's from Jan. 33, 1870, starting from San Francisco, Cal., visiting South America, the Hawaiian, Solomon and Fiji islands. New Zealand and Austi'alia, thence to New York by San Francisco, reaching that port to be de- tached, June 9, 1873. He received the commen- dation of the state department for his services as diplomatic agent at the Solomon and Fiji islands. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 34, 1875.

HARRIS, Townsend, diplomatist, was born in Sandy Hill, N.Y., Oct. 3, 1804; son of Jona- than Harris, and grandson of Gilbert and Thank- ful (Townsend) Harris, of Ticonderoga, N.Y. His maternal grandfather John Watson served with Gilbert Harris in the Continental anny under General Gates. The Harrises came from Wales to America with Roger Williams and set- tled in Massachusetts and later generations removed to Ulster county, N.Y., and thence to Essex and Washington counties. Townsend was educated chiefly by his mother and his school training did not extend beyond that afforded by the primary school and village academy. In 1817 he became a clerk in a dry-goods store in New York city, and a few years later his father and older brother John removed to New York and the three organized the business of importing china and earthenware. After the great fire in New York in 1835 when their store was blown up with gunpowder to prevent the s])read of the flames, the business was reorganized as John & Townsend Harris. While in business he learned the French, Spanish and Italian languages. He was a mem- ber of the board of education of New York city for several years and president of the board, 1846- 47. He was one of the prime movers in founding