Sugar Creek Township
GEORGE W. HARRIS, Jr., who is now farming the old Harris homestead in Sugar Creek township, was born in section 25, of the same township, November 3, 1876, a son of George W. Harris and Cindora (McCLAIN) HARRIS. The father was born in the same vicinity as his son and name sake, December 12, 1844, and was killed at a railroad crossing in Sugar Creek township, October 12, 1904. Mrs. HARRIS was born in Springfield, Ohio, August 15, 1842, and is now a resident of Terre Haute. It was in this city that she became the wife of George W. HARRIS, and their union has been blessed by the birth of six children, but only three are now living. The eldest, Herschel, resides in Terre Haute, He graduated from the Rose Polytechnic College with the class of 1892, and is now a civil engineer and contractor. Ethel resides with her mother in Terre Haute. She attended the State Normal there, and is now teaching music.
George W. HARRIS, Jr., the youngest of the three living children, received a public school education and remained on the home farm until he was twenty-one years of age. He then enlisted in the First Coast Artillery, at Fort Barrancas, Florida, as a private, and after three years service at the fort was discharged December 26, 1901. After serving for two years he was advanced to a Corporal, and following his discharge he return to the old home farm here and began its operation. The homestead, containing about three hundred acres, has never been divided and he farms the entire tract. He is a republican politically.
In August, 1906, Mr. HARRIS was united in marriage to Dorothy CARLISLE, who was born in March 1882, in Booneville, Missouri, and she was a commercial teacher in the Brown Business College, of Terre Haute, at the time of her marriage.
GREATER TERRE HAUTE AND VIGO COUNTY
C.C. Oakey - 1908
P. 724
GIDEON ALBERT HARRIS is a member of two of the oldest and most honored pioneer families of Vigo county, and in its township of Sugar Creek, in section 25, he was born January 5, 1850, a son of John and Lavinia (BENNETT) HARRIS. The mother also had her nativity in Sugar Creek township, born in 1820, and she died in February, 1900.
JOHN HARRIS was born in the state of Delaware, in March, 1820, and died in Sugar Creek township, Vigo county, Indiana, in 1886. He was but a boy of ten years, when, with his father, and one sister, he left his native state for Indiana, his mother having died in his infancy. They made the entire trip with a one-horse wagon and settled on what was then known as Schisler Hill, where the senior Mr. HARRIS spent the remainder of his life. The family were descendants of the English and Welsh, and both the grandfather and the great-grandfather of Gideon A. HARRIS were slave holders in Maryland and Delaware. On the maternal side he is Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch. John HARRIS was always a farmer and stock raiser, and was a successful business man and an excellent financier. At the time of his death he owned eleven hundred acres of land, all in one body. He was a Republican from the formation of the party in 1860, but previously voted with the Democracy. He never sought political honors, and was therefore, never in office. Both he and his wife worshipped in the Methodist Episcopal church, and in their family were ten children, but the five eldest. Mary, James, George, Thomas and Richard, are deceased, as are also Charles Frances and Martha, the seventh and eighth born. Frances E. was never married and resides on the old homestead, and her younger sister, Lavina Barbara, is deceased.
Gideon A. HARRIS, the sixth born, graduated from the district schools of Sugar Creek township, and then for three years attended DePauw University, of Greencastle. From that time until the present he has remained on the old Harris homestead, and he now owns three hundred and forty acres and follows general farming. His land is also rich in coal, and he operates one mine and is a stockholder in another. Mr. HARRIS follows in the political footsteps of his father and votes with the republican party, and he also has fraternal relations with the Order of Red Men, Ionia Tribe, No. 104, in West Terre Haute, and with the Independent Order Of Odd Fellows, No. 51, of Terre Haute, and with the Canton McKeen Encampment, No. 17, and with the Knights of Pythias in West Terre Haute, Castle Hall, No. 521.
On the 15th of February, 1880, he was united in marriage to Martha J. HICKLIN, who was born in section 15, of Sugar Creek township, June 9, 1854, a daughter of Josiah and Lydia Jane (SHUEY) HICKLIN. Natives respectively of Vincennes, Indiana, and Virginia, and both are now deceased. Two daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. HARRIS. The elder, Estella, graduated in the Indiana State Normal with the class in 1906, and is now teaching in the graded schools of West Terre Haute, Lena Louise graduated in the Terre Haute high school with the class of 1907, and is now taking post-graduate work in the same institution. Mr. HARRIS is a Methodist, but his wife and daughters are members of the Congregational church, at West Terre Haute.
In relics, Mr. and Mrs. HARRIS have a salt cellar with the portrait of General Washington. This little souvenir with the two silver spoons for salt, is over one hundred and fifty years old. This is the oldest relic found in Vigo county. They and their two daughters have one of the finest private libraries numbering over one thousand volumes. The family are more than ordinary educated, father and mother both receiving good educations, as well as their accomplished daughters. Both of the daughters have taken instrumental music. In their library are two old volumes, "The Instructor," publish in 1795, and "The Travel Before the Flood," published in 1797.
GREATER TERRE HAUTE AND VIGO COUNTY
C.C. Oakey - 1908
Pp. 720-722
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