harrisj
Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing
Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",
published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.
JARED M. HARRIS, director of
the King Mercantile Company at Ritzville, was born in Allegany county,
New York, November 21, 1842. His father was Anthony Harris, a Pennsylvania
farmer of Pennsylvania birth, whose life was spent in the states of Pennsylvania,
New York, Illinois and Wisconsin, and whose death occurred February 26,
1876, aged sixty-three. Mr. Harris' mother was Irene (Anderson) Harris,
born in Pennsylvania and now living in Pierce county, Wisconsin, aged eighty-three.
Her father was a soldier in the war of 1812, and came of one of the oldest
American families.
Jared M. Harris was reared principally in
Illinois and Wisconsin, was educated in the district schools, and upon
the outbreak of the Rebellion he enlisted with Company A, Third Wisconsin
Volunteers, with which company he served three years and a half.
On October 16, 1861, at the battle of Boliver Heights, he was shot through
the right hand. He was engaged in many of the desperately fought
battles of the war, including Antietam, Gettysburg, Chancellorsville and
Lookout Mountain. During the time of his service he studied diligently,
and improved his education to a marked extent. After the war he returned
to his father's firm in Wisconsin, where he remained until 1865, then removed
to Autogama county, remained there four years when he migrated to South
Dakota. He remained here eight years, during which time he made final
proof on a homestead, when he sold out, mainly on account of the grasshoppers,
and came to Walla Walla. He arrived at Walla Walla in 1877, and first
engaged in freighting. In the meantime he filed a timber culture
adjoining the townsite of Ritzville, and removed his family upon his newly
acquired land. In 1887 he sold the place to J. H. Spanjer, bought
a half section of railroad land and leased a section of school land, cultivated
this until 1890 when he removed to town, where he engaged in the livery
business which he subsequently sold to his sons, sketches of whose lives
appear elsewhere in this history. Mr. Harris then engaged in the
implement business with J. M. Comparet for two years, when the firm purchased
the interest of Ortho Dorman in the Dorman, Theil & King implement
company, which they encorporated under the name as given in the initial
sentence of this sketch. Mr. Harris is traveling for his house the
greater portion of his time.
Mr. Harris has two brothers and three sisters:
Johnson, Almond, Antoinette, wife of Almond Herrick, Ella, wife of Albert
Manwell, and Viola, wife of Frank Sanford. Mr. Harris was married
in Wisconsin, June 25, 1865, to Augusta M. York, a native of Wisconsin,
daughter of Frank and Eliza D. (Cottrell) York, both born in New York state,
the mother being a member of the widely known Cottrell family.
Mrs. Harris has two brothers: Albert J., and
William York, of Walla Walla and Oregon, respectively, and two sisters;
Addie, wife of D. H. Hawn, probate judge at Canton, South Dakota, and Mary,
wife of James Gould, of Confidence postoffice, Tuolumne county, California.
To Mr. and Mrs. Harris have been born six
children: Jesse and Claude, sketches of whose lives appear elsewhere in
this volume; Clifford, a student living at home; Nora, wife of Samuel Edwards,
a
clerk with the Myers-Shepley company, Ritzville; Laura, wife of J. M. Comparet,
manager of the King Mercantile Company; and Nettie, wife of D. W. Pettijohn,
of Pettijohn & Swenson, proprietors of the Ritzville Times.
Mr. Harris is an active and prominent fraternity
man, being a member of the Prairie Queen lodge, K. of P., the K. O. T.
M. and the W. B. Hazen post, G. A. R., of which he has been commander for
six years.
Mrs. Harris is an active member of the Methodist
Episcopal church.
In politics, Mr. Harris is identified as a
staunch member of the Republican party, though he is not an especially
active party worker.
BACK