Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 451
HON. D. H. HARRIS

Hon. D. H. HARRIS (Portrait), more familiarly styled Judge Harris, editor of Missouri Valley Times, is too well known throughout the length and breadth of Iowa, and especially of the Missouri Slope to need an intoduction to the readers of this volume. But for the information of those who may come after him, it may be said in this connection that Mr. HARRIS came to Missouri Valley when that town was yet in it infancy and established the Times in the month of June, 1868. The first paper was issued July 3rd, and he has been editor-in-chief ever since, with the exception of four years. For a full account of the history of this newspaper the reader is referred to the city history of Missouri Valley.

A man who is three-score-and-ten years old, if he has improved his time and talents, has had ample time to accomplish much toward filling the short space necessarily alloted to him for a biographical notice in the history of his home county.

Our subject was born in Montgomery County, Ohio, at what is now the city of Dayton, July 21, 1821. He is the son of Daniel and Marcy (BOKER) HARRIS. The father was from Massachusetts and the mother from Pennsylvania. His parents died when he was but nine years of age, and he went to Maury County, Tenn. to live and remained there until 1854, and there received his early education in the common schools, after which he engaged in the mercantile business, then read law and was admitted to the bar in Maury County, and practiced law there for four years, and in 1854 removed to Audubon County, Iowa, remaining there until 1862, following the practice of law until 1876 in various places. He was elected County Judge of Audubon County, in 1856, being the second Judge of that county. He served two terms as Judge, and in the autumn of 1859 was elected as a member of the House in the Eighth General Assembly of the State of Iowa, serving in the regular session of 1860 and the extra (war) session of 1861. His district comprised four counties. In 1886, he was elected to the Twenty-first General Assembly, serving with distinction and in a satisfactory manner to his constituents. Politically, the Judge is a Democrat, and one who is ever ready to defend the principles of that party, being at all times ready to give a reason for the hope within him concerning his political faith.

He was united in marriage July 29, 1841 to Martha M. WHITE, who is a native of Tennessee, by which union ten children have been born, all of whom are still living, six sons and four daughters -- Mary Isabel, wife of John Crane, of Exira, Iowa; William J., Daniel W., of South Dakota; Clarinda C., widow of John P. Lahman; John W., at home; Robert H., at home; Edwin T., of Sheldon, Iowa; Ellis N., in South Dakota; Virginia Tennessee, wife of William W. Rutledge, of Castleton, N. Dak.; and Emma E., wife of Charles H. Russel, now of Clarinda, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. HARRIS have fourteen grand-children and one great-grandchild. They are exemplary members of the Christian Church. He is a member and a leading spirit in the Masonic and Odd Fellows lodges, at Missouri Valley, and his wife is identifed with the Eastern Star and Rebecca degrees of these orders.

Among the most enjoyable occasions it is the good pleasure for man and wife to take part in, is that of a Golden Wedding anniversary which bespeaks of fifty years of wedded life. Such a boon is of rare occurrence, but Providence has permitted Judge Harris and his estimable wife to travel life's journey as man and wife for a half century, and to rear a family of ten children, with never a death in their household the family chain being yet unbroken. So it was that on July 29, 1891, a large company of their good friends at Missouri Valley and elsewhere, assembled at the Judge's residence, and after the marriage ceremony was renewed, a reminder of that day in 1841 when they embarked in life together, many golden gifts were bestowed upon this worthy couple, who count their friends, wherever they have lived, by the one word legion. Among such gifts was a purse filled with gold presented to the good wife and mother, while a magnificent Elgin gold watch was presented to Mr. HARRIS, with befitting remarks, and the watch itself having an appropriate inscription engraved upon its chaste case.

Judge HARRIS has been a strong political factor in the Hawkeye State, for many long years; and while he is a man of deep convictions, and in his editorial writings, at times, scathing, yet he perforce of his genial and manly course, makes but few personal enemies, and like most men who express their political and religious convictions, regardless of fear or favor or of what the world may say, he stands to-day high in the estimation of a very large class of people in Western Iowa. At one time he edited the Defender, at Exira, Iowa; and also a paper called the Capsheaf, at Atlantic, Iowa; and the Kansas Democrat, at Independence, Kan., which has given him a diversified editorial experience as the conductor of a genuine Democratic journal.

In 1884 Mr. HARRIS was a delegate-at-large to the Democratic National Convention, and was the first man in Iowa to raise a flag of honor of Grover Cleveland. Twice served on the electoral Democratic ticket of Iowa, and in 1888 was the Democratic candidate for Congress in the Ninth Congressional District, running considerably ahead of his party ticket. He has served four terms as Mayor of Missouri Valley, and filled many other minor offices in the city and county. As editor he has conducted the Guthrie County Leader, Harrisonian of Missouri Valley; Kansas Democrat, of Independence, Kan.; Audubon County Defender; Atlantic Capsheaf, and then returned and bought his old office, which had been changed to the Missouri Valley Times. He began his editorial profession in 1864, and has been connected with the business ever since.

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