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Citation:  [Identification of Item], Harris Family Papers, MC062, San Jacinto Museum of History, Houston, Texas.

Creator Sketch: 

When John Richardson Harris came to Texas in 1824, he continued his family’s pioneer tradition.  John Harris immigrated from England, settled in Pennsylvania, and founded the town of Harrisburg in the early 18^th century.  His son, Samuel Harris, eventually settled in the frontier region of New York.  John Harris, the father of John R. Harris, was born in 1760, the eldest child of Samuel and Elizabeth Harris.  He remained in New York, marrying Mary Richardson in 1789 and having ten children.

David Harris followed his brother, John Richardson Harris, to Texas as one of Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred.  He helped his brother establish the town of Harrisburg, Texas, at the junction of Buffalo and Bray’s Bayous.  Along with two other brothers, William Plunkett and Samuel, he took over business operations in Harrisburg after the sudden death of John R. Harris in 1829 and was the original executor of his brother's estate.  He married Tabitha Kincade Iiams ca. 1828 and settled between Red Bluff and present day La Porte.  The couple had three children.

The fourth child of John Richardson Harris and Jane Birdsall, John Birdsall Harris was born on January 14, 1821, in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.  He joined his mother and siblings, DeWitt Clinton, Lewis Birdsall, and Mary Jane, in Texas sometime after the Revolution. In 1839, he established himself in Harrisburg as a shareholder in the Harrisburg Town Company.  A year later he promoted the Harrisburg and Brazos Railroad.  He was elected alderman in the first Harrisburg municipal election in 1842.  In 1849, he married Virginia Goodrich and had four children—John Goodrich (1850), Maurice Birdsall (1852), Benjamin Goodrich (1856), and Mary Eliza (1859).  He died of typhoid on July 21, 1867, in Houston, Texas.

Bibliography:

“HARRIS, DAVID.”  The Handbook of Texas Online.

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/HH/fha80.html

“HARRIS, JOHN BIRDSALL.”  The Handbook of Texas Online.

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/HH/fha84.html

Scope and Content Note:

Correspondence, financial, and legal papers briefly document four generations of the Harris family. A 1795 letter from John Harris to Elizabeth Harris provides a glimpse of late-18^th century farming in America.  Eight letters to John B. Harris include correspondence from his grandfather, Lewis Birdsall, and his brother, DeWitt Clinton Harris.  A letter from Leland J. Cox to "friend" records Cox's disillusionment with women.  Twelve financial documents from 1836 to 1867 include receipts, merchandise orders, a Sabrina City Company stock certificate, and a bill of sale for a slave, illuminating the family’s business dealings in Texas.  Legal documents consist of an 1851 affidavit in which David Harris certifies his knowledge of the business operations of the A. Briscoe & Co. store during the Texas Revolution (1835 - 1836), and a 1875 lawsuit between Theodore Keller & Co. and John Goodrich Harris.

Archivist's Note:

Other related papers from the Adele Briscoe Looscan Collection include the John R. and Jane B. Harris Papers, the William Plunkett Harris Papers,  Mary Jane Harris Briscoe Papers, the Birdsall Family Papers Papers, Lewis Birdsall Harris Papers, and the DeWitt Clinton Harris Papers.  All photographs are located in the Adele Briscoe Looscan  Papers.