Morgan-Lawrence County AlArchives Biographies.....Harris, Christopher Columbus 1842 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 6, 2012, 8:50 pm

Source: See below
Author: Smith & De Land, publishers

  CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS HARRIS, President of the First National Bank of Decatur,
and son of William H. and Nancy L. (Stovall) Harris, was born in Lawrence
County, Ala., January 28, 1842

  William H. Harris, a native of Grainger County, Tenn., was born in 1806, moved
to Lawrence County, Ala., in early life, lost his wife there in 1869, came to
Decatur in 1875, and died here June 28, 1884. His early life was a struggle with
poverty, and his opportunities were thereby limited, but, by persistent efforts
and honest industry, he accumulated a handsome fortune. His wife, a daughter of
Dr. Wm. Stovall, was born in Lawrence County, Ala. They had thirteen children.

  C. C. Harris obtained his early education under the parental roof by a private
instructor, who was employed to teach the children of his parents, according to
a custom that very frequently obtained in the South in ante-bellum days. In 1861
he joined Company F, Sixteenth Alabama Regiment of Infantry. Confederate Army,
as a private. He soon became a lieutenant, and was wounded at the battles of
Shiloh, Chickamauga, Jonesboro, and at Franklin, Tenn., and from the effect of
the wound received at the latter place, was confined four months in a private
house in Franklin, Tenn. He was afterward captured, and spent some time in
prison at Camp Chase.

  After the war he returned home penniless. His father's fortune too, for the
most part, was gone, so that his future depended entirely upon his own energy
and industry. He renewed his literary labors, in connection with the study of
the law, and in 1866 was admitted to the bar in his own native county. About
that time he was Clerk of the Circuit Court: afterward County Solicitor, and in
1872 removed to Decatur, where he has since resided, and where he has been a
prominent figure in society and in church, and in every move that had for its
end the upbuilding of the community and general welfare of the country. In 1881,
in connection with three other gentlemen, he established the Bank of Decatur,
with a capital of $20,000, which enterprise was so successfully managed as to
soon obtain a prominent position among the moneyed institutions of the country.

  As a lawyer, Mr. Harris, is regarded as safe, wise and reliable. In matters of
business, he adheres strictly to the established rules governing the same in all
transactions and with all men alike. He has no taste for politics and no thirst
for office. His name has been mentioned in connection with the circuit
judgeship, congress, and with the chief executive office of the State, but being
averse to politics, he has invariably discouraged the expressed wishes of his
friends in these particulars.

  Colonel Harris is one of the three men who less than two years ago,
inaugurated the move at Decatur which has now assumed such gigantic proportions.
With Major E. C. Gordon and Mr. W. W. Littlejohn as his associates, the
enterprise was cautiously projected and all preparations for the organization of
the company carefully made before the public was aware that anything of the kind
was in contemplation. When the Decatur Land, Improvement and Furnace Company was
organized. He became its attorney, and when the Bank of Decatur was converted
into the First National Bank of Decatur, he was elected its president. In the
practice of law he is associated with Robert C. Brickell, late Chief Justice of
Alabama.

  Mr. Harris was married February 15, 1869, to Miss Juli, daughter of M Wert, of
Moulton. They have had seven children, of whom five are now living.

  Colonel Harris is a man of high moral character, and a member of the Methodist
Church.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical
Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land
1888

PART IV.
MONOGRAPHS OF THE PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS IN NORTHERN AND CENTRAL ALABAMA,
TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF MANY OF THEIR REPRESENTATIVE PEOPLE.


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