Grundy County IL Archives Obituaries.....Harris, Judge Sydney Wells 1876
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com July 25, 2007, 6:08 pm

Morris Daily Herald, September 8, 1876
Death of Judge Harris

As a journalist it becomes our painful duty to record in the pages of history 
the death of our esteemed fellow citizen, Sydney Wells Harris, which occurred 
at his residence in this city on Friday evening, September 1st, from the 
effects of a carbuncle located on the back of his head, in close proximity to, 
and affecting the brain.  He was afflicted but about two weeks, and until one 
or two days before his death, although it was known that he was in critical 
condition, hopes were entertained for his recovery.  His funeral took place on 
last Sunday and was attended by a large concourse of people, embracing the 
Society of Odd Fellows, of this city, of which order he had been a member for 
the past 20 years; the bar of this city and of Joliet; the county and city 
officers, making altogether one of the largest funerals ever held in this 
city.  The funeral sermon was delivered by Rev. J. H. Alling, of the M. E. 
church, and from his discourse we take the following biographical sketch of 
this distinguished citizen:

Fellow Citizens:  In the reason and fitness of things, among a free and 
enlightened people, there is a necessity but for few places of high 
responsibility and command; and in harmony with such a state of things it is a 
fact that only occasionally is one by nature and culture qualified to fill 
such places of trust and power.  And so it comes to be true that at long 
intervals only in man’s life time are they called upon to do the funeral 
honors of those who have filled posts of great influence and power.  Yet such 
is the sad duty of this hour.

To day we come hither to lament the sudden demise among us of one of nature’s 
noblemen.  Stamped as such by a higher sanction than royal patent or 
hereditary title confers.  Especially eminent in his profession as an advocate 
of the law, he was also a highly respected citizen of our city, as 
unpretentious, kindly man, a faithful friend, a loving husband, a tender 
parent – with an ever open hand of generosity for the needy.

Permit me, for a brief moment, to hold in review before you the public and 
private life of our distinguished citizen and brother.

Sidney Wells Harris was born in Vergennia, Vermont, Aug. 16, 1815, and died 
Sept. 1, 1876, thus being 61 years of age the 16th of last month.  His mother 
brought him from Vermont, a youth of 6 years, to Trumble Co., Ohio.  He 
resided there with an uncle, Agustus Stevens, except such time as he spent at 
a collegiate institute on the Western Reserve.  He graduated at the Cincinnati 
law school, and was admitted to the bar at the age of 25.  The following year 
he married Miss Mary Brunson, of the same county.

He practiced law at Warren, Trumble county, for eight years, and moved to 
Cincinnati in 1848, and there remained in the practice of his profession until 
the spring of 1855, when he came to Morris, where he has since resided.  He 
has often been entrusted with school and municipal offices in this city.  
Recognized by all as standing in the extreme front of the ranks of his 
profession in these regions, he was elected by your free suffrages to the most 
responsible and honorable trust that it is in your power to give to any man in 
the several counties comprised in this judicial district – namely, that of 
Circuit Judge.

Of his administration in that high and dignified post, in which he represented 
the forces of government for the suppression of crime and the protection of 
virtue, I hear but one voice of approval.  He held this position until he 
resigned it in 1866, having been nominated for Congress.  After that canvass, 
taking his son, Tracy B. Harris, into partnership with him; he resumed the 
practice of law, and has since followed his profession up to the present time.

His mother, who in his early years brought him to Ohio, came with him to 
Morris, and deceased here in 1858, a member of the Methodist Epsicopal church, 
at the advanced age of 73.  His wife died in Morris in July, 1867, at the age 
of 46, leaving one son and two daughters, who mourn with us today.  On Dec. 
15, 1868, he was married to Miss Mary Keenon, who survives him to day and 
follows him to his last resting place, and who gives this tribute to me of his 
memory, looking at him through the vision of deepest affection:  “He was the 
best of husbands – the best of men.”

Yet none claim that he was free from faults.  He belonged to the genius homo, 
not perfect because not divine.  As a father, he was indulgent and loving in 
his family, and beloved by his children.  His son, especially, feels grateful 
for his father’s guidance and aid in his profession.  He often said he felt it 
to be one great part of his mission to aid children to a good settlement in 
life, and he had the satisfaction of living until all are finely situated in 
this world.  As might have been predicted from the results of his early 
training he was a firm believer in Revelation, and to his son and others often 
spoke of his admiration of the morals and grace of the Savior’s inimitable 
sermon on the Mount.

He was suddenly taken seriously sick and his physical sufferings were so 
exquisite that most of the time Nature gave him freedom from conscious pain by 
the dethronement of reason; his attendants tell me that it is doubtful whether 
he had one idea that the Messengers of Death were at his door.  And thus he 
passed from an influential career on earth to be with his Maker.

We offer to you his consort, sad and widowed, bereft of the companion of your 
heart and life, in so sudden and unbetokened and mysterious a manner, the 
consolations of the everlasting Gospel in which you are a firm believer; may 
grace assuage your unutterable grief, till at glory’s morning gate you shall 
meet him again in sweet embrace.

And you, his children, I bid you follow the good counsels of him who loved you 
so much, until you shall greet him in your Father’s house on High.

And you in charge of these ceremonies, and in the mystic and tripled-linked 
brotherhood of Friendship, Love and Truth, you have lost a valued and worthy 
member.  One of the symbols of your order is drawn from the friendship that 
existed between David and Jonathan.  A touching illustration of which was 
exhibited by Jonathan in the use of the arrows to warn David of impending 
danger.  Let the arrows of love fly as constantly for each other, as you give 
evidence that they have done for our brother covering the whole of life, and 
they shall dart even beyond the bounds of time and sense.  Let the evergreens 
which you strew on his coffin today be emblematic of the green memory with 
which you shall hold in recollection his good deeds, his true faith to your 
friendship, until you all shall assemble in the rapturous brotherhood of the 
skies.

Companions of the departed in the profession of law:  Your brother has 
appealed his suit to the highest Court in the Universe, and his spirit has 
gone thither to attend it, while you are honoring his remains by bearing “them 
to the house appointed for all the living”.  Who can doubt but that he who 
loved to read and ponder the law and the testimony of the Heavenly code on 
earth, shall gain his suit and find a blessed acquittal on high.  Many of you 
have a name and fame in your profession here, prepare for as eminent a 
situation in yonder world.

And you, vast concourse of relatives and friends and citizens, be warned 
betimes, and “be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the son of 
man cometh.”


Bar Meeting – At a meeting of the Grundy Co. Bar, held in the Court House in 
Morris, on Saturday, Sept. 2, 1876, on the occasion of the death of Hon. S. 
Wells Harris, were present Hon. Jas. N. Reading, Hon. W. T. Hopkins, Hon. P. 
A. Armstrong, Edward Sanford, Esq., A. R. Jordan, Esq., A. L. Dowd, Esq., F. 
W. Tupper, Circuit Clerk, J. R. Combs, Deputy Circuit Clerk, S. B. Thomas, 
County Clerk, and H. D. Hitchcock, Deputy County Clerk.

On motion Hon. W. T. Hopkins was chosen chairman, and Sam’l. B. Thomas, 
secretary.

The following resolution was offered by Mr. Sanford, and adopted:

Resolved, That the bar of Grundy county, as a body, attend the funeral of 
Judge S. W. Harris, and wear the usual badge of mourning, and that a 
committee, consisting of Hon. James N. Reading, Hon. P. A. Armstrong, and Hon. 
W. T. Hopkins, be appointed to draft suitable resolutions for adoption by the 
bar, and that Mr. Armstrong be requested to present the same to the County 
Court at its next session at 2 o’clock p.m. of Monday, Sept. 11, and that 
Judge Reading be requested to present the same to the Circuit Court at its 
next session at such time as may seem most convenient, and that the County 
officers be requested to place upon the Court House suitable mourning drapery.

The committee reported the following preamble and resolutions:

By an Inscrutable Providence our brother and companion, Hon. S. Wells Harris, 
has been called from our midst into the Unknown Country – the impenetrable 
Beyond, we are started at the swiftness of Death’s arrow, and awed by the 
grandeur of his strength; we mournfully and irresistibly bow in this sad 
bereavement to our Maker’s behest; and,

Resolved, That in the death of Judge Harris, we have lost one of the brightest 
lights in the profession, a just Judge, a true friend, a kind and generous 
neighbor, and a worthy, upright and honorable citizen, and that we will, as 
brothers, revere his memory, cherish his friendship, and emulate his virtues.

Resolved, That we tender to the family of brother Harris our unfeigned 
sympathy and consolation in this the hour of their deepest affliction and 
sorrow; that they be furnished with a copy of these resolutions, and that 
other copies be presented to the Circuit and County Courts of this County in 
open court, with the request that they be spread upon the records thereof, and 
further,

Resolved, That this bar attend the funeral of brother Harris in a body, and 
that each member thereof wear the usual badge of mourning.

The following resolution was also adopted:

Resolved, That the bar of Grundy county invite the bar of Will county to 
attend the funeral of Judge Harris, and that the secretary of this meeting 
telegraph the invitation to Hon. Josiah McRoberts.

Meeting adjourned to meet at the dwelling of deceased at two o’clock p.m. 
Sunday.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/grundy/obits/h/harris125ob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ilfiles/

File size: 10.9 Kb