Marshall County KS Archives Biographies.....Harry, Thomas 1860 - 
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Author: Emma E. Forter (1917)

THOMAS HARRY.

    Thomas Harry, one of Marshall county's best-known and most substantial
pioneer farmers, for many years one of the leading citizens of Guittard
township, a shareholder in the Farmers Elevator Company at Beattie and one of
the county's large landowners, is a native of England, but has been a resident
of Kansas since 1881 and has consequently seen this section of the state develop
from its original prairie state to its present highly-developed condition. He
was born in Herefordshire, England, March 9, 1860, son of John and Elizabeth
(Thomas) Harry, who spent all their lives in their native land and who were the
parents of four children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in
order of birth.

    Reared on a farm, Thomas Harry received his schooling in his native land and
remained at home until he was twenty-one years of age, when, in 1881, in company
with William Price, a stonemason, he came to this country and proceeded on out
to Kansas, settling near Beattie, in this county, where he began working as a
farm hand. In 1884 he bought a tract of eighty acres in section 7 of Guittard
township and began developing the same. The pioneers along the timber belts
advised him against investing in prairie land, but he had a wider vision than
they and he presently was able to prove to the doubters the wisdom of his
judgment. As he prospered in his operations he bought another "eighty" and by
the time of his marriage in 1890 was a well-established and successful farmer.
In 1904 Mr. Harry bought his present farm and is now the owner of six hundred
acres of excellent land, the most of which is well improved and highly
cultivated. In addition to his general farming Mr. Harry has long given
considerable attention to the raising of Shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs
and has done very well, for years having been regarded as one of the leading
farmers and stockmen in that part of the county. Mr. Harry is a Republican and
for thirteen years, or until about four years ago, served as a member of the
school board in district No. 124 and in other ways lent of his time and his
energies to the promotion of the best interests of his home community.

    In 1890, at Home, this county, Thomas Harry was united in marriage to Mary
A. Lewis, who was born in Yorkshire, England, May 14, 1867, daughter of William
Lewis and wife, further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume, and
who was but two years of age when her parents came to this country, and to this
union six children were born, namely: William J., who is farming one of his
father's farms; Charles C, who also is farming one of the home places; Ethel,
who was graduated from the Beattie high school, later attended the State
University at Emporia, and since 1915 has been teaching in the public schools of
this county, and Raymond T., Zoie M. and Arthur L., who are at home. The mother
of these children died on July 20, 1916.

    Mr. Harry is a member of the local lodges of the Modern Woodmen of the World
and of the Knights and Ladies of Security and has long taken an active interest
in the affairs of the same. As a promoter of local interests in a general
business way he has ever taken a proper part in the community activities and is
one of the shareholders in the Farmers' Elevator Company at Beattie.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

History of Marshall County, Kansas: its people, industries, and institutions
by
Emma E. Forter

Indianapolis, Ind.: B.F. Bowen & Co. (1917)



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