Sedgwick-Labette County KS Archives Biographies.....Harris, George E. 1832 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 24, 2007, 1:14 am

Author: O. H. Bentley (1910)

   George E. Harris is probably one of the best known men in the city of
Wichita, Kan., which he has served officially in some of its most important
offices. He is an Englishman by birth, having been born in the parish of Woking,
near the city of London, England, on February 16, 1832. He came to America in
1864 and located first at Aurora, Ill. In October, 1865, he enlisted in Company
I, Seventy-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was placed in charge of the
general wards of the hospital. He became managing commissary, in which capacity
he served until he was finally discharged. Mr. Harris is a man of liberal
education and well posted on all the current events of the day. He was engaged
in the mercantile business in Pana, Ill., until he moved to Kansas, in 1869,
when he located at Chetopa. In 1871 he moved to Wichita. Here he took up the
manufacture of soda water and was very successful in this business, selling both
wholesale and retail, together with the ice business, in which he was engaged at
the same time, being the only one in the business until 1886. Mr. Harris has
erected two residences and a row of English flat buildings in Wichita, and has
taken great pride in the growth and improvement of the city and county ever
since he has been a resident. In his official life Mr. Harris has served as
deputy sheriff of Sedgwick county, superintendent of city parks for six years,
appointed as city treasurer of Wichita and served from 1901 to 1909, councilman
for five terms, and the third mayor of Wichita, in 1875. His business
administration has given the people satisfaction, and he has built up a host of
friends who have known him for many years. Despite his advanced age, Mr. Harris
is a well preserved man, looking not to exceed sixty years. He was married in
England, June 10, 1860, to Emma Elizabeth Lee, a daughter of John Lee. Four
children have been born to them, of whom only two are now living, Ernest E. and
Cecil H. Harris. Fraternally Mr. Harris is a member of the Eagles and is a
thirty-second degree Mason and member of Wichita Consistory, No. 2. He is a
Republican in politics and active in the interests of his party.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from 

History of Wichita and Sedgwick County: past and present, including an account
of the cities, towns and villages of the county

Editor in chief: O. H. Bentley
Chicago: C.F. Cooper & Co. (1910)


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/sedgwick/bios/harris312gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ksfiles/

File size: 3.0 Kb