Meeker County MN Archives Biographies.....Harris, Virgil H. 1840 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 9, 2020, 12:37 am

Source: Alden, Ogle & Co.
Author: See Below

    VIRGIL H. HARRIS, the popular druggist of Litchfield, is the descendant of one
of the colonial families of Virginia, and was born in Hanover, Licking county, Ohio,
May 11, 1840.

  John Harris, the great-grandfather of our subject, was a native of Hanover county,
Va., where he remained until his death. His sons drifted to North Carolina, where
they became prominent men, and were prime movers in the movement for Independence
passed at Charlotte, Mecklenburgh county, N. C., May 20, 1775, antedating the
Declaration of Independence of the Continental Congress over one year, and.
furnishing many of the ideas for that celebrated document. Subsequently they removed
to South Carolina, and settled on the Santee river, from which place Ephraim Harris,
the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, in company with Daniel Boone, who was
a warm friend of his, made a trip into the wilderness that is now the State of
Ohio., After prospecting over that territory, Mr. Harris, about 1820, took up a
homestead on the Licking river, in what is now Licking county, and there made a
settlement. The old homestead now forms a part of the site of the busy city of
Newark. Ephraim Harris remained upon this place for about twenty years, when he
removed to the town of Hanover, in the same county, near his son Daniel’s farm, and
there made his home until he was killed in breaking a pair of colts, in his
ninety-eighth year.

   Daniel Harris, the father of the subject of this memoir, who was a tanner as well
as a farmer, remained upon the farm which he had purchased in Licking county until
about 1848, when he sold out and removed to Dayton, Ohio, where he followed his
trade for about a year, when he died, leaving a wife and five children to mourn
their loss. The children bore the names of Virgil II., Emma E., Cynthia A., Louis
E., and David M.

   The mother of Virgil was formerly Miss Martha Dowling. Her father was a native of
Ireland, who had left the land of his birth on account of some trouble with a
landlord, which culminated in Mr. Dowling pulling him off of his horse and beating
him. This, in that oppressed land, was a terrible offense, so he emigrated to this
country, and settled in Juniata county, Penn.,  where the future Mrs. Harris was
born. When her brothers moved to Ohio, she went with them, walking the whole
distance, some 700 miles, driving their cattle all the way. Later she married Mr.
Harris, and after his death returned to Licking county, from whence, two years
later, she removed to Marion county, in the same State, where her people had
settled. Subsequently she married John Baker, and made her home in Ohio until 1883,
when they removed to Indiana, where she died in 1887.

   Virgil remained with his mother after his father’s death until about 1852, when,
being but twelve years of age, he went to Macon county, Ill., where for four years
he was engaged in herding some 4,000 head of sheep. In the fall of 1859 he returned
to Ohio, and cast his first presidential vote for Lincoln in 1860. In May, 1862, he
enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Eleventh Ohio Infantry, and served until the
close of the war. He participated, with his gallant regiment, in some twenty-eight
engagements, the principal of which were Perryville, Green River Bridge, Bowling
Green, Crab Orchard, Loudonville, Knoxville, Buzzard’s Roost, Resaca, Hew Hope
Church, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Allatoona, Spring Hill,
Franklin, Nashville, Fort Fisher and others. He received his discharge as orderly
sergeant, June 28, 1865, and on returning home attended college for a year and a
half at Indianapolis, Ind., and Ashland, Ohio. He was married, December 25, 1868, to
Miss Lizzie Hill, a native of Marion county, Ohio, and daughter of John and
Catherine Hill, who were among the pioneer families of the Buckeye State. For two
years after that Mr. Harris followed farming in Marion county, Ohio, whither he had
moved. In December, 1870, in company with George Lyon, he came to this part of the
State, and, determining to settle at Litchfield, brought his family here in January,
1871, when the place was but in embryo. In company with S. Y. Gordon he started a
meat market and remained in that two years, and then opened a drug store, which
business he has followed ever since.

   In politics Mr. Harris is a republican and has filled many offices in village and
county, He was one of the first justices of the peace of the village of Litchfield,
and has, since then, been alderman, recorder, mayor and county commissioner, and is
now serving as chairman of that board, having been a member of it for five years. He
is a member of Frank Daggett Post, G. A. R., holding the third rank in the
department of Minnesota, and belongs to the A. O. U. W.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
Illustrated Album of Biography
Meeker and McLeod Counties, Minnesota
1888


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