Charles N. Harris Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1289-1290 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	CHARLES N. HARRIS.—The subject of this sketch, who is engaged in 
the active practice of his profession in Aberdeen, South Dakota, is one 
of the pioneer members of the bar of Brown county. Charles Nelson Harris 
was born in Readstown, Vernon county, Wisconsin, on the 1st of 
September, 1856, and is a son of Joseph and Sarah E. Harris, the former 
of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter in Ohio, while both 
trace their genealogical lines back to English origin. The Harris family 
settled near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, at an early epoch in the 
history of the old Keystone state, and John Harris, who laid out that 
town and who was captured and tortured by the Indians, was an uncle of 
the grandfather of the subject. As a young man Joseph Harris removed to 
Ohio, where he was married, and he and his wife thereafter became 
numbered among the pioneers of Vernon county, Wisconsin, where he was 
engaged in farming, becoming one of the prominent and influential 
citizens of that locality. The father still resides in Wisconsin. The 
mother died in 1880, at the age of forty-six years. 

	Charles N. Harris received his early scholastic discipline in the 
public schools of his native state, and in 1879 was matriculated in the 
law department of the celebrated University of Wisconsin, at Madison, 
where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1879, receiving the 
degree of Bachelor of Laws and being admitted to the bar of the state in 
that year. He initiated the practice of his profession in Viroqua, the 
county seat of Vernon county, in the same year, and there remained until 
January, 1882, when he came to the territory of Dakota and established 
himself in practice in Aberdeen, which was then a small village. Here he 
has ever since engaged in the work of his profession and with the rapid 
settling of the country and magnificent advancement of the city, which 
is now one of the most progressive and attractive in the state, he has 
found his legal business constantly cumulative and has been concerned in 
much of the important litigation in the courts of this section, 
retaining a large and representative clientage, and being held in high 
regard in business, professional and social circles. He is a staunch 
Democrat of the Jeffersonian type, and, as he personally states the 
case, has not become imbued with any of the "new-fangled" notions which 
have drifted the party from its firm moorings and caused its success to 
wane in recent years. He is a thirty-second-degree Mason, being 
affiliated with Aberdeen Consistory, No. 4, of the Ancient Accepted 
Scottish Rite. He and his wife attend the Presbyterian church, of which 
the latter is a member. 

	On the 1st of October, 1879, Mr. Harris was united in marriage to 
Miss Dora E. Bouffleur, who was born in Springville, Wisconsin, in June, 
1858, being a daughter of Philip and Mary Bouffleur, and of French 
extraction in the paternal line. She died in August, 1888, leaving three 
daughters: Edna S., Minnie M. and Genevieve L. In November, 1892, Mr. 
Harris was married to Jessie G. Campbell, of Aberdeen, a sister of Judge 
Campbell, of that place.