Freestone County, Texas
Biographies 



Biography of Minyard Hickerson Harriss 
     (Oct 8, 1846-Nov. 21, 1914, buried Woodland Cemetery in Freestone Co., TX.)

Source - A Memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, 
  Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties, Texas
Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1893; pages 432-433

    M. H. Harriss, a merchant, farmer and stockman, of Freestone county, Texas, 
was born in Coosa county, Alabama, October 8, 1846, and was the youngest of ten
children born to Braddock and Avie D. (Handley) Harriss, natives of South Carolina,
who were married in that State. After this ceremony the young couple removed to 
Georgia and from there to Alabama, at an early date, where Mr. Harriss became a
merchant and farmer and served as County Treasurer of Coosa county for several
years. He was the founder of the post office of Equality, of which he was 
postmaster for twenty years. He left Alabama in 1880, and came to this State,
where he died, in the village of Wortham, in 1887, at the age of seventy-seven.
The family is of English descent. On the maternal side Mrs. Harriss was born in 
1805, and her death occurred in Wortham, in 1892, at the age of eighty-seven 
years. Her father, Jarrett Handley, was in the Revolutionary war, and that
family also was of English extraction, having come to this country in very early
times. All of the children born to this family lived to maturity, namely: Stephen
now resides in Hopkins county, Texas; Nancy is the wide of Clark Teakle, of 
Montague county; Louisa, widow of Robert Longbotham, of Wortham; Missouri, 
deceased, was the wife of Issac F. Jackson; Indiana, deceased, was the wife of 
Joseph T. Blake; Louisiana T., deceased, was the second wife of Joseph T. Blake;
Georgia is the wife of S. M. Haynie, of Handley, Texas; Virginia, deceased, was
the wife of T. J. Chancellor, of Alabama; Dr. John T. Harriss, of Hillsboro, Texas,
and our subject.
   Our subject received a common school education and at the age of sixteen
commenced life for himself, by joining Major Tom Hubbard's Battalion of Cavalry,
of Montgomery, Alabama, but was called upon to partake in no regular engagements.
He was in some serious skirmishes and almost all of his companions were captured
at Lafayette, Alabama.  He was paroled at Montgomery, Alabama, in May, 1865. He
returned home and attended school for some time, but left it at the age of 
nineteen and engaged in farming, which occupation he followed in connection with
the mercantile business, which he followed until coming to this State, in 1873. 
He located at the place where he now resides, then known as Woodland, now as
Bonner post office, and for four years he rented land; but in 18777 he purchased
155 acres, a portion of his present farm. This was slightly improved, and about 
this time he opened up his present mercantile business, in which he had been 
moderately successful, having a general trade, amounting to some $12,000 to
$15,000 annually.
    He now owns 1,365 acres of land, and 850 of it is under a fine state of 
cultivation. It is partially prairie and timber, and on his ranch he handles 
some 200 head of cattle, of all sorts. He also raises splendid horses and mules,
of which he has some eighty head, and is also breeding some thoroughbred horses.
Mr. Harriss has also bred some runners, short distance.
    Mr. Harriss was married in 1872 to Miss Kate Lennard, of Alabama, a daughter 
of Major John B. and Eliza (Townsand) Lennard, natives of South Carolina and 
Georgia, where Major Lennard was a planter. Major Lennard had four children by 
his last wife, namely: Tom, killed in the Confederate army; Kate, wife of our 
subject; Alice, wife of W. P. Oden, an attorney of Childersburg, Alabama, who
served for two terms as State Senator from that section; and Ellen, who is the 
wife of Albert Oden, of Childersburg, Alabama. Major Lennard has been married 
three times and the mother of Mrs. Harris is by his last wife. He died at this
place in 1870, having come to the State about 1865, and after his death his wife
returned to Alabama, but after the marriage of our subject to her daughter she
returned to this State with them, where she died in 1886.  Mr. and Mrs. Harriss
have had seven children, but only four are living, as follows: Jewell, Lennard,
Katie May and Clifton.  Mrs. Harriss is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church
and he is a member of K. of H., Mexia Lodge, and has been a life-long Democrat.