Biography of Henry Harris
One of the most beautiful rural homes in Sonoma county is that formerly the abode of Henry Harris, whose homestead farm of fifty-two acres was purchased in 1879. Here it was that his earth life was brought to a close December 15, 1903. Of New England ancestry, he was born on the ancestral farm in Rhode Island January 4, 1823, his father, John Harris, having been born in the same state. The latter was a very successful farmer throughout and to his inherited estates added from time to time, thus becoming the owner of several large farms in Rhode Island. He was long permitted increase in his prosperity, as was also his wife, to whom he owed much of his success in life, and who was formerly Anna Wilkinson, a daughter of Dr. John Wilkinson. The latter was born February 16, 1753, in Rhode Island, and died December 26, 1833, at the age of eighty-three years. The Wilkinson family is of ancient origin and can be traced back to the year 1306. One of its members, Sir John D. Talbot, was lord-lieutenant of Ireland, a member of the Irish peerage, and a remarkable man in various ways. One Lawrence Wilkinson, a lieutenant in the army of Charles I., located in Providence, R.I., in 1646, thus becoming the progenitor of the Wilkinson family in America. The Harris family can be traced in a direct line to Roger Williams, the founder of the state of Rhode Island, Henry Harris being the eighth lineal descendant. John Harris lived to be ninety-two years old, and his wife reached the age of ninety-six.
Henry Harris lived at home until eighteen years old, and then went to Providence, in his native state, and for three years engaged in a merchandise business with his brother. For the following two years he was interested in a button manufactory with his two older brothers, and then turned his attention to farming on the home place for a year. In 1849 he sailed out of New York harbor on the good ship Hope, taking with him all his worldly possessions, and filled with buoyant hopes for a life in the free and undeveloped west. For one hundred and ninety days the ship plowed the water with its burden of human freight, safely rounded the Horn, and August 9, 1849, discharged its one hundred and nine passengers. At once Mr. Harris entered into the spirit which had induced the majority to immigrate to the west, and sought the mines of the American River, and also those around Halifax, and during the first summer made about $1,000. The following winter he engaged in the restaurant business in Sacramento, and the next February went to Barns’ bar and started a store which he ran during the summer. His next occupation was trading on the Sacramento River, for which he bought a schooner, and after leaving that went to Yuba City, Ca., where he conducted a dairy for ten years, and it was while residing there that his son William Henry was born. Later he engaged in the hotel business at Humboldt, and was also the government commissary during the Indian wars.
In 1850 Mr. Harris removed to Marysville, and for ten years conducted an extensive and paying stockraising and dairying business, which he raised to a level with the best dairy in California, and it contained over two thousand head of cattle. After years of arduous effort he was entitled to all possible credit and good fortune, yet the floods entirely destroyed his business entailing a very heavy loss, including all two thousand cattle. Following upon this catastrophe Mr. Harris located in Oakland, where he engaged in building and contracting for several years, and where he erected some of the foremost business and residence structures in the town. He became prominent in building and other circles, owning valuable town property.
The wife of Mr. Harris was formerly Jennie Vrooman, daughter of Samuel Vrooman, who came to California during the ‘40s. She was born May 4, 1839, and came overland to California with her cousin, Dr. J. C. Kellogg. She died October 15, 1903. Two sons were born of this union, of whom William H. is managing his father’s farm, and was born November 26, 1859; and John W. is a resident of Healdsburg, Ca. Considerable of the Harris land is devoted to fruit raising, a specialty being made of grapes and small fruits. The present manager, William H. Harris, is a capable and resourceful man, and has not only imbibed his father’s agricultural teachings, but has added thereto by constant research.
“History of the State of California and Biographical record of coast counties, California:,” James Miller /Guinn/, The Chapman Publishing Co., 1904.
California Local History - Rocq - 15842
Calif. State Library History Room (RR)
CALL NUMBER: [Alcove] 979.4 G9hs -- Book NC
CALL NUMBER: [q] 979.4 G9hs -- Book
CALL NUMBER: \MICRO-\FILM\115\Reel 25\Book 4976\ -- Book
Sutro Library (RB)
CALL NUMBER: F868.A1 G8 -- Rare Book
CALL NUMBER: \MICRO-\FILM\115\Reel 25\Book 4976\ -- Book
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