Genealogy of the Harris Family
(version October 14, 2023)
Please email corrections to Mike Clark
 

 

The town of Panton, Vermont, which is located on the western shore of Lake Champlain, was chartered by New Hampshire colony in 1761 to some 64 settlers, who were mostly from Cornwall, Canaan and adjacent towns in Litchfield County, Connecticut. However, their settlement was razed by British troops during the American Revolution, most of their men taken prisoner, their farms burnt, and their families driven south. Several of them returned after the war, and in 1784 officially organized their town. The next year Addison County, Vermont was created out of a part of the old colony, and Panton was included in the new county.

When members of the Harris family first appeared in Addison County is unknown, but the U.S. Census of 1790 records that a Martha Harris was the head of a household of three children in the town Whitting. Ten years later Martha is gone, and three households with the surname of Harris are listed for the county, with John Harris (single) in Addison, Timothy Harris, with his wife and two children, in Middlebury, and Rupert Harris, with his wife and three children, in New Haven. The relation, if any, of these families, to Henry Harris of Panton, who follows, is unknown.

1. Henry Smith Harris (1785-1860) was born on March 8, 1785, according to the inscription on his tombstone. However, there is much uncertainty as to where he was born, as he gave his birthplace as Massachusetts on the 1850 U.S. Census, then Dutchess County, New York on the 1855 New York State Census, and lastly Vermont on the 1860 U.S. Census. The first recorded mention that we have of him is, in fact, in 1807 in Vermont, when he married his first wife. There were, as noted above, other Harris families living at the time in this area where Henry lived, but Harris is a very common last name, and we have no evidence to connect Henry to any of these families.

   Most family histories that appear online actually show Henry Harris of Panton to be one of the sons of a well-known Boston merchant named Jonathan Harris (1752-1814). This Jonathan did indeed have a son named Henry, but beyond both men sharing the same name, there is no hard evidence to connect the two. Furthermore, Henry Harris of Boston is shown to have been born on June 8, 1788 in the official state records for Massachusetts, and this contradicts the March 8, 1785 birth date inscribed on the tombstone for Henry Harris of Panton.

   Henry Harris of Panton married Harriet Stevens (c.1787-1859) on Sept. 10, 1807 in Panton, Vermont, Harriet being the daughter of Jonathan Stevens (1767-1848) and Susan Wells (d. 1801). She was born about 1787 in Canaan, Connecticut, but relocated around 1799 with her parents to Panton. There is some uncertainty as to the identities of her maternal grandparents. Most family histories show them to be Noah Wells and Joanna Burrall (b. 1745), and this is probably correct. However, there is at least one source, which we believe to be reputable, that shows them to be Noah Wells and Deliah Douglass (Hinman, 1852). The available evidence at this point is probably inadequate to prove or disprove either case. If Joanna Burrall is indeed the mother of Susan Wells, then Susan Wells is also the granddaughter of Colonel Charles Burrall (1719-1803), who commanded a Connecticut regiment during the American Revolution.

   Henry and Harriet had at least four sons, who born in various parts of Addison County, Vermont before Harriet divorced Henry on Jan. 15, 1822 at the Addison County Supreme Court in Middlebury. Adultery on Henry's part is recorded as the official cause for their divorce. Henry then married his second wife Hannah Collins (1788-c.1848) on Sept. 4, 1823 in Panton, and ex-wife Harriet moved two or so years later with her youngest son Sidney (1814-1876) to live with her younger brother Augustus (1795-1887) in Trumbull County, Ohio.

   Henry's second wife Hannah probably died early in the year of 1848 in Panton, as Henry is shown on March 29, 1848 in the Panton town records to have been granted sole guardianship of their two sons - Alonzo (1829-1891) and Lorenzo (1832-1893). He then married a much younger woman named Sophia Benson (1811-1889) on March 10, 1849 in Panton, afterwhich they apparently left Vermont, as the 1850 U.S. census shows them living in Willsboro, New York, with Henry's sons Lorenzo and Alonzo living nearby in the same county. Later, the 1860 census shows Henry and Sophia living in Coloma, Wisconsin, where Henry's son Lorenzo had moved in 1858 when acquired property there.

   Henry's first wife Harriet, who had moved about 1825 with their son Sidney to Ohio, died on Jan. 13, 1859 in Morris, Illinois, where she is buried in Evergreen Cemeterey. Henry died a few months later on Nov. 29, 1860, probably in Wisconsin where he is buried next to his son Lorenzo Harris in Richford Cemetery in Waushara County. There Henry's birthdate and death date, which though barely discerable, but can still be read on his tombstone.

   Henry and Harriet had at least the four sons, who are listed below. There were also at least three children from Henry's marriage with Hannah Collins, and probably none from his marriage with Sophia. He also appears to have had an adopted daughter named Emily Kilmer (b. c.1845), who appears with him and wife Sophia in the 1855 New York State Census, but Emily disappears from mention a few years later.

   children (with Harriet Stevens) - HARRIS

   Augustus Harris (1809-1886) was born about 1809 in Panton, Vermont. Some sources give Aug. 12 as his birth date, but we do not know the evidence for this. Like his father he had three wives. He married his first wife Judith Hyde (c.1810-1850) on March 24, 1833 in Panton, Vermont; his second wife Charlotte Pond (1813-1869) in 1856 (date has not been confirmed), probably in Panton, Vermont, and he married his third wife Elizabeth Grandy (1823-1898) on Sept. 5, 1875 (date has not been confirmed), probably in Vermont. He died March 20, 1886 in Panton, where he is buried in the Adams Ferry Cemetery, with his second and third wives. He had at least three children with his first wife Judith. We do not know if there were children from his other marriages.

   William B. Harris (c.1811-1873) was born about 1811 in Vergenennes, Vermont, and married Jane Rachel Kent (1813-1885), probably near her home in Essex County, New York. He died on July 31, 1873 at the age of 62 years, and he is buried with his wife, who died on Feb. 10, 1885, in Panton, Vermont in the Kent Cemetery. They had at least one daughter named Emma, who was born about 1849 in New York.

   Corydon Sidney Harris (1812-1895) who follows:

   Sidney Wells Harris (1814-1876) was on born Aug. 9, 1814 in Vergennes, Vermont, according to his obituary. He went to live with his uncle Augustus Stevens in Trumble Co., Ohio when he was six-years old, and grew up to become a lawyer. He moved in 1855 to Morris, Grundy County, Illinois, where he became a circuit judge. He died on Sept. 1, 1876 in Morris. He married Mary Freeman Bronson (c.1821-1867) and had three children - Mary Bronson Harris (1842-1913), Tracy Harris (b. 1842) and Sadie Harriet Harris (1854-1931). His daughter Sadie married Charles L. Calkins, and they have descendants. Sidney is buried with his wife in Morris in the Evergreen Cemetery, and several of his descendants - his daughter Sadie and her children - are buried in the Mt. Hope Cemetery in Chicago.

   children (with Hannah Collins) - HARRIS

   Sally Harris (1827-1829) died before her second birthday on Jan. 7, 1829 in Panton, Vermont, where she is buried in Kent Cemetery .

   Lorenzo D. Harris (1829-1891) was born on Oct. 24, 1929 in Panton, Vermont, and married Milly Barker (1826-1899) in 1851 in New York. He died on Oct. 24, 1891 in Richford, Waushara County, Wisconsin, where he is buried with Millie in Richford Cemetery. He and Millie had at least three children.

   Alonzo Cane Harris (1832-1893) was born on Sep 23, 1832 in Panton, Vermont, and married Julia Ann Mattison (1840-1922) on Jan. 1, 1858 in Coloma, Washura County, Wisconsin. He died on Sept. 5, 1893 in Grey Eagle, Minnesota. He and Julia had several children.

 

2. Corydon S. Harris (1812-1895) was born on Oct. 10, 1812 (according to his tombstone) in Panton, Vermont. He is shown, with some errors, in the Stephens-Stevens Genealogy by Plowdon Stevens (1909) to be the son of Henry Harris and Harriet Stevens. However, we have not found any original documents of the time to independantly verify Corydon's biologic parents. Although some family trees list his middle name as Smith, it might very well be Stevens, which was his mother's maiden name. However, his grandson Arthur Webster Harris remembered it as being Sidney.

   Apparently, Corydon's parents gave him up as an toddler, and he was raised from the age of two by Norman Munson (c.1781-1844), and Norman's wife Sally (neé Pearse) Munson (c.1789-1877), who had no children of their own. Norman is described as a "man of considerable note", being a prosperous farmer of a 272-acre farm, and a captain of the local militia. He also served at times as a Justice of the Peace for the town of Panton. Norman died on Feb. 2, 1845, probably in Panton, and left seventy-five acres of ther Munson farm to Corydon, with the rest going to his wife Sally. Corydon made his home there, and Sally is actually listed in the U.S. Census of 1870 as a member of Corydon's household. Then when Sally died on Nov. 14, 1877 in Panton, Corydon inherited Sally's remaining portion of the farm. Of note, Corydon gave his first-born son the middle name of Munson, and when Norman and Sally passed away, Corydon served as the executor for both of their estates. Norman and Sally are buried together in Panton in the Hawley Cemetery.

   Corydon married his first wife Annie O. Goodrich (1827-1851) on Jan. 1, 1850 in Cornwall, which is a small town in Addison County, Vermont that is only 13 miles to the southeast of Panton. Annie, who had been born on Feb. 15, 1827 in Addison County, probably in the actual town of Addison, died at the age of only 24 on April 20, 1851, after just one year of marriage. She is buried in Prospect Cemetery in Vergennes. Corydon then married Annie's younger sister Achsa Maria Goodrich (1829-1925) on Nov. 19, 1851 in Cornwall. Annie and Achsa were the daughters of John Ford Goodrich (b. 1787), who had been born in Bolton, Connecticut, but came to Cornwall as a boy with his father Moses Goodrich (d. 1807). Annie and Ascha's mother was probably Sally Sperry, who was an early wife of their father, but we have not found any records that actually name their mother. Corydon is shown above and right, and Ascha is shown in the picture on the left.

   The U.S. Census of 1790 lists five families with the name of Goodrich living in Middlebury, which is adjacent to Cornwall, and located less than 10 miles from Addison. The heads of these families were Peter Goodrich (b. 1737) and his sons Bethuel (c.1751-1824) and Lemuel c.1760-1812), and Stephen Goodrich (1732-1823) and his son William (1755-1812). All of these families were distant cousins of Moses Goodrich of Bolton, the father of John Ford Goodrich, and all have origins in the early 1600s in Hartford County, Connecticut.

   Corydon held several of the town offices for Panton, and he is listed in both 1868 and 1886 as the Justive of the Peace for the town. He also served a term in 1871 as the representative from Panton to the Vermont State Legislature, which met in Montpelier. He died on Dec. 31, 1895 in Panton. Achsa, who was born on Sept. 30, 1829 in Addison and survived Corydon by 30 years, died at the age of 95 on June 8, 1925 in adjacent Vergennes. Both are buried in Prospect Cemetery in Vergennes. Corydon and Achsa had the four children listed below.

   children - HARRIS

   Sidney Munson Harris (1854-1937), who follows:

   Susan Imogene Harris (1857-1943) was born Mar. 27, 1857 in Panton, Vermont, and married Ernest James Bristol (1852-1940) of Panton on January 29, 1878 in Panton. Three years later, her brother Sidney married Ernest's sister Alice. Ernest died on Nov. 16, 1940 in Panton, and Susan died there on Dec. 20, 1943. Both are buried in the Prospect Cemetery in Panton. They had at least seven children, all of whom shared the same two grandparents as Arthur Webster Harris and his brothers. Only the eldest child Elsie is listed below.

   • Elsie Imogene Bristol (1878-1965) was born on Oct. 13, 1878 in Panton, Vermont, and she married Frank Daggett Chatterton (1872-1926) there on June 29, 1904. She and her daughter Joy Chatterton (1906-1967) appear in the picture below that shows four generations of Bristol women. She died on May 31, 1925 in Vergennes, and although there is a headstone for her there in Prospect Cemetery, she actually donated her body to science, specifically to the Department of Anatomy at the Medical College of the University of Vermont.

   Mina Aramintha (Arminta) Harris (1859-1940), who was known as "Minnie", was born Oct. 25, 1859 in Panton, Vermont. She married Fred Clayton Ward (1859-1952) of New Haven, Vermont on Jan. 11, 1882 in Waltham, Vermont. Minnie died on Nov. 16, 1940 in Waltham, and Fred died on June 18, 1952 in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. Both are buried in Vergennes in Prospect Cemetery. They had at least three children.

   Milo Corydon (1864-1945) was born on July 25, 1864 in Panton, Vermont. He married Louise M. Carter (1864-1927) on Dec. 20, 1887 in Vergennes, Vermont. Milo and Louise by the 1910 U.S. census had moved to Rialto in San Bernadino County, California, where they lived for the next 30 or more years. Louise died on Feb. 7, 1927 in Rialto, where she is buried in the Rialto Park Cemetery. Milo then in 1932 married Flora Frances Grandey (1864-1941), who had been a childhood friend of his back in Panton, but she tragically passed away on Feb. 10, 1941 in San Bernadino County from a head injury suffered after she was struck by a car. Milo died on Nov. 19, 1945 in Los Angeles County, and he is buried with both wives at Rialto Park. He did not have any children with either wife, and Flora did not have any children from a previous marriage in Vermont with Chester Spaulding (1858-1928).

    

   Four generations of Harris and Bristol family women, probably taken about the time of WWI. From L to R: Elsie (Bristol) Chatterton (daughter of Susan, 1878-1965), Achsa Maria (Goodrich) Harris (1829-1925), Joy Chatterton (daughter of Elsie, 1906-1967), and Susan Imogene (Harris) Bristol (daughter of Achsa, 1857-1943).

 

3. Sidney Munson Harris (1854-1937), the son of Corydon Harris and Aschsah Maria Goodrich, was born on Jan. 21, 1854 in Panton, Vermont. He was a student from 1874-1879 at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He took a break in his Middlebury studies in 1876 and 1877, during which time he was acting principal of the Royalton Academy, a now defunct college preparatory school in Royalton, Windsor County, Vermont. Apparently, he "had a habit [at Royalton] of having his hands in his overcoat pockets when he was out on the street. One morning when he set out for school, he found his pockets sewed up, and looking up quickly to some of the widows, he saw several heads dodging back out of sight". He transferred from Middlebury to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and graduated there in 1880 with an A.B. degree from the from College of Liberal Arts.

   He married his sister-in-law Alice Jane Bristol (1855-1926) on Sept. 29 1881 in Panton, Vermont, Jane being the daughter of Russell Titus Bristol. Sidney and Jane moved to Minnesota, where their first two children were born. Sidney during this time apparently served as a town clerk and deputy town treasurer, but we do not know where in Minnesota. He then in 1885 moved his family back to Vermont, where they lived for the next thirty or so years in Addison County, with Sidney generally working as a farmer. He also appears to have had at one time some sort of a business dealing in marble. In addition, he ran in November, 1908 as the Prohibition Party candidate for the Vermont Secretary of State, but came in third with just 12% of the vote. Next he became a Methodist-Episcopal preacher in 1917 or earlier for the Christian Union Church in North Truro, Massachusetts. He retired in 1930 (according to his death certifcate) and returned to Vermont, where he spent his final years. Alice died on May 25, 1926 in Panton, Vermont, and is buried in the Propect Cemetery in Vergennes. Sidney outlived her by several years and passed away on Feb. 12, 1937 in Vergennes, where he is buried with Jane in the Prospect Cemetery. They had several children who follow.

    

   children - HARRIS

   Corydon Sidney Harris (1882-1972) was born on Sept. 18, 1882 in Franklin, Minnesota. He moved about 1885 with his parents to Vermont, where they had been born, and married Jessie May Miller (1887-1967) on July 30, 1907 in Panton Vermont. Jessie, who had been born on Sept. 22, 1887 Ferrisburg, Vermont, died on Aug. 21, 1967 in Ferrisburg. Corydon died on July 2, 1972 in Ferrisburg, and he is buried with Jessie in Prospect Cemetery in Vergennes. He and Jessie had three children.

   • an unamed child, who was born and died on April 23, 1908 in Panton, Vermont.
   • Mildred Elna Harris was born July 18, 1909 in Panton, Vermont; and married Claude Clifford Barker (1901-1971). She died on May 13, 2004 in Lyndon, Vermont, and both she and Clifford are buried in the North Ferrisburgh Cemetery. She and Claude had a son named Sidney Claude Barker, who was born on Sept. 8, 1937 in Ferrisburg, Vermont.
   • Clifford Miller Harris (1913-2006) was born Feb. 24, 1913 in North Ferrisburgh, Vermont, and grew up on his parent's dairy farm near the shore of Lake Champlin. He graduated from Vergennes High School, and when he was just 16 years old, and took over the running of the family farm. He married Lillian Susan Frost (1916-2012) on June 7, 1940 in Ferrisburgh, and they raised two children - Clifford, Jr. and Sandra. Clifford, Sr. in the late 1970s decided to retire, afterwhich he and Lillian bought a huge RV in which they toured the country for the next twenty years, often dropping in unexpectedly on relatives. He died on April 11, 2006 in a nursing home in New Haven, Vermont, and Lillian died on June 12, 2012 in Vergennes. Both are buried in Gage Cemetery in Ferrisburg, Vermont.

   Lionel Milo Harris (1884-1975) was born April 1, 1884 in Minnesota. He moved to California as a young man and married Nina Leona Sedgewick on Aug. 11, 1914 in Rialto, California. He and Nina lived at various California addresses, including San Jose and Pomona, where Lionel worked as a postal clerk. They later lived in Hemet in Riverside County, California. Lionel died on Dec. 25, 1975 in Riverside County; and Nina, who had been born March 8, 1892 in Kansas, died on April 6, 1984 in Los Angeles County. Both are buried at the Pomona Cemetery and Mausoleum. They had one son, Arland Sidney Harris, who is listed below. Jean Harris, who is generation V in this family history had found memories of visits from her Uncle Lionel and Aunt Nina to Jean's home at Bella Vista Ranch near Fairfield, California.

   • Arland Sidney Harris was born July 28, 1928 in Riverside County, California. He became a forester and authored the following three books - "Subalpine fir on Harris Ridge near Hollis, Prince of Wales Island, Alaska" (1965), "The forest ecosystem of southeast Alaska" (1974), and "Schwatka’s Last Search" (1996). He married Bina Grey, and they currently live in Juneau, Alaska. Their daughter Margaret Jean Harris is married to Rick Quisenberry, who maintains a Harris Family Tree on Ancestry.com.

   Jennie Alice Harris (1885-1930) was born on Nov. 23, 1885 in Panton, Vermont; and graduated in 1913 from Middlebury College. She worked a secretary in Washington, D.C. during World War I. She never married, and died on Aug. 30, 1930, probably somewhere in Vermont. She is buried in Prospect Cemetery in Vergennes.

   Woodburn Prescott Harris (1888-1988) was born July 17, 1888 in Mendon, Vermont. He graduated in 1911 from Middlebury College, and become an English and Drama teacher, eventually becoming the principal of various high schools in New Hampshire and New York. He enlisted on June 28, 1917 into the army at Fort Slocum, New York, and served from July 1918 to July 1919 somewhere overseas, but probably not in France, where he lost most of his hearing in some sort of an incident. He was an acting Sergeant Major prior to this incident, but apparently was discharged and returned home as a corporal about three months before the war ended. He later stated in a 1968 interview that his disability left him depressed and near suicide, and that it took him several years before he was able to accept it. He did not return to teaching, his deafness probably having compromised that career, so he settled down to become a farmer in Vergennes, Vermont.

   Woodburn married Pauline Ethel Jenkins (1896-1972) of England on Dec. 12, 1927 in Vermont. Not long afterwards, possibly about 1929, he became a correspondant of the well-known horror author H.P. Lovecraft, and three of their letters are known to exist, including one that is some 70 pages long. When interviewed in 1968 in connection with these letters, he was wearing double hearing aids, which apparently had restored some of his hearing. He also told his interviewer how he swam every day in the river behind his house. His wife Pauline died in 1972, and he was living by 1985 alone in a nursing home, where he is said to have been very happy reading Shakespeare. He died on June 20, 1988 in Bristol, Vermont, just one month shy of his 100th birthday. Both Woodburn and Pauline are buried in Prospect Cemetery in Vergennes. They did not have any children.

   Arthur Webster Harris (1889-1971), who follows:

   Ralph W. Harris (1892-1894) was born on July 18, 1892 in Vergennes, Vermont; and died a little over a year later on Jan. 28, 1894 in Vergennes. He is buried in Prospect Cemetery where several members of his family are also buried.

   Kenneth Goodrich Harris (1896-1985) was born June 3, 1896 in Panton, Vermont. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy on Aug. 20, 1917, near the start of WWI, and subsequently served on the U.S.S. Wisconsin (battleship) and U.S.S. Talbot (destroyer), before being discharged on Aug. 25, 1919, a few months before armistice. Both ships spent the war patrolling the U.S. coast and did not serve overseas. He was married twice, first to Miriam, whom he married about 1927 and who died in 1935 at the age of 29 years, and secondly to Geneva Rose Lowe (1908-1988), whom he married on July 20, 1935 in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. He was employed by Sears Roebuck and Company in 1942 when he registered for the U.S. Military Draft. There were no children from either marriage, and he died on Oct. 15, 1985, while living with Geneva in an apartment in Eustis, Florida.

   Harold Harris (1899-1899) was born Nov. 5, 1899 in Panton, Vermont; and died a few days later on Nov. 17, 1899 in the same town.

 

From left to right (about 1917): Woodburn Prescott Harris, Arthur Webster Harris, Kenneth Goodrich Harris (in Navy uniform) and Arthur Webster Harris (in Army uniform).

 

4. Arthur Webster Harris (1889-1971), the son of Rev. Sidney Munson Harris, and Alice Jane Bristol, was born on Oct. 2, 1889 in Mendon, Vermont. He attended High School in nearby Vergennes, and went on in 1908 to Middlebury College, where he graduated in 1912 with an A.B. degree. Middlebury was the same college where his father had attended from 1874 to 1878, and Arthur's siblings Woodburn (1911) and Jennie (1913) also graduated from there. Arthur after graduation began teaching in 1912 at Underhill High School in Vermont, before moving on in 1914 to become principal of the Wells River High School, which was also in Vermont. He was still the principal of Wells River when he was drafted in 1918, right at the end of the school year, and during the height of WWI.

   When Arthur registered for the military draft on June 5, 1917, he claimed an exmption due to "chronic lethargy after had work". This appears to have kept him from having to serve initially, but he utlimately was inducted a year later on June 20, 1918 into the U.S. Army, and stationed briefly at Camp Devens in Massachusetts in the 151st Department of Brigade. This camp had been created right at the start of the war as a reception center for war selectees, and temporary encampment (cantonment) where these soldiers did their basic training. Approximately 850 soldiers, mostly privates, died here in 1918 during the the second wave of the Spanish flu pandemic, immediately after which Arthur was transfered on Aug. 3, 1918 to Company F of the 73rd Infantry. He was subsequently promoted on Sept. 6 to the rank of Corporal, but discharged six months later on Jan. 29, 1919 at Camp Devens, several months before the war ended. Arthur returned to teaching in Wells River, but eventually left that career to become an office assistant for the Adams Paper Company, which was the position he held when he registered at age of 52 for the draft a second time at the start of WWII.

   Arthur married Helen Louise Weeks (1902-1982) on June 30, 1927 in Palmer, Massachusets, but they divorced about 1932, just a year or so after the birth of Jean Alice Harris (1931-2011), their only child. He married his second wife Ellen Palmer (1896-1977) many years later on June 4, 1950 in Grafton, New Hampshire, and they subsequently made their home in Newbury Vermont, where Ellen was from. Their honeymoon was spent in Canada. This marriage was Ellen's third, she having previously married Percy Leon Still (1892-1975) on Sept. 26, 1912 in Plymouth County, New Hampshire, when she was just 16-years old. However, she divorced him sometime between 1930 and 1938, after they had at least three children --- Alice Still (1913-2006), Evelyn Still (1916-2009) and Richard Still (1918-2003). Her second marriage was to Irwin Hoyte Bangs (1890-1945), whom she married on Oct. 11, 1943 in Newbury, Vermont, and she was still married to him when he died two years later.

   Ellen's third and final husband Arthur died on March 17, 1971 at Cottage Hospital in Woodsville, which is near Haverhill, New Hampshire. However, his residence at the time was in Newbury, Vermont, where he and Ellen had lived since their marriage. His death certificate lists that he is buried in Haverhill, Vermont in Horse Meadow Cemetery, but he is actually buried beside Ellen in Oxbow Cemetery in Newbury. His obituary mentions that "he was a member for more than 50 years of the Masons, Pulaski Lodge 58, and the Congregational Church, both in Wells River." Ellen died on Sept. 19, 1977 at a nursing home in Hartford, Vermont, and she is buried in Oxbow Cemetery, with Arthur on one side of her, and her second husband Irwin Bangs on the other side. Arthur had just the one daughter from his marriage with his first wife Helen.

   children - HARRIS (from marriage with Helen Weeks)

   Jean Alice Harris (b. 1931) who follows:

 

5. Jean Alice Harris (1931-2011), the daughter of Arthur Webster Harris and Helen Louise Weeks, was born on April 23, 1931 in Amsterdam, New York. After her mother's divorce in the early 1930s from Arthur Harris, Jean went in 1934 or so, as a little girl about three-years old, to live with family friend Bertha Esther Pease Davis Cloon, and Bertha's husband Walter Cloon in Walter's hometown of Marblehead, Massachusets, where Walter was a postman. "Auntie Bertha", as Jean called her foster mother, had also raised and adopted Jean's uncle Philip Weeks Davis. Jean stayed with Bertha for close to ten years, before moving on Labor Day, 1944 to San Francisco, California to rejoin her mother Helen. Later, she and Helen moved to Compton, California to stay with her future stepfather Lt. Commander Lawrence Earl Hall (1896-1970), whom her mother married in 1948 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

   Jean about 1949 began at the University of California at Los Angeles, where she studied to he a dietition, as her Mom had been. There she met Robert James Carty, and they married after a short courtship on June 21, 1952 in Hollywood, California at Our Mother of Good Counsel Catholic Church. Both enlisted in the U.S. Navy right after their marriage, as the Korean War had just started up. Jean was sent to the Naval Training Center in Bainbridge, Maryland, while Bob remained alone through July and August in southern California waiting to be called for duty. When Jean became pregnant, she was discharged after serving just a few months, and she and Bob reunited. Then in Dec. 1952 he reported for active duty as an Ensign in the Supply Corp of the Navy, and was sent to New England for training. Jean subsequently joined him back east, and their first child Tom was born in 1953 at Staten Island in New York.

   Jean and Bob ended up back in southern California, when Bob was fortunate enough to receive an assignment as a commissary officer at the Coronado Naval Base in San Diego. Their second child Ken was born in 1954 while they were at the base. When Bob received his discharge from active duty in 1955 and joined the naval reserve, they moved to Hollywood, where their last three children were born. Bob during the next few years built apartment buildings with his brother Bill in the Los Angeles area. Bob and Jean then moved their family in 1963 to the Suisun Valley in Solano County, California, where they started a vineyard called Bella Vista Ranch and raised their family. Jean participated in a bowling league, and was a sewing project leader in 4H club in the 1970s while living at the ranch, then she later was active in bridge and book clubs, as well as serving for several years as president of the Wednesday Club, a philanthropic ladies organization that meets at their Sacramento Street clubhouse in Suisun. Jean died after a long illness on Jan. 11, 2011 at Bella Vista Ranch and she is buried nearby with Bob at Rockville Cemetery. For the children of Jean and Bob please see the CARTY GENEALOGY.


Left - Sydney Munson Harris about 1932 holding his grandaughter Jean Harris.
Center - Jean Carty (neé Harris) in 2002 at her 50th wedding anniversary.
Right - Arthur Webster Harris about 1935 holding his daughter Jean Harris.

 

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RELATED WEB SITES:

Bertha & Walter Cloon

Dele Haverland

 

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REFERENCES:

• The documentation for many of the dates and places listed in this history are found in the Ancestry.com online databases (subscription required).

• Birth, Death and Marriage Records for Vermont and California (available online at Ancestry.com, and Familysearch.org).

• Grave and burial locations where known are listed with tombstone photos (when available) on  

• Hinman, Royal R. (1852), A Catalogue of the Early Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut, Press of Case, Taiffany & Co., Hartford, Connecticut, p. 418-423 (Charles Burrall).

• Lovejoy, Evelyn M.W. (1911), History of Royalton, Vermont with Family Genealogies, 1769-1911, Free Press Printing Company, Burlington, Vermont, p. 331 & 335 (Sidney M. Harris).

• Memory of Jean Alice (Harris) Carty, circa 1982. Jean, who is the last named person in the lineage above, provided a wealth of information on her ancestry before her 2011 death.

• Machula, Nathan, 2011, Callahan-Lagergren-Machula-Stein Family Tree on Ancestry.com. Nathan has also been very generous in providing information through correspondance.

• Smith, H.P., ed., (1886), History of Addison County, Vermont, Mason & Co., Syracuse, N.Y., p. 427-428, 588 & p. XXV (Corydon Harris) of "Brief Personals" in the Addendum.

• Stevens, Plowdon (1909), Stephens-Stevens Genealogy, Lineage from Henry Stephens, or Stevens of Stonington, Connecticut, 1668, published by Frank Allaben Genealogical Company, New York, NY, p. 88.

• Tombstone Inscriptions and Photos (available online at www.findagrave.com).

• Upton, Harriet T. (1910), History of the Western Reserve, Lewis Publishing Co., New York, N.Y., p. 1757 (Jonathan Stevens & Susan Wells).

• U.S. Census Records, 1790-1930, U.S. Social Security Records, and Vermont Birth Marriage and Death Records (available online at Ancestry.com).

• Wiley, Edgar J. (ed.), 1917, Catalogue of the Officers and Student of Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, 1800-1915, published by the College, Middlebury, Vermont, p. 263, 399, 409 & 428 (Sidney M. Harris & family).