HARRIS GENEALOGY
(version 5/30/11)
Please email corrections to Mike Clark

The town of Panton, Vermont, 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 during the revolution, most of the men taken prisoner, their farms burnt, and their families driven south. They returned after the war, and officially organized their town in 1784 - a year or so before the formation of Addison County, Vermont, when their settlement 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 head of a household of three children in the town Whitting. Ten years later Martha is gone, and three households with the name Harris are listed for the county, with John Harris (single) in Addison, Timothy Harris (wife and two children) in Middlebury, and Rupert Harris (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, was born about 1782, and married his first wife Harriet Stevens (b. abt 1786) on Sept. 10, 1807 in Panton, just a short distance from the other Harris families of Addison County. Henry's birth place and parents are not known. However, Harriet Stevens was born in Canaan, Connecticut, and relocated with her parents, Jonathan Stevens (1767-1848) and Susan Wells (d. 1801), from Cannan to Panton in 1799. Some sources incorrectly state that Susan was the granddaughter of Colonel Charles Burrall, who commanded a Connecticut regiment in the American Revolution (e.g., Stevens, 1909; and at least one lineage record of Sons of the American Revolution). More likely, Susan's mother Delia Douglass was the sister-in-law of Col. Burrall's daughter Joanna. Henry and Harriet appear to have divorced, as Harriet was clearly still alive when Henry married his second wife Hannah Collins (1788-1849) on Sept.4, 1823 in Panton. Hannah died about 1849 in Panton, and Henry married his third wife Sophia Benson (1811-1889) in Panton a short time later on March 10 of that year. The 1850 U.S. census then shows Henry in Willsboro in Essex County, New York, whereas first wife Harriet appears in Warren, Ohio. Harriet died Jan 13, 1859 in Morris, Illinois, and is buried there in Evergreen Cemeterey. Henry was still alive during the 1860 census, which puts him Coloma, Wisconsin, but he does not appear in the 1870 census. Henry and Harriet had at least four sons, who are listed below. There were also at least four children from his marriage with Hannah Collins.

   children (with Harriet Stevens) - HARRIS

   Augustus Harris was born Aug. 12, 1809 in Panton, Vermont, and like his father had three wives - Judith Hyde (1811-1850), whom he married March 24, 1833, Charlotte Pond (1813-1869), whom he married in 1856, and Elizabeth Grandy (1823-1898), whom he married Sept. 5, 1875. He died March 20, 1886, and is buried in Panton in the Adams Ferry Cemetery. He had at least three children with his first wife Judith.

   William B. Harris was born about 1811 in Vergenennes, Vermont, and died July 31, 1873 at the age of 62. He is buried in Panton in the Kent Cemetery.

   Corydon Sidney Harris (1812-1895) who follows:

   Sidney Wells Harris was born Aug. 9, 1814. He went to live with his uncle Augustus Stevens in Trumble Co., Ohio when he was six-years old, and became a lawyer. He moved to Morris, Illinois in 1855, where he became a circuit judge and died in in Morris on Sept. 1, 1876. He married Mary Freeman Bronson (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 has descendants. Sidney is buried in Morris in the Evergreen Cemetery, and several of his descendants are buried in the Mt. Hope Cemetery in Chicago.

    

2. Corydon Sidney Harris, the son of Henry Harris and Harriet Stevens, was born in Panton, Vermont in 1812. Some family trees list his middle name as Smith. Apparently, his parents gave him up, and he was raised from the age of two by Norman Munson (c.1781-1844) and his wife Sally (Pearse) Munson (c.1789-1877). Norman is described as a "man of considerable note", being Captain of the local militia. Corydon purchased a part of the Munson farm, consisting of 272 acres, before Norman died in 1844, and he inherited the rest when Mrs. Munson died in 1877. Of note, Sally Munson, who was born about 1790 in Massachusetts, is listed in the US Census of 1870 as a member of Corydon's household, and Corydon gave his first son the middle name of Munson. Corydon held several town offices, representing the town of Panton in 1872 and 1873 in Montpelier, Vermont, presumably as a witness at the State Legislature, and he is listed as the Panton Justice of the Peace in 1868 and 1886. He married Annie 0. Goodrich, of Addison County, Vermont on Jan. 1, 1850, who died in April, 1851. He then married Anne's sister, Achsa Maria Goodrich (b. Sept. 30, 1829), on Nov. 19, 1851 in Cornwall, Vermont. Anne and Ascha were the daughters of John Goodrich and Ann Speery - ^*John probably being related to one of the five Goodrich families that settled in the nearby town of Middlebury prior to 1790. Corydon died on either Dec. 3 or 31, 1895, probably in Panton, and Ascha died June 8, 1925 in adjacent Vergennes. Corydon and Ascha had four children, who are listed below.

   children - HARRIS

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

   Susan Imogene Harris, who was born Mar. 27, 1857 in Vermont, and married Ernest James Bristol of Panton on January 29, 1878. Three years later her brother Sidney married Ernest's sister Alice. Susan and Ernest were still alive in the US Census of 1930. They had several children.

   Mina Aramintha (Minnie) Harris, who was born about 1859 in Vermont, and married Fred Clayton Ward (b. abt 1859) of New Haven, Vermont on Jan. 11, 1882. They had several children.

   Milo Corydon, who was born on July 25, 1864, and married Louisa Clayton (b. abt 1863) in Vermont on Dec. 20, 1887. By 1900 Milo and Louisa had moved to Rialto in San Bernadino County California, where they lived for the next 30 or more years. Milo died in Los Angeles, California on his birthday in 1945. He and Louisa do not appear to have had any children.

   ^*The US Census of 1790 records that five families with the name of Goodrich resided in the town of Middlebury, Addison County, Vermont, and were headed by Bethuel, Lemual, Peter, Stephen and William Goodrich. John Goodrich, the father of Aschsah, is probably descended from one of these.

    

3. Sidney Munson Harris, the son of Corydon Harris and Aschsah Maria Goodrich, was born in Vermont, probably Panton, on Jan. 21, 1854. He attended, but did not graduate from, Middlebury College in Vermont from 1874-1879, then graduated from Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, the following year. From 1876-1877, possibly during a break in his studies at Middlebury, he served as principal of the Royalton Academy in Vermont, a now defunct college preparatory school. 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". Although he was preacher of the Christian Union Church, a Methodist Episcopal Church in North Truro, Massachusetts, beginning sometime before 1917, he lived most of his life as a farmer in Vergennes, Vermont. He married his sister-in-law Alice Jane Bristol of Panton on Sept. 29 1881, the daughter of Russell Titus Bristol. Jane died in Panton on May 25, 1926. Sidney outlived her by several years and finally passed away in Vergennes on Feb. 12, 1937. They had several children.

   children - HARRIS

   Corydon Sidney Harris was born on Sept. 18, 1882 and died in Vergennes, Vermont about July, 1972. He married Jessie Miller and had two children.

   • Mildred Harris married Claude Barker and had a son named Sidney.
   • Clifford Miller Harris 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, he took over the family farm. He married Lillian Susan Frost in Ferrisburgh on June 7, 1940, and they raised two children - Clifford, Jr. and Sandra. After Clifford retired in the late 1970s, he and Lillian bought an RV in which they toured the country for the next twenty years, dropping in unexpectedly on relatives. He died in a rest home in Haverhill, Mass. on April 11, 2006.

   Lionel Munson Harris was born April 1, 1884 in Minnesota; and. married Nina Leona Sedgewick in Rialto, California on Aug. 11, 1914. They had one son, Arland Sidney Harris. Lionel died Dec. 25, 1975 in Riverside, California.

   Jennie Alice Harris was born on Nov. 23, 1885 in Panton, Vermont; and graduated from Middlebury College in 1913. She served a secretary in washington, D.C. during World War I; and died on Aug. 30, 1930.

   Woodburn Prescott Harris was born in Mendon, Vermont on July 17, 1888. He graduated from Middlebury College in 1911, and become an English and Drama teacher, as well as principal, of various high schools in New Hampshire and New York. He married Pauline Jenkins of England on Dec. 12, 1927, and he was still alive in 1985 in a nursing home where he was very happy reading Shakespeare. He and Pauline had no children.

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

   Ralph Harris was born on July 18, 1892 and died a little over a year later on Jan. 28, 1894.

   Kenneth Goodrich Harris was born in 1896 and married twice, secondly to Geneva Rose Lowe, but had no children from either marriage. He died about Oct. 1985 while living with Geneva in an apartment in Florida.

    

4. Arthur Webster Harris, the son of Rev. Sidney Munson Harris, and Alice Jane Bristol, was born in Panton, Vermont on Oct. 2, 1889. He graduated from Middlebury College in 1912 and served as principal of various high schools in Vermont. He married first on June 30, 1927 in Palmer, Massachusets Helen Louise Weeks, and second Ellen Palmer. The marriage was Ellen's third. She had previously married a man names stills, and her second husband was a man named bangs. Arthur died in Woodsville, New Hampshire on March 17, 1971. He had one daughter from his marriage with Helen.

   children - HARRIS (from marriage with Helen Weeks)

   Jean Alice Harris (b. 1931) who follows:

    

5. Jean Alice Harris, 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 around 1935 from Arthur Harris, Jean went to live with Bertha Esther Pease Davis Cloon and her recent husband Walter Francis Cloon in Marblehead, Massachusets - "Auntie Bertha" having also raised and adopted Jean's uncle Philip Weeks Davis. Jean moved to San Francisco, California on Labor Day, 1944, and later to Compton, California to stay with her mother and future stepfather Commander Lawrence Earl Hall, USN, who were married in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1948. Later, Jean went to college at the University of California at Los Angeles where she met Robert James Carty. They were married in Hollywood, California at Our Mother of Good Counsel Catholic Church on June 21, 1952. Jean died at her house in the Suisun Valley of California on Jan. 11, 2011, and she is buried nearby at the Rockville Cemetery. For their children please see the CARTY GENEALOGY.

    

REFERENCES:

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

2. 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).

3. 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).

4. Memory of Jean Alice (Harris) Carty, circa 1982.

5. Smith, H.P. (ed.), 1886, History of Addison County, Vermont, Mason & Co., Syracuse, N.Y., p. 588 (Corydon S. Harris).

6. Tombstone Inscriptions for Hawley Cemetery in Panton, Vermont (available online at www.findagrave.com).

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

8. U.S. Census Records, 1790-1930 (available online at Ancestry.com).

9. U.S. Social Security Records (available online at Ancestry.com).

10. 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).

Please email corrections to Mike Clark