I’d Like to Meet

…my great-grandfather, David Thomas Goodwin “Tom” Harris. 

 

 "Tom" Harris in the orchard lane with his dogs (the one in back is Molly)

Tom near the garden pergola 

He was born on 18 January 1870 in the district of Wellington, county of Salop (now Shropshire), England, the oldest son and oldest child of Susannah Turner Goodwin and Richard Harris.  He had five sisters and one brother.  However, two of the sisters died (one at the age of six and the other at three months) before the family came to  the United States.  He died on 2 December 1950 in Kokomo, Howard County, Indiana.

In between, he was many things.  He grew up in iron country in Shropshire.  According to the History of Howard County, at the age of thirteen, he began working in a rod and wire mill.  After four years, he emigrated to this country.  He first worked at a mill in Howard, Pennsylvania for about a year, then moved on to Joliet, Illinois, where he married my great-grandmother Edith Bell Chesnut on 10 December 1891. 

After a short time, they moved to Anderson, Indiana, where their three sons were born:  Thomas in 1893, Robert in 1895, and Ralph in 1905.  While living in Anderson, Tom was head roller in a local rod mill.  In 1901, he became established at Kokomo Steel and Wire as superintendent.  This company later became Continental Steel Corporation.  The family moved to Kokomo after the birth of Ralph.

They moved into a rambling farmhouse that they dubbed Grange Hall Farm.  On retirement, Tom helped his grown sons Thomas and Ralph in farming, particularly of a flock of Cheviot sheep that had been brought from Scotland.

Sitting in the “Sitting Room” at Grange Hall Farm with his only granddaughter, Jean Harris

He also doted on his granddaughter (my mother) Phyllis Jean Harris – Ralph’s child with Ola Ruth Sutherland. 

Through the years, several generations lived in the house he purchased in Kokomo.  All of the photos here were taken in or around that house.  At one time or another, his mother lived there with them, and his wife’s mother also resided there.  I even spent the first four years of my life living there and have such fond memories of roaming the farm and exploring cabinets and bookshelves until it was torn down in 1981.

Yes, I would like to meet so very many of my ancestors.  But the biggest reason I would like to meet my great-grandfather would be to ask him about a piece of family lore.  His children and grandchildren for many years were told – by him – that he came over from England by himself at the age of seventeen.  Then a year or so later, the rest of the family joined him.  This was a story that had been told to so many people that, for years, I had it on the back burner as far as research.  I hadn’t had much luck with passenger records for any family branch, and I figured it was probably true, since the pertinent person had told it (sure, right?).

Then I went through a really long period trying to find him in ancestry on a passenger list with no luck.  It wasn’t until I decided to find out when the rest of his family came over that things turned around.   I looked for his oldest sister and found her right away.  But imagine my surprise when I looked at the actual passenger list and found them all – including my great-grandfather.  All on the same ship, same list, same trip.  Yes, he was seventeen, but he was not alone!  The reason it took me so long to find him was that, although the name on the ship’s list clearly reads “David T Harris,” it had been transcribed in ancestry as “Dorw S Harris” (and still is that way now, even though I’ve put in numerous corrections).  So, now that I’ve found him, I just want to know why he told everyone he was alone.  And watch him smile.