John Gideon Harris, Hale & Montgomery Counties, Alabama
 
Source: Dictionary Of Alabama Biography (p. 755)
 

JOHN GIDEON HARRIS. Lawyer, was born March 1, 1834, nears Greensboro,
and died July 7, 1908, at Montgomery; son of Page and Mary (Williams)
Harris, the former born near Raleigh, N.C., who came with relatives
to Alabama in 1818, and devoted his life to farming; grandson of John
and Nancy Harris, who lived north of Greensboro, and of David and
Martha Williams, who lived near Green Springs.  Mr. Harris is of
English and Welsh descent, and had ancestors in the Revolutionary War.
He received his education in the private schools of Greene County,
completing a literary course in the Green Springs school, under Dr.
Henry Tutwiler and Dr. Carlos G. Smith; and was graduated from
Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., LL. B., May, 1858. he at once
located in Greensboro for the practice of law, and at the outbreak of
the War of Secession, was a law partner of Judge Thomas W. Coleman,
sr.  He had in 1856 been elected a justice of the peace. On January
15, 1861, he was sent to Fort Morgan as a private in the Greensboro
light artillery guards, but after a service of a few months, returned
home and raised a company of which he became captain.  This company
was attached to the Twentieth Alabama infantry regiment, September
16, 1861.  In 1863, he was promoted to major, and served in that rank
until the end of the war.  After peace was established, he resumed
the practice of law; was appointed register of the land office at
Montgomery by President Cleveland in 1885; was elected State
superintendent of education in 1890; re-elected in 1892; was elected
a member of the State railroad commission, with Charles Henderson,
1906.  While at the head of the educational interests of the state,
he did much to arouse public opinion to the needs and importance of
better schools and larger appropriations.  He instituted a series of
popular educational rallies, and delivered many speeches and lectures
on education, religious, and Masonic topics, which he had compiled
for publication. He was active as a Mason for forty years, and served
as grand master of the grand lodge, and grand high priest of the
grand chapter.  He was a Democrat; was an unsuccessful candidate for
congress against Charles Hayes, Republican, in 1870; and was on the
electoral ticket in the Tilden, Hancock and Cleveland presidential
campaigns. He was a Missionary Baptist, and was president of the
International Sunday school convention, 1900-1903. Married: January
3, 1861, near Sumterville, to Mary Jane, daughter of John Evander and
Mary Jane Brown, who came to Alabama from South Carolina. Children:
1. Mary Julia, m. S.G. Dawson, children, Harris P., Annie Maria,
Clarence B.; 2. Annie Brown, m. Dr. James T. Rushing.  Last
residence: Montgomery.

Thanks to Ira L. Harris III
Evansville, Indiana