Mittie JARRELL HARRIS

The following bio was taken from pages 227-228 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Gloria Riley

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

I am eighty-eight years old and was born in Rusk County on the Jarrell farm near Minden, Texas, May 15, 1893. My mother, Nancy Melinda Liles, was born in Panola County on April 12, 1858. My father, William James Jarrell, was born April 27, 1849 at Indian Springs, Georgia. My parents were married on December 30, 1888 in Panola County. In 1853 my father had moved to Rusk County with his mother Martha Buckner Jarrell, who had married the Reverend John Sparkman, following the death of the father of her three children. Reverend Sparkman was the first pastor to serve the Zion Hill Baptist Church, called on September 4, 1868. He served in this capacity for fourteen years until ill health caused his resignation.

My father’s brothers were both medical doctors: Dr. Julius Jarrell, M.D., who was a graduate of Tulane Medical School and practiced in Houston; his younger brother, Dr. Henry Joseph Jarrell, M.D., who was graduated from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in March 1875 and practiced in San Antonio. My father and both brothers were raised in the Minden Community along with seven children that my grandmother and Reverend Sparkman had together. My father owned and operated the Jarrell Cotton Gin north of Minden on the Henderson Highway. When I was growing up, our family, adults and children alike, ate together at a large dining table. My father insisted on this because he remembered as a child having to wait to eat until after the adults had eaten.

My only time to leave Rusk County was when my younger sister, Achsa Jarrell Hayes, and I went to North Texas State Normal College at Denton. My family used to send us on the train to Denton from home with fresh eggs in their shells, packed in cornmeal in a syrup bucket. They always arrived in good condition. These were exchanged for our meals where we were staying. After finishing college, I taught school in Rusk County.

While teaching at Buford School, west of Henderson, I married Thomas Walton Harris, son of George Walton Harris and Sarah Elizabeth Kimble Harris, on May 27, 1917 in my parents’ home at Minden. In 1896 Thomas had moved to Rusk County from east of Atlanta, Georgia, near Covington, with his parents and three brothers. We were blessed with four children: Sarah Blanche Anderton, born March 2, 1918; Jarreldene Harris, born April 10, 1924; Dr. Thomas William Harris, M.D., born July 29, 1931; and Virgil Kimble Harris, born September 5, 1935. Blanche married Carl Anderton, and they have two children: Lewie Carl Anderton, who has one son, Jason; and Donna Joy Ferguson, wife of Ray Ferguson, who has one daughter, Sarah Leigh. Tom is married to Mary Anne Roberts and they have three children: Dr. Jeffrey Randall Harris, M.D., who is married to Dr. Judith Nine Wasserheit, M.D.; Gregory Warren Harris, who is married to Angela Humphrey, and they have one son, Mitchell Robert, and Kathryn Anne Harris. Kimble is married to Patsy Ann Whiteside, and they have daughters, Sheri Diane and Kimberly Ann.

My daughter Jarreldene lives with me, and Kimble and his family live on the family farm west of Henderson. Tom and his wife and their son, Greg, and his family, live in Arlington, Texas. Their son, Jeff, and his wife live in Atlanta, Georgia, and Kathy is a student in New York City. Blanche and her husband live in Dallas and their children live in Denton.

I have been blessed with a wonderful life in Rusk County, Texas, where I will be buried someday at Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Rusk County, alongside my husband, who died November 2, 1965.

Written by Mittie Jarrell Harris and Dr. Tom Harris