Name/Title
AU Lay, George Cowles - 1932-08-05 letter to Joseph Hastings HarrisEntry/Object ID
1990.1.498Context
1415 Chelmsford St
St Paul Minn.
Aug 5 1932
Rev Dr J. H. Harris
Bonebrake Theological Seminary
Dayton, Ohio.
Dear Doctor Harris:
I have been selected by a Committee at the University here to write a life of Dr. Harris. Harcourt Brace & Co have written expressing willingness to publish his life and requesting the manuscript. I have been engaged for sometime in reading over Arthur's diary and have made a fair beginning.
I wish to obtain from you some genealogical material. I have received a letter from Mrs Jordan T. Harris of Miami, but while she gives me some facts about his life, she does not give any reliable data about his ancestry. She writes: “He (Arthur) was the oldest son of Jordon Harris, who was the oldest son of John Harris, who was the oldest son of Watson Harris” (writer of the famous diary of which I have a copy), who was the oldest son of Richard Harris, a Quaker, who lived at Plainsville Ohio.
“Arthur was the oldest grandchild in his mother's & father's family and always remembered his six grandmothers four great grandmothers among them and three grandfathers.” This is about all she gave me on this subject. I assume you have a genealogical chart showing his ancestry with more detail and any facts as to when the Harris & Lambert families came to this country and where they first settled.
I would be glad to have any facts within your knowledge with approximate dates.
I am glad to say that the members of the family here are in fairly good health, but all but Arthur are away for the rest of the summer. Alanson is at Willoughby near Cleveland. Dan is on a scientific trip to Utah & Colorado with a party & George is at a boy's camp near Duluth.
We hope you & all your family are well & we note with interest the particulars about your son Dan's career in Europe, which come to us occasionally.
Yours sincerely,
George C. Lay
