YUBA COUNTY Biographies

JEREMIAH A. HARRIS

An excellent and productive orchard property is that owned and conducted by Jeremiah A. Harris, who has resided on his 150-acre ranch for the past seventeen years. In 1912 he began setting out cling peaches and now he has twenty-six acres in the fruit. There are also seventeen acres in Thompson Seedless grapes, some of the vines being sixteen years old. He was born in Jackson County, Mo., on his father’s farm near Blue Springs, on September 27, 1850, and is the eldest of eight sons born to William G. and Martha (McPherson) Harris, natives of Virginia and Kentucky, respectively, the former of Welsh descent and the latter of Scotch parentage. William G. Harris settled in Jackson County, Mo., in the early forties, where he engaged in farming until his death. He was a sympathizer with the South up until the time of the war; but when the Southern States seceded, he would not go with them but remained loyal to the Union and the Stars and Stripes. The maternal grandmother of Jeremiah Harris was a Fitzhugh of the old and prominent Virginia family of that name.

Jeremiah A. Harris had little chance for an education, for at eight years of age he handled a plow on his father’s ranch and during the Civil War he cut and hauled wood to the Union camp at Blue Springs, Mo., while the soldiers were camped there. He remained at home helping with the farm work until he was twenty-one years old.

At Blue Springs, Mo., on October 27, 1872, occurred the marriage of Mr. Harris, when he was united with Miss Rhoda Vermillion, a native of that place and a daughter of John and Margaret H. (Devine) Vermillion, natives of Loudoun County, Va., who located in Jackson County, Mo., where Mr. Vermillion was a builder. He passed his last days at Blue Springs, survived by his widow, who died in Kansas City. This worthy couple had eight children, of whom Mrs. Harris was the youngest. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Harris has been blessed with nine children: Edgar A., a rancher near Yuba City; Oscar L., deceased; Claude B., living in Sacramento; Roy W., of East Nicolaus; Jennie, now Mrs. Stoker, who resides near the home ranch; Ezra J., a rancher near Franklin Corners; Louis, who lives in the Barry district; and Mary E. and Jerry V., who reside with their parents. In 1874 Mr. Harris brought his wife and little son, Edgar A., to California and located in Contra Costa County, where he rented the McPherson ranch, and farmed for many years, operating some 900 acres of land in Tassajara Valley, and raising wheat and live stock on an extensive scale. In 1906 he settled in Sutter County; and here he purchased his present home place in the Barry district, which he has developed into a paying property. Mr. Harris is counted among the successful horticulturists of his locality. He and his wife are members of the Baptist Church in Yuba City, and contribute liberally to its benevolences.

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