Biography of Judge Thomas Harrison

Judge Thomas Harrison, born in England in 1825, immigrated to the U.S. and settled in Illinois before moving to Montgomery County, Kansas, in 1869. A dedicated scholar, lawyer, and public servant, he became a prominent figure in local politics and was elected probate judge in 1882. He contributed greatly to the community while also engaging in farming for the latter part of his life. Married for 40 years to M. Eliza Chambers, he had three children and left behind a legacy of service and commitment to American ideals.

JUDGE THOMAS HARRISON—In the passing away of the subject of this memoir, Montgomery county lost one of its landmarks of civilization and a venerable and worthy pioneer. He identified himself with this frontier municipality in August, 1869, and from thence forward to his death was an active participant in its affairs. As scholar, lawyer, public official and farmer his citizenship was of the genuine type and his character unreproached.

Settlers were widely separated in Montgomery county when Thomas Harrison, of this review, cast his lot with the frontier municipality and took a government entry near Verdigris City in 1869. The McTaggart mill and homestead marks the site of his original “claim,” taken up not so much with the intention of proving up on it, perhaps, as to more closely identify himself with the county and to seal a tie of common interest with its citizens. He did little toward the actual improvement of his claim, being a lawyer and engaged in the practice of his profession at old Liberty. When the question of a permanent county seat was settled in favor of Independence he ultimately established his office in that place and maintained it there till March 30, 1877, when failing health forced him to relinquish the law and seek rest and renew his vigor in the pure air and exercise of the farm. He purchased an eighty-acre tract adjoining in the four corners of sections 2, 3, 10 and 11, township 33, range 15, where, with the exception of his years in official service, he passed the remainder of his life.

Judge Harrison was born in Northamptonshire, England, on the 21st of September, 1825. At seven years of age his parents came to the United States and settled in Utica, New York, but remained there only four years when they came on west to LaSalle, now Kendall county, Illinois, where they died. His father was Thomas Harrison and his mother was Mary (Musson) Harrison who reared to maturity eight of their nine children, namely: William, deceased, ex-member of the Kansas Legislature from Butler county, ex-probate judge and a prominent citizen of the county; Mary, who died in Wisconsin, married Richard Hudd and was the mother of the late ex-Congressman Hudd, of Green Bay, Wisconsin; James, who died at Santa Barbara, California, passed his life chiefly in the dairy business in Chicago; Ann, who married Warren Chapin, died in St. Francis, Indiana; Hannah, who died at Remington, Indiana, was the wife of George Bullis; Theresa, of Santa Barbara, California, is the wife of Henry H. Polk; Thomas, of this sketch; and John, of Morrow county, Oregon.

Judge Harrison was educated at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. He was poor and worked his way through school, as a farm hand or at teaching or other honorable employment, and graduated in 1853. Among his classmates were Chief Justice A. M. Craig of the Illinois Supreme Court and A. A. Smith, a prominent lawyer of that State. The Judge was educated primarily for the ministry but when he came to embark in life’s realities his views somewhat digressed from the orthodoxy of the time and he turned his attention to law. He established himself at Galesburg, Illinois, where he practiced till his entry to the army in 1862. He was a sergeant of Company “A,” Seventy-seventh Illinois Infantry, until near the close of the war, when he was commissioned a first lieutenant and assigned to Company “A,” Seventy-third U.S. Colored Troops. The war over, he resumed the practice of law and was located at Galesburg, Illinois, when he decided to come west and started on his journey to Montgomery county, Kansas.

In his new home in Kansas Judge Harrison was ever a prominent figure. In politics he wielded an influence which contributed to many victories for the Republican party but his views changed somewhat on the approach of the avalanche of reform which annually swept Kansas from 1890 to his death, and his sympathies went out to the political movement engendered and fostered by the Farmers’ Alliance. In 1882 he was elected probate judge and served in that capacity with credit and ability. He filled the office four years and retired to his farm to enjoy the peace of a private citizen.

December 28, 1854, Judge Harrison married M. Eliza Chambers. Mrs. Harrison’s father was Matthew Chambers, likewise her paternal grandfather. The latter was born a Scotchman, was the second son of his parents and, for some displeasure at home, ran away and went to sea for several years. On hearing of the struggle of the American colonies for independence he came to their assistance, offering his services in behalf of the cause. His worth was discovered and rewarded by his being commissioned and placed in command of a company of men. Among his several battles was Saratoga, where Gen. Burgoyne surrendered and where Mr. Chambers met an own cousin of his in a British uniform, a prisoner of war, and the storming and capture of Stony Point in which assault Captain Chambers received a wound by a bayonet passing through his leg below the knee. From this wound he never fully recovered and it finally induced his taking-off. After the war he located at Londonderry, New Hampshire, where he reared his family and died. He had a family of three sons and two daughters, namely: John, who settled in western New York, reared a family and finally disappeared as if lost; Margaret, who married Thomas Dickey and died in New Hampshire; Robert, who passed his life in Vermont and introduced the Spanish Merino sheep into that country; Mary, who married John Lund and died in New Hampshire; and Matthew, who died at Galesburg, Illinois, in January, 1869.

Matthew Chambers, the second, was born in 1785 and was a soldier in the War of 1812. He was a colonel of Vermont militia, was a merchant in Bridgeport, that state, and left there in 1830 and came out to Illinois. For a wife he married Hannah Smith, a daughter of Jacob Smith, a Jerseyman. Two children living from this union, viz: Edward P. Chambers, of Galesburg, Illinois, and Mrs. Harrison, the widow of our subject. Five others are deceased, viz: Jacob Smith Chambers, Matthew Carey Chambers, H. Cordelia (Chambers) Willard and William Henry Chambers. Mrs. Harrison was born in Bridgeport, Addison county, Vermont, on the 23d of September, 1832. She was the wife and companion of Thomas Harrison for forty years and is the mother of the following children: Mary, wife of Seth Starr, who has two children, Harrison C. and Ruth N.; Thomas J. Harrison, of Scammon, Kansas; and Cordelia E., wife of Frank E. Lucas, of Park Place, Oregon, who have five children, to wit: Frederick, William, Charles, Helen and Mary.

We are fortunate in this article to be able to present to posterity the paternal chain of the Harrison and Chambers families complete from their English ancestry. The spirit of Americanism was dominant in both families and both have furnished ample evidence of their love for the institutions of our Republic. To their descendants we commend this brief biography in the belief that it contains lessons worthy to be learned.