JOSEPH C. HARRIS was born in Adams County, Penn., August 31, 1831, and is one of eight children born to Thomas and Jane (Coshun) Harris, both natives of Maryland and of English and Holland descent respectively. Thomas Harris, a firmer, was married in his native State and soon after moved to Pennsylvania, where he bought a farm and resided until 1840, when he came to Wayne County, this State, where he farmed on shares four years; then moved to Tippecanoe County, and for ole year farmed on shares on the spot where Purdue University now stands; then went to Grand Prairie, same county, where, for four years, he farmed on shares. In 1849. he bought a farm of 200 acres, same county, which he conducted until he died in 1865, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Joseph C. Harris left his father's farm at the age of seventeen, purchased a breaking-plow and four yoke of oxen, and for six years engaged in breaking wild prairie land. He then bought forty acres in what is now Round Grove Township, cultivated the land until his father's death, when he returned to Tippecanoe and took charge of the homestead until his mother's death in 1868. In 1869, be bought the farm of 100 acres in this township on which he now resides. January 29, 1857, he married Mary Jane Reed, of Clark County, Ind., who has borne him eight children, all still living. Mr. Harris is a Republican, and both he and wife are members of the Christian Church.

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