Harris Hardware Records

Collection

Identifier: B-0110

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The bulk of this collection consists of business ledger books and invoices. There is a single letter written to John Reagan Harris in the collection. This collection is a great resource for researchers looking information on 1950s businesses in Shelby County businesses in the 1950s, many of whom purchased products from the Harris hardware store branches. Researchers might also be interested to look at the geographic diversity of products being sold by a hardware store in 1950s East Texas.

Dates

Creation: 1923, 1942-1955, 1983-1990
Event: Donated circa 2000-2005

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Biographical / Historical

John Garrett Harris (1/11/1886-11/22/1955) was the eighth child of Thomas J. and Sarah Jane Garrett Harris and born in Center, Shelby County, Texas. As a young man, John worked railroad construction projects in Texas and New Mexico before settling down permanently in Center in 1913. The J. G. Harris Hardware Company opened in 1914 on the West side of the square in Center after Jim Harris, John’s older brother, traded two railway cars of lumber in San Antonio for the inventory of the Oliver Hardware Co. (1). The brothers would be 50-50 partners with John running the business.

John G. Harris bought out his brother in 1921. By this time the company was known as the John G. Harris Hardware and Furniture Company. Harris built a warehouse in 1923 to “give them facilities for carrying increased stock” (2). He added a second branch of the store in Tenaha in 1929, buying out the S. Bell Hardware and Furniture Co. (3). Gradually, Harris “expanded the business and began to sell at wholesale, as well as retail” (4). Company salesmen and delivery trucks ranged across East Texas.

Harris married Lila Smith (6/17/1892-4/8/1982) in 1916. Their only child John Reagan Harris (8/4/1929-2/6/1999) joined the family business in 1950 (5). John G. Harris and his son decided to close the business in 1955 when the elder Harris’s health began to decline.

John R. Harris was later a partner in East Texas Builders Warehouse, Inc. in the 1980s.

John Garrett Harris, Lila Smith Harris and John Reagan Harris are all buried in the Oaklawn Memorial Park in Center.

SOURCES

Most information in this historical note researched or paraphrased from Shelby County Historical Commission, History of Shelby County, Texas (Curtis Media Corporation, 1988). See entries for:

John G. Harris, by John Reagan Harris, pages 548-549.

Lila Smith Harris, by John Reagan Harris, pages 549-550.

John Reagan Harris, by Eloise Smith, pages 550-551.

(1) [Center] Champion, January 13, 1915, page 3.

(2) Hardware World, June 1923, page 158.

(3) St. Louis Furniture News, 1929, page 18.

(4) entry for John G. Harris, page 549.

(5) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/75812633/john-reagan-harris.

Extent

6.00 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The Harris Hardware Records are housed in two banker’s boxes, two clamshell boxes and two oversize boxes. Boxes 1 to 3 are described at the folder-level (36 total folders). Boxes 4 to 6 are described at the item-level (9 items). The customer account book (1951-1954) in Box 1 is divided between 2 folders. The invoices in Box 2 are divided between 10 folders.