HARRIS, William Alexander, Congress, KS (1841-1909)
Party: Populist
HARRIS, William Alexander, (son of William Alexander Harris [1805-1864]), a Representative and a Senator from Kansas; born near Luray, Loudoun County, Va., October 29, 1841; attended the common schools; graduated from Columbian College (later George Washington University), Washington, D.C., in 1859 and from the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington in 1861; during the Civil War served three years in the Confederate Army, becoming adjutant general, and later ordnance officer in the Army of Northern Virginia; moved to Kansas in 1865 and was employed as a civil engineer in the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad until 1868; moved to Lawrence, Kans., in 1868; appointed agent for the railroad companies in the sale of the Delaware Reservation and other lands; moved to Linwood, Leavenworth County, in 1884 and engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock raising; elected as a Populist to the Fifty-third Congress (March 4, 1893-March 3, 1895); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1894; member, State senate 1895-1896; elected as a Populist to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1897, to March 3, 1903; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; resumed his agricultural pursuits; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Kansas in 1906; died in Chicago, Ill., where he had gone to work with the National Livestock Association, on December 20, 1909; interment in Oak Hill Cemetery, Lawrence, Kans.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
