“THOMAS E. HARRIS was born in Charleston, Mass., Feb. 28th 1812, where he lived until twenty-one years of age.  His early life was spent in mercantile pursuits.  When twenty-one years of age he removed to the City of New York where he spent three years in connection with a mercantile establishment.  He then went to England for the purpose of purchasing goods and spent about two years in the City of Manchester.  From England he returned to New York and then came, in 1838, to Montgomery Co., Ill., and spent a year or two upon the ‘Seward Hill,’ boarding with Israel Seward.

About the year 1840, Thomas Harris and George Brooks bought and improved the farm east of Butler, now belonging to Wm. Simmons.  Hr. Harris remained upon the farm for about two years.  In 1812 he purchased the farm where he now resides at Ware’s Grove, a little less than three miles N.E. of Butler.

On the 29th, of May 1845, near Butler, Ill., Thomas Harris was united in marriage to Miss Huldah R. Ware of Montgomery Co., Ill.”

Source:  Semi-centenarians of Butler Grove Township, Montgomery Co. Illinois, by Rev. Thomas E. Spliman, Sept. 1878, page 97