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File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
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Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County
Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1890

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The Biography of Joseph Vinton HARRIS, M. D. 

Pages 225-226, transcribed in full by Danni Hopkins 

[Surnames: BUELL, CRUPPEN, DODDRIDGE, HARKER, HARRIS, McPHERSON, PLATTENBURG] 

    
JOSEPH VINTON HARRIS, M. D. The city of Canton is not without her share of members of the learned professions, who are a credit to the pursuit they have chosen and to the town itself. Among those who have taken up the calling of a medical practitioner is Dr. Harris who devotes himself assiduously to his practice and the scientific investigations which will enhance his professional knowledge and skill. He is well established in reputation as a physician and is recognized as among the able practitioners of Central Illinois. 
    
Before outlining the life history of our subject it may be well to make a brief record regarding his parents. His father, Colbert Harris, was born in Prince George's County, Md., July 30, 1798. In 1826 he located in Belmont County, Ohio, on a tract of land which he leased for ten years. He cleared and cultivated it until the expiration of his lease, when he bought one hundred and sixty acres in Monroe County and removing thither resided there until his death, which occurred March 24, 1853. He left a widow and eleven children. Of the latter six only are now living. The mother died in March, 1853. She bore the maiden name of Catherine E. Crupper, and was born in Leesburg, Loudoun County, Va., July 8, 1808. 
    
The subject of this biographical notice was the sixth son of his parents and was born in Monroe County, Ohio, October 22, 1839. He entered the common schools and further advanced his knowledge by an attendance at Fairview (Ohio) Academy. He then turned to teaching as a temporary expedient, continuing to make his home in Fairview and pursuing his peaceful pedagogical labors in the country. In 1860 he took up the study of medicine in the office of Dr. J. T. McPherson of Cambridge, Ohio, and in due time took his first course of lectures at the medical college in Cleveland. 
    
Upon the breaking out of the Civil War the Doctor enlisted in the Union Army November 7, 1861, as he considered his duty to his country paramount to his desire to become a physician. He was enrolled in Company H, Sixty-fifth Ohio Infantry, Col. Charles G. Harker commanding. The regiment was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, under command of Gen. Buell, and became a part of the Fourth Army Corps. His regiment took part in a number of the most noted conflicts of the war, among them being Shiloh, Holly Springs, Stone River, Chickamauga, Kenesaw Mountain, Franklin and Nashville. The intervening time was spent in skirmishing, marching and the various important, although monotonous, duties of campaign life. 
    
At Decatur, Ala., in the fall of 1864, Dr. Harris was shot in the hip, and from the effects of the wound he was kept at Howard Hospital in Nashville for three months. He then rejoined his regiment, serving until the close of the war and was mustered out May 12, 1865. He had been promoted from the ranks to the position of Hospital Steward and Acting Assistant Surgeon, in which positions he was enabled to relieve suffering and aid in restoring his comrades to health, while at the same time he gained an experience which has been of great value to him in later years. 
    
After his discharge Dr. Harris returned to Ohio, but the same fall removed to Canton where he pursued his practice about five years. He then entered Rush Medical College in Chicago and after completing his second course of lectures was graduated in 1871. He resumed his professional labors in Canton and has long been considered a permanent member of the fraternity here. 
    
October 19, 1865, the rites of wedlock were celebrated between Dr. Harris and Miss Ellen S. Plattenburg, at that time a resident of this city. She is a daughter of Perry and Ellen S. (Doddridge) Plattenburg, and was born in Wellsburg, Va., her mother also being a native of the Old Dominion. She came to this State with her parents when quite young and grew to maturity here, receiving a good education and a careful home training. Her union with our subject has been blest by the birth of two children--Ellen E. and Joseph Perry. 
    
Dr. Harris belongs to the State Medical Society and is a member of the Lewistown Board of Examining Surgeons for pensions. He belongs to Morning Star Lodge, No. 734, A. F. and A. M., and has attained the Thirty-second degree of the Ancient Scottish Rite Masonry. Politically, he is, and always ahs been, an earnest and stanch Republican. His pleasant home in the midst of agreeable surroundings is one of the notable centers of the social life of the cultured society of the city. 
    
In connection with this biographical review we are pleased to present, elsewhere in this volume, a lithographic portrait of Dr. Harris. [portrait on page 223]