View source for Nathaniel Edwin Harris

{{short description|American politician}}

{{Use American English|date=April 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2011}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| name         = Nathaniel Edwin Harris
| image        = Nathaniel Edwin Harris, 1908 (3x4a).jpg
| caption      =
| party        = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| order1       = 61st
| title1       = [[Governor of Georgia]]
| term_start1  = June 26, 1915
| term_end1    = June 30, 1917
| predecessor1 = [[John M. Slaton]]
| successor1   = [[Hugh Dorsey]]
| office2      = Member of the [[Georgia House of Representatives]]
| term2        = 1882-1885
| birth_date   = {{birth date|1846|1|21|mf=y}}
| birth_place  = [[Jonesborough, Tennessee|Jonesborough]], [[Tennessee]], U.S.
| death_date   = {{death date and age|1929|9|21|1846|1|21|mf=y}}
| death_place  = [[Hampton, Tennessee|Hampton]], Tennessee, U.S.
| restingplace = [[Rose Hill Cemetery (Macon, Georgia)|Rose Hill Cemetery]]
| alma_mater   = [[University of Georgia]] {{small|([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])}}
| occupation   = Lawyer
| spouse       = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Fannie Burke|1873}}
* {{marriage|Hattie Gibson Jobe|1899}}
}}
| children     = 7, including [[Walter Alexander Harris|Walter A. Harris]]
| branch       = [[Confederate States Army]]
| battles      = [[American Civil War]]
| unit         = [[16th Virginia Cavalry Regiment]]
}}

'''Nathaniel Edwin Harris''' (January 21, 1846 – September 21, 1929) was an American lawyer and politician, and the [[List of Governors of Georgia|61st Governor of Georgia]].<ref>[http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=2b2c224971c81010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD National Governors Association<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref>

==Early life==
Harris was born in [[Jonesboro, Tennessee]] on January 21, 1846, to Edna (née Haynes) and Alexander Nelson Harris.<ref name="death">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83463344/tennessean-once-georgia-executive-tech/ |title=Tennessean, Once Georgia Executive, Tech Founder, Dies |page=2 |newspaper=[[The Tennessean]] |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=2021-08-14}} {{Open access}}</ref> His father was a physician and Methodist minister.<ref name="death"/> He moved to [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] during the [[American Civil War]] to escape [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] troops. At the age of sixteen, he joined the infantry of the [[Confederate States Army]] and served until the end of the American Civil War eventually becoming an officer in the [[16th Virginia Cavalry Regiment]]. After the war, he returned to his family's home in [[Tennessee]]; however, they soon moved to [[Bartow County, Georgia]]. In 1867, Harris attended the [[University of Georgia]] (UGA) in [[Athens, Georgia|Athens]], was a member of [[Chi Phi]] fraternity and the [[Phi Kappa Literary Society]], and graduated in 1870 with a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] degree. In 1889, he became a UGA trustee and served on that board until his death.

After graduating college, Harris taught school for two years, studied law, and gained admittance to the state bar. He moved to [[Macon, Georgia]] in 1873. He joined with future UGA chancellor [[Walter Barnard Hill]] to form the law firm of Hill and Harris. From 1874 to 1882, he also served as the Macon city attorney.

==Personal life==
Harris married Fannie Burke of Macon in 1873. He later married Hattie Gibson Jobe of [[Elizabethton, Tennessee]] in 1899. He had seven children with his first wife, including General [[Walter Alexander Harris|Walter A. Harris]].<ref name="nytimes">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1929/09/22/archives/nathaniel-edwin-harris-former-governor-of-georgia-was-confederate.html |title=Nathaniel Edwin Harris |date=1929-09-22 |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |access-date=2021-08-14}}</ref><ref name="honors">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83466710/military-honors-for-ex-governor-22-sep/ |title=Military Honors for Ex-Governor |date=1929-09-22 |page=6 |newspaper=[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|The Atlanta Constitution]] |access-date=2021-08-14}} {{Open access}}</ref><ref name="murder">{{cite book|last1=Frey|first1=Robert Seitz|last2=Thompson-Frey|first2=Nancy|title=The Silent and the Damned: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank|url={{Google books|LwTBYeCto84C|page=106|plainurl=yes}}|page=106}}</ref>

==Political life and the formation of the Georgia Institute of Technology==
{{see also|History of Georgia Tech}}
{{rquote|left|The founding of the Georgia School of Technology I regard as the most important event, of a public nature, that occurred in my life.<ref>{{ cite book | title=Autobiography: the story of an old man's life, with reminiscences of seventy-five years | url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographythe00harr | last=Harris | first=Nathaniel E. | author-link=Nathaniel Edwin Harris | year=1925 | page=[https://archive.org/details/autobiographythe00harr/page/222 222] | publisher=The J.W. Burke company}}</ref>|Nathaniel E. Harris, ''Autobiography'', 1925}}
[[File:Nathaniel Harris.jpg|thumb|267x267px|Harris in 1918]]
Harris was elected to the [[Georgia House of Representatives]] in 1882 as a representative of [[Bibb County, Georgia|Bibb County]] and was reelected through 1885. His campaign platform when running was the establishment of a technological college. As a state representative in 1882, Harris introduced the bill to establish the [[Georgia Institute of Technology]] (originally called the Georgia School of Technology until assuming its current name in 1948).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Harris|first1=Nathaniel Edwin|title=Address on technical education ... delivered before the Georgia State Agricultural Society, at its meeting in Savannah, Ga., February 12th, 1884|date=1884|publisher=J.W. Burke|location=Macon|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/georgiabooks/do-pdf:gb5145|access-date=20 June 2016}}</ref> That bill was approved by the [[Georgia General Assembly]] on October 13, 1885, after failing to pass through the legislature in 1883 and again in 1884.  Harris received public support in this matter from [[Henry W. Grady]] and [[John Fletcher Hanson]].

The bill called for Governor [[Henry Dickerson McDaniel]] to appoint a five-member commission to select the location of the new school and organize it. Harris was named to that group as chairman alongside [[Samuel N. Inman]] from Atlanta as the treasurer, [[Oliver S. Porter]] from [[Newnan, Georgia]], [[Edward R. Hodgson Sr.]] from Athens, and Judge [[Columbus Heard]] from [[Greene County, Georgia]].

Meeting in Atlanta on October 19, 1886, the committee took 23 separate ballots amongst themselves before selecting [[Atlanta]] for the school's location over Macon, Milledgeville, Athens and [[Penfield, Georgia|Penfield]]. Harris, Hodgson and Inman voted for their cities of residence on every ballot with Porter and Heard voting for Atlanta on the last ballot to give that city a majority. Harris was named the president of the school's Board of Trustees, and he served in that position the rest of his life.

Elected to the [[Georgia Senate]] from 1894 to 1895, Harris then served as judge of the Superior Court of the Macon Circuit from 1912 until his resignation in 1915 to successfully run for [[Governor of Georgia]]. He was sworn in on June 26, 1915, and served until 1917 being the last governor of Georgia born outside the state of Georgia. During his tenure, Harris was noted for signing [[Prohibition]] into state law. He returned to his Macon law practice after his gubernatorial term and served as Pension Commissioner of Georgia from 1924 to 1925 in addition to being president of the Electoral College of Georgia.

Harris was a first cousin of [[Alfred Alexander Taylor]] and [[Robert Love Taylor]], both of whom were [[United States Congress]]men from, and Governors of, Tennessee.

==Death==
Harris died at his summer home in [[Hampton, Tennessee]] on September 21, 1929<ref name="honors"/> and was buried in [[Rose Hill Cemetery (Georgia)|Rose Hill Cemetery]] in Macon.

==See also==
* [[History of Georgia Tech]]

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Nathaniel Edwin Harris}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061123175249/http://www.georgiaarchives.org/what_do_we_have/govhisroster.htm Georgia State Archives Roster of State Governors]
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060118235505/http://www.gashpo.org/assets/documents/ga_govs_graves_field_guide.pdf ''Georgia Governor's Gravesites Field Guide (1776–2003)'']}}
*[http://www.library.gatech.edu/gtbuildings/hopkins.htm History of Georgia Tech]
*[http://www.sos.state.ga.us/onlinetour/2ndfloor/portarits/nat_e_harris.html  Portrait of Harris at the Secretary of State's official website]
*[http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/cgi-bin/ebind2html.pl/reed_c07?seq=92 ''History of the University of Georgia'', Thomas Walter Reed,  Imprint:  Athens, Georgia : University of Georgia, ca. 1949, pp.893,895–899,1205–1213]
*[http://www.westgov.org/hodgpic/banner_article.htm Hugh J. Rowe, "Old Families of Athens", The Athens’ Banner Sunday, March 9, 1913]
*[http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/collections/nharris.htm Nathaniel E. Harris Collection, Richard Rusell Library for Political Research and Studies, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia]

{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|before=[[John M. Slaton]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[List of Governors of Georgia|Governor of Georgia]]|years=1914}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Hugh Dorsey]]}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box
|before=[[John M. Slaton]]
|title=[[List of governors of Georgia|Governor of Georgia]]
|years=June 26, 1915 – 1917
|after=[[Hugh Dorsey]]
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Governors of Georgia}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Nathaniel Edwin}}
[[Category:Democratic Party governors of Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Democratic Party Georgia (U.S. state) state senators]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the Georgia House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Georgia (U.S. state) state court judges]]
[[Category:Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers]]
[[Category:Confederate States Army officers]]
[[Category:University of Georgia alumni]]
[[Category:Georgia Tech people]]
[[Category:Methodists from Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:1846 births]]
[[Category:1929 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Jonesborough, Tennessee]]
[[Category:People of Georgia (U.S. state) in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Georgia General Assembly]]
[[Category:20th-century Georgia (U.S. state) politicians]]