Back ![Fredrick "Fred" Harris poses in front of a bear skin rug with his rifle on the front porch of his family home in 1949. Harris was the grandson of Juneau co-founder Richard T. Harris, Sr. Fred's father was William John Harris. Barbara Schultze Photograph Collection, Courtesy of the Alaska State Library Historical Collections, ASL-PCA-475](http://jun-cdn.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/superphoto/11670568.jpg "Fredrick "Fred" Harris poses in front of a bear skin rug with his rifle on the front porch of his family home in 1949. Harris was the grandson of Juneau co-founder Richard T. Harris, Sr. Fred's father was William John Harris. Barbara Schultze Photograph Collection, Courtesy of the Alaska State Library Historical Collections, ASL-PCA-475")
Editor's note: This story is evolving and information presented in the print version was somewhat incorrect due to limited information at the time; this version reflects the correct information as it is acquired from community members. Thank you for your understanding.
It all started with a cutline. There, in the digitized black and white image was a man, kneeling next to a bear skin rug. His rifle rested a few inches away on the light deck planking in front of what looked like a typcial Southeast home.
The description under the image read "Fred Harris, hunting guide, Juneau, 1949."
But, that was it.
"Who was Fred Harris?" I wondered. "Was that his home?"
Subsequent photos showed this same Harris with a woman, about his age. Was she his wife? I couldn't be certain. Another photo showed the same bear skin rug, on the same deck, but this time it was a baby, between nine and 11 months, posing with the bear. His hands were on its head.
The name "Harris" in Juneau conjures images of one well-known miner, who co-founded Juneau and unleashed the hunt for gold in areas like Silverbow Basin and Treadwell.
Could the Fred Harris in the photo be tied to this famous namesake?
The following is what I discovered:
The year was 1879. Richard Tighe Harris, an Irishman, along with Joe Juneau, a French Canadian, were tasked with prospecting the Taku and Gastineau Channel areas by George Pilz, a mining engineer working in Sitka at the time.
The pair of prospectors struck gold in Gold Creek and Harris returned to Sitka to draft up mining laws and sketch out the original townsite of Juneau. He dubbed it Harrisburgh, though the name was later changed to Juneau.
Harris married a young Tlingit woman, Kitty, from Hoonah in 1880 and together they had four children, two of which survived to adulthood — William John and Richard Tighe, Jr.
Richard Tighe Harris, Jr. married Inez Ashby and together the pair had seven children: William, Thomas (1917), Irene, Liela, Mary, Charlotte and Richard. William died in an accident at the age of seven, Mary died out of state in 1948, Charlotte was lost to whooping cough and measles as an infant and Richard died in 1998, in Juneau. Richard Harris, Jr., became a musician and carpenter, and lived in Juneau for most of his life.
The life of William John Harris, the brother of Richard T. Harris Jr., has been lost slightly to the passing of time. Records indicate that, like his brother, he too had a large family in Juneau. Margaret Harris, was his wife, and together they had 10 children: Richard (Dicky), Frederick, Margaret, Robert “Casey” (B. 1917), Martha, Sophia, Bernice “Bunny”, William John, Mildred, Robert “Casey” (B. 1936). William John Harris worked as a guide and as a sign-painter in Juneau for many years.
Frederick (Fred) B. Harris, took after his father is some respects and he worked as a hunting guide. He was later a draftsmen, surveyor and road engineer for the Territorial Road Commission/Federal Highways. According to his daughter, he was married to Dorothy Irene Welch, originally from Webster, Wisconsin on Christmas Day in 1945. The couple were happily married and had six children and four of them still live in Alaska. The oldest is Margaret (Peggy), followed by twin brothers, Kenneth and Frederick, Kathaleen (died young), and Hugh and James, a second set of twins.
Frederick B. Harris died May 23, 2000, at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. He was born Jan. 13, 1915, in Juneau where he lived until he moved to Anchorage in the 1970s.
Dorothy Harris moved to Juneau in 1943 where she worked as a telephone operator for a few years. After getting married to Frederick B. Harris, Dorothy became a stay at home mom. In 1972 she moved to Anchorage where she lived until her death in May.
Fred Harris, the grandson of Richard Tighe Harris, was never married to Ellen Green, as previously indicated. That was another Frederick Harris who may have been from Hoonah and was possibly a relative of Kitty (Harris).
A Frank Harris appears in volume one of Gastineau Channel Memories. This Harris moved to Juneau in 1914 and is of no known relation to the aforementioned Harris family.
• Do you have more information about the Harris family? Tell us. Email Outdoors Editor Abby Lowell at abby.lowell@juneauempire.com.
Comments (7)
Add commentHarris
Pilz dispatched Juneau & Harris to prospect the Gold Creek area at the request of Chief Kowee. The first time they were outfitted at Pilz's nephew's( N.A.Fuller) store was in August of 1880, not 1879. Pilz was not "an engineer working in Sitka at the time". He was financing & directing most of the prospecting happening in SE Alaska. He was the true founder of our town which was first called Pilzbury (later Rockwell, Harrisburg, Juneau City & Juneau). He and Edmund Bean built the first two houses in the new camp.
I'd also like to know more about the Harris family!
Thanks for the neat photos!
Irene Harris
Thanks for doing some research on the Harris family and sharing what you found! I came to Juneau in 1995 to learn more about my great, great grandfather Richard T. Harris. I stayed with my late great uncle Thomas Harris and visited the library a couple of times to do some casual research. (I've been back once since, earlier this year, this time with my son, and we got to visit with aunt Liela, as well as Mary's son Bill West, my first-cousin-once-removed.) In the little research I did, I was shocked to see how much of the popular history was based on a quite biased single account from George Pilz. I was only 17 and had a lot of other things going on so I never did follow up on it with any seriousness. But it remains there in the back of my mind as a "setting the record straight" project.
However, I can set one thing straight right now. :-) The second photo's caption says that the woman pictured is Irene Harris, daughter of Richard T. Harris, Jr. I'm not sure who the woman is but I can assure you it's not Irene, who was my grandmother (who passed away in 2009). Also, she did not marry her cousin as the caption suggests; she married Herbert J. Lenz, my grandfather. You can see her obituary and photo online.
Thanks again for the article!
Irene Harris
Evan Lenz: this Irene is the wife of Fred Harris, not your grandmother Irene. I am your cousin three time removed, the son of Fred and Irene Harris. I have not seen you aunts and uncles for a long time. I visited your greatgrandmother when I lived in Juneau 40 years ago. Went to her house down on Willoughby Ave. She would give us cookies when we visited. She was a very nice person.
Pilz's account of Richard T. Harris is very bias, considering the letter I have when he was in Mares Island Penitentury(Spelling) in San Francisco. He calls Richard his only trusted friend, trusted him to care for his property and business dealings how his wife was being unfaithful and so on. He got left holding the bag on a shady deal he had with his partners. Well Richard, Joe Juneau, and Pilz got the short end of the stick all around. His partner,nephew(?) Newman Fuller ended up in a penitentury in Michigan. Fuller accused someone else of the same thing he accused Richard T. of when he and Pilz were living in Circle City mining town on the Yukon River. According to a descendent of the Indian laborers that accompanied Harris and Juneau, Kowee was a chief by designation by the white leaders of Juneau. This was to prevent a war between the other chiefs in the village. He was a shaman, so no one would fight with him. As for the doubt of the reason that Harris and Juneau did not climb up into last Chance Basin, I use to fish in the area, and the willows and devils club were terrible to climb through.
Tenacious: That was Pilzburg (lol, no doughboys), One reason the name was change to Juneau was, Harris tried to become respectable. He did not send his wife and children back to Hoonah like some of the more "respectable" men did and married white women. He did not spend his money in the bars. So the they were mad at Harris.
Irene Harris
Hugh: Thanks so much for your response and for the extra details on the Harris/Juneau/Pilz saga. I remember reading the account Pilz wrote which began, "This is the anniversary of my starting the present town of Juneau, Alaska..." It would seem he was already trying to rewrite history in 1922. Yet I believe this deeply bitter letter served as the basis for much if not most of the popular history that was written about the founding of Juneau. When I cross-checked his claims with other records in the library, it was clear that Pilz was not being forthright (for example regarding his whereabouts when he was actually in jail).
Thanks for your clarification on the photo caption. It sounds like this statement then is the only inaccuracy: "Irene's father was Richard T. Harris, Jr." That was true for my grandmother but not your mother. :-)
Thanks also for sharing about my great grandmother, Inez Harris (your great aunt, if I have it right). Our lives only overlapped by about six years. I remember seeing a photo of her holding me when I was an infant.
Pilz
Pilz was quoted when he was old (he outlived most of the other founders) and by his admission was sick with mercury poisoning. One of his several rude claims was that Harris & Juneau were careless with his outfit and lost the whole thing. This appears to be true as I have two complete bills made out by N. A. Fuller some time apart and preserved by our underrated historian, Judge Wickersham.
I have indeed seen our city labeled Pilzbury in the casual manner of the day. I've never seen Pilzburg, but I wouldn't doubt it a bit having not seen every possible document. Pilzburg makes more sense as Pilzbury means "Place where Pilz is buried".
Tenacious:
Mercury poisoning, from processing ore to get gold. Pilz was around 70 years old at the time of his statement about Harris. At a time when 50-55 was the average life span for men. Pilz had a hard time all around. He escaped the Kaiser' s agents during the Franco-Prussian War. He comes to America, comes up with a pump design, which partners steal and patent. Comes to Alaska, has a partner of questionable qualities(Fuller). Ends up in prison, his wife is unfaithful and divorces him. He gets very little credit for the history of Juneau. So I cannot feel a lot of resentment towards him. Even Judge Wickersham's past was checked.
NA Fuller
Fuller claimed to be a partner. Was this true? Both receipts from his store for the supplies needed in Harris & Juneau expeditions were billed not to Pilz & Fuller, but rather to Pilz & Hill. Hill being Pilz's financial backer of the week. Both receipts listed "pass books" as part of the supplies. Pass books were a record that the customer kept, showing for instance, how many sacks of flour are on your bill. The store would say "pay me for three sacks of flour" and you could show your pass book proving that you had only purchased two. The first receipt shows that it was paid in full.
Pilz claimed that Fuller was just a (lazy) store keeper & put in business by Pilz himself. Maybe, maybe not. Pilz claimed a lot of things, some obviously not true. Certainly history doesn't much care for Fuller. He built his Juneau cabin in the center of the road & refused to move it. He was instrumental in the lynching of the two native men at the foot of Seward Street. He sued nearly everyone else involved in the founding of Juneau. The final straw was his involvement with the "Bear's Nest" swindle that nearly wreaked the economy of Juneau. He moved away for reasons of continuing good health.