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Judge Frank Harris

Lisa McKnight has sent pictures, information and the obituary of her Grandfather Judge Frank Harris.

Michael Gribbin

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Frank Harris of Weiser, 89, last surviving member of the Idaho Constitutional Convention in 1889, died Tuesday afternoon at a Boise hospital after a brief illness.

Mr. Harris served two terms in the state senate-—in the fourth session in 1897 and again in the seventeenth session in 1923.

He had held several public offices in Washington county, including: two terms as county prosecutor, several as probate judge and as justice of the peace.

He was a life-long Democrat and one of the state’s pioneer attorneys. He was born June 20, 1854, in Placerville, Calif., and came to Idaho in 1880 at the age of 26 years.

Judge Harris, as he was familiarly known through the years, came into prominence at the turning point from a territory to statehood.

As a member of the constitutional convention, he helped frame the constitution which is in existence today. History shows that the constitutional convention of which he was a member, disfranchised a large number of Mormons then practicing polygamy in Idaho, and although the constitutional provision is still in effect today, the situation was overcome by Church President Woodruff’s Manifesto. which outlawed polygamy among L.D.S. members in 1890. A test- oath election provision for Mormons was subsequently dropped after the Woodruff Manifesto. The constitution, however, still deprives of the voting privilege in Idaho any person practicing plural marriage or any organization which teaches it.

History shows there were about 25,000 Mormons in the state at the time.

There was a question, too, as to Idaho’s admission to statehood after the holding of the constitutional convention. Those who objected raised the matter of the disfranchising of the Mormons, and the fact that Congress had never authorized the calling of the constitutional convention. They also contended that the population of Idaho was not sufficient to justify two Senators in Congress.

It was about this same period of Idaho history that the state legislature caused considerable furor when it appointed one U. S. Senator, Fred T. Dubois, then reversed itself and elected William H. Claggett. Claggett subsequently lost his contest for the seat.

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The Life and Times of Judge Frank Harris

FRANK HARRIS, who is the oldest continuous resident of Weiser, has for forty-six years practiced law there, and in the law and in politics in Washington County no name ranks higher than that of Frank Harris,

Mr. Harris was born in Eldorado County, California, June 28, 1854, son of William and Tracey E. (Saltzman) Harris. His grandfather, William Harris, was a native of Virginia, and of Revolutionary stock. The maternal grandfather, Thomas Saltzman, was of an old Pennsylvania family. He went west to Wisconsin and was a lead miner in the mining districts of that state,

Mr. Harris’ father, William Harris, was born in Virginia and was a California forty-niner. He spent many years in the gold mines and later owned a farm. Both he and his wife died in California. His wife was born in Posey County, Indiana, and went to California in 1853. Of their seven children four are living.

Frank Harris attended school in California, and in 1880, at the age of twenty-six, established his home at Weiser, Idaho.

He had begun the study of law in an office at Eureka, California, and in 1886 was admitted to the Idaho bar. Since then he has practiced continuously, and has carried a heavy share of the professional burdens ‘in this section of the state. Politics has always been a hobby with him. He began attending Democratic conventions in territorial times and was a member of the first Democratic State Convention of Idaho, and was also a member of the constitutional convention.

He served two terms as prosecuting attorney, and was a member of the State Senate in 1897 and again in 1923. In the June primaries of 1932 he was nominated as Democratic candidate for probate judge, and was elected to that office in November of the same year.

Judge Harris owns a good ranch near Weiser. He has been affiliated with the Knights of Pythias for thirty-five years and is a past chancellor of his lodge.

In 1884 he married Miss Nettie Oakes. She was born in Wisconsin and came to Idaho in 1879, completing her education here. Her father, A. K. Oakes, was an Idaho pioneer farmer.

Mr. and Mrs. Harris have had three children. The son William was reared and educated at Weiser and is now associated with the engineering department of the City of Chicago.

James who was born in 1888, was educated in the Weiser public schools and the University of Idaho, was colonel of the One Hundred and Sixteenth Cavalry during the World War, and after the war engaged in law practice and had been elected to the bench in the fall of 1930, just a few days before his death on November 11,1930. He left three children: Peter James, William Frank and George Dennis.

Mr. Harris’ only daughter, Emma, is the wife of Walter S. Parry, a salesman at El Paso, Texas, and they have
three children, Jack, Catherine and Joe Parry.

From IDAHO The Place and It’s People – Byron Defenbach

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