1925 Biography - Claude M. Harris

Claude M. Harris, M. D. One of the leading physicians and surgeons in Cheneyville, in Rapides Parish, is Mr. Claude M. Harris, who graduated in medicine and has been in practice for over a quarter of a century.

He was born in Claiborne Parish. Louisiana, May 5, 1874, son of Austin and Rettie (Millner) Harris. His parents, natives of Georgia, came from Louisiana soon after their marriage. His father was a Baptist minister, and combined preaching and teaching school until his death in 1881. The mother died in 1910. Of their ten children five are now living.

Dr. Claude M. Harris, the eighth in this large family, was seven years of age when his father died, and most of his opportunities he had to contrive for himself. He attended high school in Claiborne Parish, Homer College in that parish, and continued his higher education in Vanderbilt University at Nashville. He was graduated in medicine in 1897 from the University of Tennessee, and for one year practiced in Claiborne Parish. After that until 1922 his home and practice were at Magda, and from there he removed to Cheneyville. Doctor Harris owns a fine farm at Magda, and keeps in touch with his agricultural interests in that section. The rest of his time he devotes to his medical practice, and he is a member of the Rapides Parish, State and American Medical Associations.

He married in December, 1898, Miss Lillian Dawson, of Claiborne Parish, who died in 1899. In 1900 Daisy D. Wilson became his wife. She was born in Rapides Parish. Of the five children born to them four are now living: Reginald W., attending the University of Louisiana; Aubyn, who finished her education in the State Normal School at Natchitoches, and is a teacher; Claude M., attending high school at Cheneyville; and Jack, attending the grade school.

Doctor and Mrs. Harris are members of the Baptist Church, in which he is a deacon and superintendent of the Sunday School. He has served as master of his Masonic Lodge and is district grand master of that order.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, page 365.