William Logan Harris

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William Logan Harris (4 November 1817 – 2 September 1887) was a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1872.

Contents 1 Birth and Family 2 Education 3 Honorary Degrees 4 Ordained Ministry 5 Academic Ministry 6 Other Ministry Pursuits 7 Episcopal Ministry 8 Bishop Harris the Man 9 Death and Burial 10 Selected Writings 11 References 12 See also 13 External links

[edit] Birth and Family

William was born 4 November 1817 near Ontario in Richland County, Ohio, a son of James and Mary (Logan) Harris. His father died when William was sixteen years old. William then made his home for some time with his uncle and guardian, Mr. Stphen Harris, (who was a brother of the Honorable John Harris of Stark County, Ohio).

William married Nancy Jane Atwell 9 August 1840. They had three children: Mary Celestina, Hattie Augusta, and William Hamilton (who married Grace Fancher Nicoll 1 December 1885).

[edit] Education

William attended the schools about his home. He was converted to the Christian faith 10 June 1834. He entered the Norwalk Seminary (Norwalk, Ohio) shortly thereafter, pursuing a course of classical and mathematical studies.

[edit] Honorary Degrees

Rev. Harris was honored by Allegheny College with the D.D. degree in 1856. He received an honorary LL.D. degree in 1870 from Baldwin University.

[edit] Ordained Ministry

William united with the M.E. Church in 1834, and was Licensed to Preach in the early part of 1837. He was admitted on trial to the Michigan Annual Conference (which at that time covered northwestern Ohio as well) 7 September 1837. In 1840 he became a founding member of the North Ohio Annual Conference. When the conference boundaries were further realigned, he became a member of the Central Ohio Conference (aka the Delaware Ohio Conference).

Rev. Harris served for eight years as Pastor (in Ohio) successively at Dover, Bellville, Amity, and Chesterville, and in 1844 was appointed to Delaware, Ohio. He also was an active abolitionist. In the time preceding the American Civil War, he took part in the discussion, writing books, pamphlets, etc. on this subject.

[edit] Academic Ministry

Rev. Harris became a Tutor (or Instructor) in the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio in 1845. In 1846-47 he again entered pastoral work, appointed to Toledo. In 1848 he was assigned to Norwalk, Ohio. He was then elected Principal of the Baldwin Institute (later University), Berea, Ohio, remaining there 1848-51. In 1852 Rev. Harris was elected Professor of Chemistry and Natural History at Ohio Wesleyan, serving in this position for eight years.

[edit] Other Ministry Pursuits

In 1860 Dr. Harris was elected by the General Conference one of the Corresponding Secretaries of the Missionary Society of the M.E. Church, which office he held by quadrennial re-elections until his election to the Episcopacy.

Dr. Harris was elected a delegate to the General Conferences of 1856-72, serving as Secretary of that body at each of these quadrennial sessions. He also contributed largely to the periodical literature of his denomination.

[edit] Episcopal Ministry

Rev. Harris was elected to the Episcopacy of the M.E. Church by the General Conference of 1872 which met in Brooklyn, New York. Then during 1872-73, Bishop Harris made the first official episcopal tour ever made circumnavigating the globe (leaving from San Francisco), visiting M.E. Mission Stations in Japan, China, India, Bulgaria, and Western Europe. Bishop Harris also became recognized as an expert in Methodist church law.

[edit] Bishop Harris the Man

Bishop Harris was a typical man, large of body and large of brain. He was an indefatigable worker of wonderful executive ability and of a legal type of mind, which made him the trusted counselor of his fellow Bishops. As a theologian and pulpit orator he was perhaps unequal to some of the other M.E. Bishops. But his great brain and force of character, his power to plan and ability to execute, made him one of the central figures in the ecclesiastical world. In the opinion of one biographer, "his death removes from earth a manly man and from the Methodist church one of its pillars."

[edit] Death and Burial

Bishop Harris experienced symptoms of heart disease, being indisposed during an 1887 trip to England. Upon his return to New York he was unable to walk. Bishop William Logan Harris died 2 September 1887 at his residence in New York City. He was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Chicago.

[edit] Selected Writings

• The Powers of the General Conference, 1859.
• Ecclesiatical Law and Rules of Evidence, written with Judge William J. Henry (of Illinois), with special reference to the government of the M.E. Church, 1870.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography.

• Biographical/Genealogical information about the Harris Family from Rootsweb.com.[1]
• Methodism: Ohio Area (1812-1962), edited by John M. Versteeg, Litt.D., D.D. (Ohio Area Sesquicentennial Committee, 1962).
• Obituary, Bellville Star: 8 September 1887, Vol. 10, No. 50 (reprinted from the Mansfield News: 3 September 1887).[2]
• "William Logan Harris," in Virtual American Biographies, based on Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography (Six Volumes). James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos, Editors. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-89 and 1999. [3]

[edit] See also

• List of Bishops of the United Methodist Church

[edit] External links

• Picture of Bishop Harris