It is believed that the two-story Italianate mansion at 101 E. Burton Street in Kirksville was completed in 1875. And, it is assumed that the Harris family moved into this home sometime in 1875, so let us look at who they were at that time. Captain Thomas Clark Harris was age 51 and ran what have been described as the Kirksville Woolen Mills, a flouring mill, and a store north of town.
Captain Thomas Clark Harris (1824-1887) moved his family to Kirksville, Mo., after serving as a 1st Lieutenant, a 2nd Lieutenant and a Captain in the Civil War. His last assignment was with Company H of the 7th Missouri Cavalry. This happened to be the same unit with which a man named Jacob Alfred Tinsman of Adair County served as a Sergeant. Readers may remember that in Part 88 of this history, Jacob had been stationed a short distance from the Westenhaver farmhouse when Corporal Hervey Dix became the first casualty of the Civil War in Adair County in 1861. Jacob had heard the gunfire and set out for Kirksville to sound the alarm.