Clark, Robert Carlton, Ph.D. "History of the Willamette Valley Oregon."  Vol. 3.
Chicago: Chapman Publishing Company, 1927. p. 353.

RUFUS A. HARRIS

     Rufus Arnold Harris was born October 3, 1872, near Wakefield, Clay county,
Kansas. His parents, Edward B. and Martha J. (Porter) Harris, were natives of
New York. His father served in the Mexican war and later settled in Kansas. The
elder Harris was a rider in Ben Holliday's famous Pony Express and he possessed
the strength, courage and resourcefulness of the true frontiersman. In 1890 he
brought his family to Oregon, locating in Sheridan, Yamhill county, and later
entered a homestead in Lincoln county where he spent the remainder of his life,
having passed away in 1900. The mother thereafter lived in Salem until her death
in 1922.
     The subject of this sketch received a public school education to the age of
fourteen, when he began and served an apprenticeship on a country newspaper.
After coming to Oregon with his parents he worked for a time on the ranch of his
uncle, R. A. Porter, well known Oregon pioneer, near Sheridan, and then accepted
employment with the Sheridan Courier, a weekly newspaper with which he was
connected for about a year and a half. At nineteen he acquired possession of the
Courier plant which he operated at Amity, in Yamhill county, under the name of
the Oregon Blade, and he was at that time the youngest editor in Oregon. He
later moved the printing plant to Monmouth and began publication of the Monmouth
Monitor which he subsequently sold. After disposing of his own newspaper
interests he moved to McMinnville and entered the employ of the Telephone
Register then published by Captain H. L. Heath, who later sold the business to
F. S. Harding in whose service Mr. Harris continued until 1900 when he came to
Salem and soon became foreman of the job printing department of the Oregon
Statesman. Later he engaged in job printing in Salem on his own account and
continued in the business until 1902, when he removed to Portland, where for six
years he was identified with various newspapers and printeries. He later
acquired a tract of land in Polk county near Salem to which he moved in 1908 and
about 1910 exchanged his country property for a home in Salem. In 1911 he was
appointed to the position of state printing expert by Governor West, who in 1913
appointed Harris to the position of state printer to complete the term of office
of Willis S. Duniway, deceased. It was during Harris' incumbency that the state
printing department passed from private to state ownership, and the methods and
system inaugurated by Harris have continued with such changes only as have been
necessitated by the expanding business. Following his services as state printer
Harris was placed in charge of the state registration department by Governor'
Olcott. From this position during the World war Harris was engaged by the Young
Men's Christian Association and sent to Paris, in 1918, where he was placed at
the head of the Association's Civilian Employment Bureau for all France, in
which position it was his duty to investigate and report to the Y. M. C. A., the
French and American Armies and the police bureau of Paris on all civilian
applicants for employment by the"Y." After the armistice Harris was assigned to
the work of making the Y. M. C. A. records available for accredited
investigators many of whom represented newspapers, magazines and a multitude of
other agencies. To Mr. Harris was later entrusted the task of superintending
publication of the "Inter-Allied Games 1919," a historical record of athletics
conducted for the American Army by the Y. M. C. A. and culminating in the famous
Inter-Allied Games in Paris, where, with the American Army as host, athletes
from the armies of the world engaged in the Great war, strove in friendly
rivalry for athletic honors. The book contained over five hundred pages,
seventy-five full pages of illustrations, was a work of art and, due largely to
Mr. Harris" activities, the first edition was followed by a second enlarged
edition in English and an edition in French. In January, 1920, Harris sailed for
New York. Three weeks were consumed in the voyage by reason of rough weather and
a disabled engine. Here he was royally welcomed and entertained for two weeks by
Captain Richard H. Waldo, head of athletics for the American Army, who was
determined that Harris should remain in New York, but he had been thoroughly
inoculated by the spirit of the far west and early in February reached home in
Salem, where for one and a half years he was again in the employ of the state in
the department of the industrial accident commission. While here employed he
began to note the promising outlook for the growth of his city and community and
was attracted to the business of dealing in real estate. This he has since
followed with success.
     Mr. Harris was married January 1, 1893, to Miss Letha L. Miller who, like
himself, was a native of Kansas. They have become the parents of two living
children, having lost two in childhood. The two living are Ross A. Harris, aged
twenty, and Averil, the wife of David C. Ellis, who, with her husband as
superintendent, is an instructor in the schools of Tonasket, Washington. Mr.
Harris is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, Salem Chamber of Commerce
and the International Typographical Union, while his fraternal affiliations are
with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Woodmen of the World and the
United Artisans.

     
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in March 2012 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.