A 2nd great-grandmother

Today at Christ Church Cathedral in Houston, we remembered in thanksgiving the life of Mary Winifred Beale Harris, one of my second great-grandmothers. She actually died on September 25, 1871. She died before any of her grandchildren were born, and there were few, if any, family stories about her. Her husband, Joseph Adams Harris, was 20 years older than she and died the same year their youngest child was born. Together they had six children: Joseph Adams Harris, my great-grandfather; Mary Winifred Harris and George Washington Harris who died as infants; and then Charles, Ellen, and Annette.

She was from Washington, D.C., and her husband from Boston, but their life together was lived in Houston, Texas, just across the street from the Episcopal Church - now the Cathedral - where they were members. He was a liquor salesman, a profitable job at the time.

I don't really know much about her, except that she took community property very seriously. In her Will, she divided the half of her property that she had inherited from her husband equally among the four children; her half of their property and all of her personal property, she left to her daughters. And in case there was any question, she went on to explain that the sons would each have one-eighth and each daughter three-eights - because, she said, the sons were "old enough to provide for themselves." Actually, Charles was close in age to his sisters, and Joe took his two young sisters to live with his family - but it was good of her, and probably a little out of the ordinary at the time to leave property to daughters.

She was supposedly buried next to her husband in the Episcopal Church cemetery - as you might imagine, as Houston expanded, those graves were moved long ago, many without names. Ironically, there is a huge Harris family cemetery plot in Boston, including a headstone with Joseph Adams Harris' name . . . but he's not there! I'm sure God knows where they are and is keeping track of them!