Newspaper Page Text
Feature
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Southern Cross, Page 3
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”:
the enterprising offspring of Joel Chandler Harris and Esther LaRose
joel Chandler Harris and (Mary) Esther LaRose first met at the Florida House, a Savannah hotel. He was a shy,
J red-haired journalist with a stammer. She was a French-Canadian charmer, daughter of a ship owner, and six
years his junior. Their marriage by Father Dominic Cocchia, oc, at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist,
Savannah, on April 23, 1873, seemed the stuff of which fairy tales are made — and maybe it was.
The children of Joel Chandler Harris: (from left to right) Julian, Lillian,
Evelyn, Joel Chandler Harris Jr., Lucien, and Mildred.
In 1876, when Harris, an associate
editor of The Savannah Morning
News, left a yellow fever-ridden
Savannah for Atlanta with his wife
and sons Julian and Lucien, both
earlier baptized at the Cathedral, he
was heading toward fame and for
tune.
Bom in Eatonton in 1848 of a sin
gle mother, Harris attended Eatonton
Academy for Boys. His early em
ployment as a printer’s devil (type
setter) for a local publication, the
Countryman, foreshadowed the
newspaper and literary career he
would follow throughout his life.
When Joseph Addison Turner, owner
of the Countryman, invited the boy
to live on his plantation, Harris’
association with the plantation slaves
provided a stimulus for the stories of
“Uncle Remus” he later wrote.
After the Civil War, Joel Harris
moved on to set type for newspapers
in Macon, New Orleans and Forsyth,
Georgia. The move to Savannah fol
lowed, as did his meeting Esther
(“Essie”) LaRose, the love of his
life, and his subsequent move up
state to Atlanta and a post on the
Atlanta Constitution. While he was
working for the Constitution, Harris
sketched out the character of “Uncle
Remus,” a slave who spun simple
plantation yams in which the traits
of animal characters provided alle
gorical commentary on the pre-Civil
War institution of slavery.
Harris’ ongoing narrative of the
adventures of Brer Rabbit and Brer
Fox, as told by “Uncle Remus,”
resulted in publication of a collection
of his newspaper columns about the
pair in 1880 and led to fame and for
tune and the purchase of a farm
house in Atlanta’s West End. It was
here that Joel Chandler Harris and
Esther LaRose settled, their family
eventually including nine children.
Although three of their children did
not live to adulthood, those who sur
vived lived to reflect their parents’
morals and mores.
By this time the friend of writer
Mark Twain and admired by Presi
dent Theodore Roosevelt, Joel
Chandler Harris continued to write
and to edit. Like author Rudyard
Kipling’s ideal man in the poem
“If,” Harris never seemed to lose his
“common touch.” Though the vol
umes he wrote with “Uncle Remus”
as narrator propelled him to fame,
Joel Chandler Harris authored many
other books, continued newspaper
work and lived contentedly with
wife Esther in the cottage he called
“The Wren”s Nest.” Ever devout,
Esther Harris took her children with
her to Mass and eventually
sought and worked for estab
lishment of Saint Anthony’s
Church, nearer to where she
was raising her family.
Before long, oldest son
Julian, commenced a career
that mirrored and, in some
ways, superceded his fa
ther’s. Like Joel Chandler
Harris, Julian began his life as a
journalist early. Signing on as a cub
reporter for the Atlanta Constitution,
at 16, he was news editor at 19 and,
at 26, became the Constitution's
youngest-ever managing editor.
Julian worked with his father on the
successful Uncle Remus s Magazine
until the senior Harris’ death in
1908, continuing the magazine until
1913. Newspaper work in New York
and Paris and a year’s service as a
military attache during World War I
followed.
Throughout Julian Harris’ life,
Julia Florida Collier, whom he wed
in 1897, proved to be an ideal part
ner. The early loss of their two sons
did not deter the couple’s productive
life’s work. Following World War I,
they eventually bought full control
ling interest in the Columbus En
quirer-Sun (Georgia). Through this
newspaper, Julian and Julia Harris
fought the Ku Klux Klan and cham
pioned freedom of the press. In
1926, their efforts won them a Puli
tzer Prize— the first for a Georgia
newspaper.
The Harrises’ stance against
lynching and other societal
sins eventually forced them
to sell their paper. Though
financially ruined, they
foreswore bankruptcy. (It
took them 20 years to pay off
their debts.) In 1930, Julian
Harris became state news
editor of the Atlanta Constitution.
Afterwards, he was executive editor
of the Chattanooga Times. He re
turned to Atlanta in 1942 as southern
correspondent for the New York
Times. Julian Harris, who died in
1963 at 88, was largely overlooked
until 2002, when his life story,
Someone Had To Be Hated: Julian
LaRose Harris, written by Gregory
C. Lisby and William F. Mugleston,
was published. The Georgia Histo
rical Review, in a discussion of the
book that year alluded to the role
Joel Chandler Harris had played in
Julian’s life through his own “moral
earnestness,” racial understanding
and emphasis on reconciliation
between North and South.
The influence of Julian Harris’
mother, Esther, on him and her other
children was significant. A 1901
New York Times story about Joel
Chandler Harris’ family life related:
“Mrs. Harris is a French-Canadian
woman, a devout Catholic, hand
some and of lively disposition—too
young looking to have five grand
children. There are six children—
four sons and two daughters.”
Lucien, second oldest Harris son,
grew up to become an active and
valued member of the publicity com
mittee of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia. In 1948,
when another son, Evelyn Harris,
retired as assistant vice-president of
the Southern Bell Telephone and
Telegraph Company, The Bulletin of
the Catholic Laymen s Association
quoted an Atlanta Constitution edito
rial statement: “Thus one of the best
| loved and best known figures in the
I active business life of Atlanta comes
| to that period of life when greater
leisure is permissible.” Evelyn
Harris—a charter member of Atlanta
Council No.660, Knights of Colum
bus, and the Atlanta Rotary Club—
died in 1961.
Esther and Joel Harris’s youngest
son, Joel Chandler Harris, Jr., attend
ed Atlanta’s Marist College and their
daughters, Lillian and Mildred,
enrolled at Saint Joseph Academy in
Washington, Georgia. When Esther
LaRose Harris (whose husband con
verted to Catholicism before his
death) died in 1938, The Bulletin
noted her burial from Saint An
thony’s Church. The careers of three
of her sons were listed: Julian, exec
utive editor of The Chattanooga
Times-, Lucien, Atlanta Insurance
executive and member of the
Catholic Laymen’s Association’s
publicity committee, and Joel C.
Harris, Jr., an advertising executive.
Her daughters were listed as Mildred
(Mrs. Edwin) Camp, and Lillian
(Mrs. Fritz) Wagener.
Today, the “Wren’s Nest,” former
ly the Harris family home, is a house
museum. Several of those involved
in its operation are descendants of
the children of Esther and Joel
Chandler Harris, including executive
director Lain Shakespeare, great-
great grandson of Lucien Harris.
Columnist Rita H. DeLorme
is a volunteer in the Diocesan
Archives. She can be reached
at rhdelorme@diosav.org.
Rita H. DeLorme