ISHAM G. HARRIS
Isham G. Harris, of Memphis, was born in Franklin County, Tenn.; was educated at the academy at Winchester; studied law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced to practice at Paris, Henry County, Tenn., in 1841; was elected to the State legislature as a Democrat from the counties of Henry, Weakley, and Obion in 1847; was a candidate for presidential elector in the ninth congressional district of Tennessee on the Democratic ticket in 1848; was elected to Congress as a Democrat from the ninth congressional district in 1849, reëlected in 1851, and nominated as the candidate of the Democratic party in 1853, but declined the nomination; removed to Memphis and there resumed the practice of his profession; was a presidential elector for the State at large in 1856; was elected governor of Tennessee as a Democrat in 1857 and reëlected in 1859 and again in 1861; was a volunteer aid upon the staff of the commanding general of the Confederate army of Tennessee for the last three years of the war; returned to the practice of law at Memphis in 1867, and was engaged in it when elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat (defeating Judge L. L. Hawkins, Republican), to succeed Henry Cooper, Democrat; took his seat March 5, 1877, and was reëlected in 1883, in 1889, and in 1895. On the 18th of July, 1897, Mr. Harris died, after a long life of statesmanship and honor. His position in the Senate was filled by the appointment of Thomas B. Turley.
