Through Harris Family Hands: 100-year-farm honored

By KRISTY HEMMINGSEN | East Texas Edition

Pat and Kimble Harris, current owners of the 102-year-old farm in Rusk County, display the certificate received from the Texas Department of Agriculture. -Staff photo by Hemmingsen

May 30, 2002 -- Earlier this spring, 114 Texas farms and ranches that have been in continuous agricultural production for a century or longer were honored during the 27th annual Family Land Heritage ceremony in Austin.

Harris Ranch in Rusk County was among those honored as one of Texas' 100-year-old farms.

The farm, which is actually 102-years-old, is located just a few miles from downtown Henderson. Currently, Kimble Harris and his wife Patsy own and live on the place.

Over the century, there has always been plenty of farming, fishing, cooking and children running around, just as it is today.

The Harrises say that throughout the years, the farm has seen prosperous times, yet many hardships, as well.

In 1896, Kimble's grandparents, George and Sally Harris, moved from Georgia to New London, Texas, in a wagon. They had one daughter, Elizabeth (who lived only a short time) and four sons: Emanuel, Tom (Kimble's father), Virgil, and John.

When farming in New London proved unproductive, George and Sally moved the farm to Rusk County were they bought 80 acres on July 16, 1900, and were able to make the final payment on it, only two years later. Farming obviouisly proved more prosperous in Rusk County.

All of the Harris boys helped on the farm, but a few of them moved to seek other job opportunities.

Kimble Harris re-called that after his father Tom had saved some money, he came home to the farm in 1914 and used the money to build a better home for him and his parents. Unfortunately, Tom's father, George, would die later that year, leaving only Tom and his mother to live in the new home.

But a few years later, in 1916, Mittie Jarrell came to the Harris home asking for a place to stay, because she had recently accepted a teaching position at a nearby school.

Tom allowed her to live there, if she promised to help out his mother with the cooking and cleaning.

But before long, Tom and Mittie decided to marry and did so on May 27, 1917. In the next few years, they would have two daughters: Blanche and Jarreldene. And eventually they would also have two boys: Thomas William (known as Tom W.) and Virgil Kimble (who goes by his middle name).

Grandmother Harris helped out quite a bit with the first child, Blanche, while Tom farmed and raised cattle and Mittie continued to teach school.

Mittie's income helped a great deal, because at the time, Tom was having a hard time making ends meet with the farm and cattle.

But, when Grandmother Harris passed away at the age of 69, Mittie quit teaching and stayed home with Blanche.

Tom had accumulated debt with the farm and from buying additional, adjoining land. Yet, despite the financial burdens, he maintained several tenant houses for sharecroppers and their families to live in.

He eventually chose to mainly concentrate on producing cotton. Prospects for the crop were good. In 1919, a 100-bale cotton crop was estimated, but only three bales were made due to excessive rainfall and boll weevils prior to harvest time.

In addition to the disappointments, there were long, hard days in the field. But awaiting on Tom each evening was the good home-cooking. Mittie often made lots of good food at the farm, including biscuits and cornbread, Kimble recalled. They always had a nice garden full of vegetables, which often included peas, corn, and butterbeans. They also had an orchard.

Fried and broiled chicken and chicken and dumplings were always on the menu, because Mittie had a 100-capacity chicken house.

As the 1920s rolled in, payments for the farmland and other debts were harder to pay than ever before. In 1929, Tom sold the first Henderson farm and moved one-and-a-half miles west of Henderson and bought 45 acres nearby.

The 45-acre tract had very fertile soil for growing most anything, but making a profit growing crops, at the time, was still hard to do.

Tom and Mittie once even decided to try their hand at milking dairy cattle.

From an early age, Kimble wanted to be a big help on the farm. His father, Tom, would often tell him as a youngster, "Son, when you grow-up, I want you to plow the fields, plant the garden, and milk the cow."

Kimble's older brother, Tom W., did not enjoy doing farm chores. Tom W. would go onto college and eventually become a doctor. But, Kimble stayed home to help with the farm. His father even bought him a tractor to use for getting things done.

By the late 1930s, cotton farming was declining and the cattle market was weak, Kimble remembered. In addition to it all, Tom and Mittie were growing older and had continual medical problems.

In the 1940s and into the 1950s, father Tom, continued trying all he knew to keep some money coming in. During this time, he sometimes rented out some of the land for others to grow sweet potatoes, watermelons, and cotton.

In 1956, Kimble planted 25 acres of watermelons, which was later destroyed by a hailstorm, just one day after he had paid a pilot $125 to spray the crop for disease and insects.

In 1959, he planted cotton, but a flood that year destroyed all of it.

One thing that did help finances in the '50s was when an oil company paid the Harris' for running two pipelines across their land. In 1962, financial relief for the farm came once again when an oil well company began to drill on the land.

A year later, Kimble met and later married Patsy Whiteside. At the time, making a living was still difficult, but Kimble would soon make a decent profit on another watermelon crop.

Later, in 1964, Kimble and Pat built the brick home they still live in today, not far from the original site of the old Harris home place.

Things for the farm for the next several years were good with Kimble and his profitable melon crops and the royalties from the oil company.

At the age of 81, his father, Tom, died. And his mother, Mittie, lived until 1990.

While melons continued to prosper for Kimble, on the side he checked and gauged area oil and gas wells for additional income. He eventually did this full-time; working seven days a week due to increased drilling of wells.

But he was still able to maintain the cattle and tend to farm chores with help from his wife and two daughters. And in 1967, he was able to pay off the note for his house.

Kimble and Pat's two daughters, Sheri and Kimberly, live with their families on the farm, which has grown to 750 acres through Kimble buying adjoining land over the years.

"These agricultural pioneers wrote the early history of Texas and set the foundation of a proud heritage that their ancestors have honorably carried on," said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs said about all farms honored. "As a result, agriculture is the second-largest industry in Texas. We're also thrilled to be able to continue honoring the 150- and 200-year ranches because these categories show just how far back agriculture's legacy goes in this great state.