San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CLARENCE E. HARRIS
A wide-awake and successful
businessman who has become an important factor in his field of trade and its
contribution to local commercial activity, is Clarence E. Harris, the accommodating
proprietor of the popular Lyric Candy Store, at 114 North Sutter Street, and
well known as commander of the Spanish-American War Veterans. He was born in Stockton on August 20, 1881,
the son of Andrew Jackson and Lillian (Gay) Harris, the former a native of
Illinois, who is still alive in Stockton.
He was a handy man with tools and could skillfully do almost any work
where his services might be needed. Miss
Gay was born in Placerville, her father having come from New York State to
California in 1858 and settled at that place.
Grandfather Gay was a merchant in New York, in the old days when it
meant something to be a figure in the store-keeping circles of the Empire
State.
Clarence completed the grammar
school and when he was about sixteen he entered the U. S. Navy as landsman,
enlisting at Mare Island. He was sent
out to sea on the Charlestown, the ship that was wrecked and sank to the bottom
of the ocean in the vicinity of the Philippine Islands, about twenty-five miles
offshore from an unpopulated island. The
survivors rowed to the island and lived for fifteen days there before being
picked up by the Helena, from which vessel our subject was transferred to the
Monterey. Somewhat later, he was
assigned to the battleship Oregon, upon which he went to the Orient, and while
in the Gulf of Pechili, that vessel was wrecked, and he was returned home on
the Solas. The
Oregon had been sent to the Orient on account of the Boxer troubles; but never
reached there. At Mare Island, in 1901
Mr. Harris was honorably discharged.
Returning to Stockton he worked for
three years for the City Street Car Company, and then he became a clerk in a
wholesale and retail candy business owned by Cook Reyner at Stockton. He next bought out their retail department at
915 East Main Street, a shop that was then known as The Purity; but after one
and a half years he sold out, and went to Nevada, where he worked as overseer
for C. H. Mott for a year. He then
returned to Stockton, but going to the Bay region, tried his hand at various
things at Oakland. In 1919, he returned
to Stockton and with O. O. Farnsworth, formed a partnership for the manufacture
and sale of candy. They opened two places
of business, one at 114 North Sutter Street, called the Lyric, and the other at
3 South California Street. In November,
1920, he bought out Mr. Farnsworth; and selling the place at 3 South California
Street, he retained the Lyric, where he still manufactures a large variety of
first-class confectionery.
At Stockton on September 14, 1902,
Mr. Harris was married to Miss Martha Jane Fann, who
was born at Tehachapi, the daughter of James and Jane Fann,
who came to California in 1876 and became pioneer farmers in the Tehachapi
region. There were five older children
in their family, and they bore the names of Louis, Edward, Dan, Jack and
Estella. Having lost her mother at
birth, Martha Jane was reared by Mrs. Alice Carey, who cared for her education
in Stockton. Two children were born to
Mr. and Mrs. Harris, Alice Jennie and Elma Lillian. In national politics Mr. Harris is a
Republican; but in local affairs he supports all accredited movements and
candidates deemed best for the locality.
He is a member of the Spanish War Veterans, and in 1918-19 and 1921 and
1922, he was commander of the Stockton Post.
As a Mason, he belongs to San Joaquin Lodge No. 19. He is also a member of the Woodmen of the
World, and he is on the advisory board of the Volunteers of America.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1580-1581. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases