Robert HARRIS, Congress, PA (1768-1851)

HARRIS, Robert, (cousin of John Harris), a Representative from Pennsylvania; born at Harris Ferry (now Harrisburg), Pa., September 5, 1768; was reared on a farm; attended the public schools; assisted in establishing various enterprises, including building of the bridge over the Susquehanna River, the organization of the Harrisburg Bank, and the construction of the Middletown Turnpike Road; surveyor to lay off the road from Chambersburg to Pittsburgh, and also for improving the Susquehanna River; appointed commissioner to choose the location of the capitol building in Harrisburg; paymaster in the Army during the War of 1812; elected as a Jackson Republican to the Eighteenth Congress and reelected as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth Congress (March 4, 1823-March 3, 1827); prothonotary of Dauphin County; died in Harrisburg, Pa., September 3, 1851; interment in Harrisburg Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present