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William J. Harris

American politician (1868-1932)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ2579456 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Julius Harris (February 3, 1868 – April 18, 1932) was a United States senator from the state of Georgia. He was a great-grandson of Charles Hooks, who had been a Representative from North Carolina, and son-in-law of Joseph Wheeler, Confederate General and Representative from Alabama.

Early life

Harris was born in Cedartown in Polk County, Georgia, and attended the common schools. He graduated from the University of Georgia at Athens in 1890.

He married Julia Knox Hull Wheeler (November 27, 1870 - January 6, 1959), daughter of Joseph Wheeler.

Career

He engaged in the general insurance business and banking at Cedartown, Georgia. He served as private secretary to U.S. Senator Alexander S. Clay from 1904 to 1909.

Entering politics, Harris was elected as a Democrat to the Georgia Senate in 1911 and 1912. From 1913 to 1915 he served as appointed Director of the United States Census Bureau; he also served as Acting Secretary of the Department of Commerce from 1913 to 1915. In 1915 he resigned when he was appointed as a member of the Federal Trade Commission.

Editorial summary

“William J. Harris” enters the record as american politician (1868-1932). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what William, Harris and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1868, 1932, 1890, 1870—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around William, Harris and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“William J. Harris” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, William, Harris and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2579456. The first chronological checks are 1868, 1932, 1890 and 1870.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William J. Harris”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William J. Harris primary sources, William J. Harris archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William J. Harris”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William J. Harris” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.