John Harris, Master of "Playing Politics" When Education Would Benefit.

The year was 1905. President Theodore Roosevelt had just been inaugurated for his first full term in the White House. In the south end of Charlton County a boomtown was being created: Saint George. Developed by P. H. Fitzgerald, publisher of the American Tribune, an Indianapolis, Indiana newspaper. It would be colonized as the 1904 Colony Company, on 9,000 acres of land in Charlton County bought by Fitzgerald from the Georgia, Southern and Florida Railroad Company. 

At that time the settlement was known as Cutler's Station, a sleepy little community before Fitzgerald began his colonization, bringing in scores of families from the mid-west.

A wood-fired steam locomotive, pulling several passenger cars and baggage cars squealed to a stop at the tiny railroad station. Stepping off the passenger car was 30-year-old John Harris and his 29-year-old wife, Cora. They had boarded the train in Cuba, Missouri, a small Missouri community where Harris published a weekly newspaper, The Cuba Review.

It didn't take Harris long to plunge into the mushrooming development at Saint George, named for Fitzgerald's grandson, George, who died while a youngster. The explosive buildup at St. George had just begun when Harris arrived. Harris had graduated at age 16, with a Bachelor of Literature Degree from Carlton College, in Missouri.

Thus began John Harris' 74 years of active participation in schooling and politics of Charlton County. When Harris arrived in Saint George, he immediately set out to get a school built for the hundred of youngsters who claimed the boomtown as their hometown. Soon a brick school building was going up in Saint George with John Harris as Principal. On the side he began a weekly newspaper in Saint George, The Saint George Gazette.

John Harris was a man of high principals, and with his own agenda. Seldom was he questioned about any decision he made. Such was the influence wielded by the small statured educator and newspaper publisher.

With the schools running smoothly in St. George, The Charlton County School Board decided to move Harris from Saint George to Folkston, where more students were enrolling in the public schools.

Beginning his tenure in Folkston, Harris set out to get the county's schools accredited. Attending a district school meeting in Waycross, in the company of the school board chairman, Ben G. McDonald. The moderator asked where Folkston planned to board its teachers. Without hesitation, Harris said "We're building a dormitory in Folkston for our teachers." The School Board Chairman's mouth fell open. He knew there were no plans for such a dormitory. "You're approved and accredited," said the moderator. On the way back to Folkston, McDonald asked Harris how he planned to build such a dormitory. "We'll manage" Harris replied. "We will borrow the money, build the dormitory and pay the money back."  McDonald told Harris to begin drawing up the plans for the dormitory and he would borrow the money from Camden County businessman, John Buie. He did, and construction began on the dormitory. A contest would name it "The Teacherage." A few years after it was built, it was destroyed by fire. Insurance paid off the Buie loan.

Harris was chosen by the School Board to be County School Superintendent in 1924, succeeding L. E. Mallard, who had been elected to the state legislature. Harris began his work for $100 dollars a month.

For twenty years, John Harris left his mark on education in Charlton County. His policy of hiring no married teachers brought scores of complaints, but the iron-willed Harris prevailed. A school board Chairman, L. E. Stokes, asked Harris to hire his daughter, Mary Stokes Davis as a teacher. Harris refused, and hired Mrs. Davis, who was married to Frank Davis, only when he could no longer get single teachers because of the outbreak of World War Two. Events had finally broken Harris' policy of no married teachers.

During his twenty years as School Superintendent, Harris created Bobby Squirrel stories for the young students. He conjured up the Legend of Shilofohaw for John Harris Junior High school students and the Legend of Ho-nit-claw for High School Students. There was nothing going on in the schools that did not have the John Harris seal of approval. The school's basketball teams played six games a year and those with Yulee, Hilliard, Saint George, Wacona and Nahunta. Harris was not fond of school athletics. His emphasis was on reading, writing, and arithmetic.

In 1944, John Harris was challenged for his Superintendent's job in an election, this time by the voters of the county. William S. Smith, West Virginia native and a principal at Saint George upset the veteran Harris in a bitter election contest. Harris had served as School Superintendent for twenty years.

Never one to step down from public service, Harris then became the Clerk of the Charlton County Board of Commissioners, and also, City Clerk for the City of Folkston. The County Clerk's position was appointed, but the Folkston City Clerk was a position, which Harris ran for, without opposition. Harris ran both from his office in the Charlton County courthouse. The City of Folkston then had only a desk in the County Commission office. Later E. H. Wright was hired to help Harris with the collection of Folkston water bills. Still, Harris wielded almost dictatorial power over the two boards. He stepped down from the County Clerk's position to write a history of Charlton County, a chore asked of him by a county Grand Jury, but for several years he continued to hold the County Clerk's position, using an assistant, Rosa Mae Brooks, to take care of most of the county's administrative duties.

John Harris authored a book, "How to live to be a hundred, by one who did."

In 1954, Harris pushed the idea of a Charlton County Centennial Celebration, and headed up the committee that carried it to a successful conclusion. He remained active until his death on August 12, 1979. He was 105.

In his lifetime, in Missouri, Harris had met Frank James, brother of outlaw Jesse James. Frank was the Doorkeeper of the Missouri House of Representatives. In the early days of Saint George, he recalled sleeping in a "Hot bed," used in shifts by workers in the booming city when sleeping quarters became scarce.

Without a doubt, the years of John Harris in Charlton County left an indelible mark on education and politics. His personal agenda made him unpopular in some circles, but there was never a doubt that the Missouri native had laid out a course for education in Charlton County. Politics was just an instrument used by Harris to accomplish that end.

Harris is buried in Folkston's Pineview Cemetery, beside his first wife who preceded him in death. That cemetery was a favorite project of Harris, and he used his position as City Clerk to push through many improvements there.

John Harris became a legend in his adopted county and a colorful chapter in Charlton County's Twentieth Century.