George Washington Harris

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George Washington Harris (March 20, 1814, Allegheny City, Pennsylvania-December 11, 1869, near Knoxville, Tennessee), was an American humorist.

Harris was taken to Knoxville, Tennessee when four years old, where he was apprenticed to a jeweler. Afterward, he commanded a Tennessee river steamboat. He wrote able political articles during the William Henry Harrison campaign, and in 1843 began to contribute humorous stories to the New York "Spirit of the Times," under the pen name of "S--l." In 1858-'61 he wrote for Nashville journals the "Sut Lovengood Papers," some of which afterward appeared in book form as Sut Lovengood's Yarns (New York, 1867). Captain Harris made several inventions, which he described in Scientific American. He died suddenly, and it was thought by some that he was poisoned.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography.