Harris (formerly known as Harrisville) is a village near the town of

Coventry, Rhode Island Coventry is a town in Kent County, Rhode Island. The population was 35,688 at the 2020 census and is part of the . Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of . of it is land and of it (4.49%) is wate ...

on the north branch of the

Pawtuxet River The Pawtuxet River (), also known as the Pawtuxet River Main Stem and the Lower Pawtuxet, is a river in the United States, U.S. state of Rhode Island. It flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataT ...

near West Warwick. The village was once part of the Burton and Potter farms. Around 1813 Caleb Atwood built a

textile mill Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful good ...

in the village, known as the Dumplin Mould, and later the building became the Lamphear Machine Shop in the 1840s. The village was named for Elisha Harris who arrived in 1822 and formed the Harris Cotton Manufacturing Company, which eventually constructed several mill buildings in the area. The company continued under Harris' son-in-law after his death. In 1900 the Arkwright-Interlaken Manufacturing Company purchased the Harris Mill and kept it operational until 1954. Many of the mill buildings and worker housing survive today.Andrew D. Boisvert, "Coventry Roots: Harris" ''Coventry Patch'', May 31, 2011 http://coventry.patch.com/articles/coventry-roots-harris

Notable residents

*Governor Elisha Harris (1847-1849) *Governor Henry Howard (1873-1875), son-in-law of Elisha Harris

References

Villages in Kent County, Rhode Island Coventry, Rhode Island Census-designated places in Kent County, Rhode Island Providence metropolitan area Villages in Rhode Island Census-designated places in Rhode Island {{RhodeIsland-geo-stub

See also

Notable residents

References