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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 375
Sam Harris Sr. was the owner of the farm, and it consisted of Parcels D-167, where the farmstead with its homes and outbuildings were located, and D-191, a smaller parcel down closer to the river. The War Department bought 1000 acres from Sam Harris Sr. Etta Harris Francis owned Parcel D-192 on the south side of Farley-Triana Road, bordering Stella Tolbert McWhorter's property. Sam Harris Jr. was born and grew up living in the house his father built (the Harris house), which was built directly across from the house of his grandparents Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Harris, who lived in the big house that has also been referred to as the Lee house, after its original owners. The Harris house, which Sam Sr. built, had two fireplaces, and Sam Harris Jr. said he had to bring wood in for them. In the winter he sometimes slept by the fireplace in the living room, because they had no electricity and no heat. The family's water came from a well at his grandfather's house. The water was piped from a well to the tank that had been put up on a wooden platform at the side of his grandfather's house, and the water flowed by gravity to the house. Mosquitoes were a problem on the farm, as they were for everyone else in Pond Beat. Sam Jr. said his mother gave him a dose of Grove's Chill Tonic every morning so he wouldn't get malaria. In addition to the big house and the Harris House, Sam Jr. said there were 10 or so other houses “on the place.” Tenant farmers lived in them. Sam Sr. had about 1,000 acres, 600 of which were in cotton, corn and other crops. The Harris family provided the land and the mules. Individual families worked the Harris land. Sam Harris Sr. paid for half the cost of seeds and fertilizer; in return, he received half the crop when it was harvested. Sam Jr. said his father had a blacksmith shop and a steam driven mill where he cut lumber. He said his father always worked hard. Additional comments about Sam Sr. and his blacksmith shop are presented under the heading entitled “Walter Joiner Discusses Sam Harris Sr.” at the end of this section. Sam Jr. said his father had the best fishing hole around. When he went out to the arsenal, he saw the Army had built the Missile Command finance and accounting building near where the pond had been. Sam Sr. built some wooden boats, and Sam Jr. rented them to people who came and wanted to go out on the pond to fish. This was probably the pond where Juanita Lassiter said her husband went out with his dog Lindy in the boat. Sam Sr. must have truly been a busy man. Aside from milling lumber, working in his blacksmith shop, and raising cotton, from the interview conducted by Lane Lambert over twenty years ago for the September 12, 1984 edition of The Redstone Rocket, Sam Harris Jr. revealed: “My father was pretty much a truck farmer and had 10 or 15 acres in cantaloupes” and was known as Madison County's ‘Cantaloupe King,'” 375 - (4408)