Dr. Adonijah Washington (A. W.) Parrish (1851-1928) purchased the Capt. Thomas Harris property in 1895. He had been practicing medicine in Queen City, Missouri, but now moved his family to Kirksville. This included his wife, Emma (Bartlett), and two sons, Victor and Bert.
The Dr. John Burton family sold the Capt. Harris mansion in Kirksville on February 7, 1895, and moved to California. The buyer was Dr. Adonijah Washington (A. W.) Parrish (1851-1928) who paid $5,000 for this house and approximately one acre of land. This was considerably more than the Burtons had paid for it in 1879 which was $1,800.
As we learned in our previous episode, when the Harris mansion was only four years old, it was sold on May 6, 1879, by Thomas and Hester Harris to their daughter and son-in-law, Dr. John and Fannie Burton, who lived there until 1895.
This story is a condensed version from the Adair County Historical Society’s 2019 pamphlet, “Kirksville Tornado, 1899”, available at the Adair County Museum.
It is believed that the two-story Italianate mansion at 101 E. Burton Street in Kirksville was completed in 1875. And, it is assumed that the Harris family moved into this home sometime in 1875, so let us look at who they were at that time. Captain Thomas Clark Harris was age 51 and ran what have been described as the Kirksville Woolen Mills, a flouring mill, and a store north of town.