Dr. James G. Harris, a physician and surgeon of Muskogee, who is specializing in urology, was born on the 18th of February, 1889, in Muskogee county, and is a son of P. Collins and Mary A. (Davis) Harris, who were natives of Georgia and of Alabama respectively. The father served for two years with the Confederate army in the Civil war and was taken prisoner, being incarcerated for about a year. Soon after the war, owing to the fact that he was part Cherokee, he received an allotment from the government in Oklahoma, then Indian Territory, and removed to this state in 1866. Here he took up the occupation of farming and stock raising and continued to devote his attention to agricultural pursuits to the time of his death, which occurred in July, 1920, when he had reached the age of seventy-four years. His widow survives and yet occupies the old homestead. Dr. Harris is a nephew of Colonel Johnson Harris, a former chief of the Cherokee tribe, who died in Muskogee, September 25, 1921, at the age of sixty-five years.
Dr. Harris, spending his youthful days at the place of his nativity, pursued his education in the Cherokee Male Seminary at Tahlequah and also in the Northeastern State Normal School, likewise situated at Tahlequah. He afterward entered the University of Tennessee at Memphis in preparation for a professional career and was graduated as a medical student with the class of June, 1916, at which time his degree was conferred upon him. Returning to his home, he engaged in practice in Muskogee for a year and then entered the service in the World war, being commissioned a First Lieutenant in the Medical Corps. In May of the same year he received a commission as Captain. He treated venereal diseases for a year at the base hospital at Camp Bowie, Texas, and was assistant camp surgeon from September, 1918, until March, 1919, when he received his discharge on the 27th of that month. When the country no longer needed his aid, Dr. Harris returned to Muskogee, where he has since followed his profession and through the intervening period has specialized in urology. He has become recognized largely as an authority upon that branch of the profession in this section of the state, for he has constantly promoted his ability through wide study, reading and research. In addition to his professional interests he owns a farm in Muskogee County, where he and his three brothers specialize in raising pure Hereford cattle, the four brothers owning altogether one thousand acres of land.
Dr. Harris has always given his political allegiance to the democratic party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. His religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal church, and fraternally he is connected with the Masons, having not only taken the degrees of the blue lodge but has also attained to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in the consistory at Dallas, Texas, and is a member of the Mystic Shrine. Along strictly professional lines he is connected with the Muskogee County Medical Society, the Oklahoma State Medical Society, the Southern Medical Association and the American Medical Association and thus keeps in touch with the trend of modern professional thought and progress. He holds to high ideals in his chosen life work and has made his service of great worth to his fellowmen.
