The James Harlan Family

By James W. Harlan

The Harlan clan started in Texas in 1836 when Joseph Harlan came to help Texas win freedom from Mexico, settling in Robertson County west of the Brazos River. Two generations later, James, wife, Fannie, and daughter, Madie, moved to Jacksonville in 1900 after a disastrous flood on the Brazos River. Paul was born in 1903 while the family lived in a house located on the site where the recently-completed addition to Nan Travis Memorial Hospital now stands, being delivered by Dr. E. E. Guinn.

Some 41 years later a son, James William, was born to Paul and wife, Orbie, in a part of the residence which had been enclosed into the original Nan Travis Hospital building.

The "Tiller of Soil" cycle was broken in 1926 when Paul began working for the Gulf Public Service Company, when it absorbed the Irvine interests in the power system. Gulf Public became Southwestern Electric Service Company in 1945, and Paul remained with them to retire in 1968 as general sales manager after 42 years of service.

Madie devoted some 46 years to elementary education in the city and among the hundreds of children she taught over the years she can count such notables as United States Senator John Tower. She retired in 1966 and continues active in civic, church and social affairs.

James William was reared and educated in Jacksonville, and graduated from Baylor University in 1965. He moved to Houston after graduation to work for an insurance management company. In 1966, he entered the U. S. Army for two years and served thirteen months with U. S. Forces in Vietnam. After discharge, he returned to Houston, in 1968, to become a partner in an insurance agency. In 1971, James and his wife, Jean, decided that Jacksonville was a much better place than Houston in which to live and raise a family, so "Jim" purchased the R. F. Quisenberry Insurance Agency and the family returned.

On October 18, 1971, James William Harlan, Jr., was born in the new addition to the Nan Travis Memorial Hospital within a few feet of the birthplace of his father and grandfather. He marks the sixth generation of Harlans as Texans and the fourth generation of native Jacksonvilleites.

James William Harlan, Jr., born during preparations for the 1972 Centennial.

Miss Madie Harlan as she appeared in a 1914 Jacksonville High School annual publication.