Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1901 — Labor Chief Is a Preacher. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Labor Chief Is a Preacher.

Rev. Sheldon A. Harris, the Dwight minister who was elected as vice-presi-dent of the Illinois Federation of Labor at the recent convention in Joliet,

was formerly a mission worker in the neglected districts of Chicago. He was born in Pennsylvania Feb. 2, 1852, and came to Illinois in 1859. His father was David Allen Harris, an officer of the Merrill horse, which served with distinction in the civil war. Rev. Mr. Harris began life as a wood machinist, ne became a salesman for a Chicago house, then entered evangelical mission work and spent four years among the poor. He was ordained in 1880. He located in Dwight in 1900. He is chaplain of the Sons of Veterans of Illinois and belongs to several fraternal orders. His sympathies have always been with the labor unions and the poor. He says: “I believe in Christianity, but not in churchianity.”

REV. SHELDON A. HARRIS.