It Happened Here: The legend of Amos Harris in Grand Island (2024)

History is full of myths and legends. While they may make really good stories, they are not always the complete truth. We should periodically dig in and explore myths and legends to determine what is true, what is exaggerated, and what is unsupported by verifiable facts.

The myth perpetuated about Amos Harris was carved in stone and placed in Grand Island’s cemetery more than 50 years after his death. It reads: “Amos Harris Died Feb. 23, 1911 Colored Cowboy Brought To Nebraska By I. P. Olive In 1878.”

This fascinating man and his story have been written about several times since his death. Different accounts have focused on parts of Harris’ life, resulted in varied conclusions and provided additional evidence to examine.

In investigating Amos Harris’ story, three questions emerge:

1. Was Harris really connected to Olive’s crew?

2. If not, why was it suggested he was?

3. Who was Amos Harris really?

Before answering the first question, some backstory on I.P. (Print) Olive. The former Confederate soldier grew up on a ranch near Austin, Texas. After the war, he started ranching with his brothers. In 1877 the Olives headed north to Custer County, Nebraska. The Olive crew had a reputation for being ruthless and Print employed a black gunslinger named Jim Kelly. In 1878, Print Olive accused homesteaders Ami Ketchum and Luther Mitchell of stealing his cattle. Ketchum and Mitchell were hanged and their bodies burned. In April 1879 Print Olive was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. In the extensive account of Olive’s trial held in Adams County, including names of defendants and witnesses, Harris is not listed.

A letter to the Valley County Historical Society in 1955 by former Ord businessman David Williams disputed the notion that Harris was involved with the Olives. The harness shop owner was Harris’s friend and claimed that Amos himself told him that. Another clue is in Eliza Harris’s 1903 obituary in the Omaha World-Herald. Amos was referred to as “a well-known character in Central and Western Nebraska” who had been a slave in Texas before the war. It continued “about 1870 Mr. Ed Cook, formerly a large stockman of this country, purchased a herd of cattle of Mr. (Sam) Houston and drove them north to Nebraska pastures. Amos came along and has ever since remained.” The 1880 U.S. Census lists Amos Harris, age 28, as Cook’s employee in the “unorganized territory of Nebraska” now known as Holt County.

The written testimony of his friend after his death, the newspaper article published during his lifetime that placed him in Nebraska seven years before the Olives, and accounts of his character as a gentle man who was good natured, honest, full of integrity and “very popular with everyone” provide evidence to conclude the myth is false.

As to why the story started, and was perpetuated, it could be as simple as he was confused with Jim Kelly, who worked for Olive. Both men were living in the Nebraska sandhills on cattle ranches, they were both from Texas and they were both Black men. But that is where the similarities end.

Jim Kelly was born in 1839 near Austin. His parents reportedly worked for Print’s father, James Olive, who Kelly was named for. It is unclear if Kelly’s parents were enslaved or free. Amos Harris was about 15 years younger, although he was unsure of his own birthdate. Harris was born to enslaved parents from Tennessee somewhere south of Houston near the Brazos River.

Jim Kelly was quick with a gun and never backed down from a fight. Amos was known as a “gentle giant” with a soft spot for children. Kelly never married; Harris married twice. Harris was over 6-feet-tall and 250-300 pounds. Kelly was skilled in breaking horses, which would suggest he might have been smaller in stature than Harris. Kelly never owned his own place. Harris had a 400-acre homestead southwest of Ericson that he proved up in 1911.

In exploring Harris’s life story, other details emerge.

Amos married Eliza Young, daughter of Robert and Susan (McIntyre) Young, in 1897. Robert Young was a Civil War veteran who homesteaded near Boelus. Amos was devastated when Eliza died from cancer in 1903 at St. Francis Hospital. She was buried in the Grand Island Cemetery.

Newspaper accounts from 1890-1905 reported on cattle drives Harris led for ranchers in north-central Nebraska, including several western excursions for A.D. Cattle Company. Omaha bankers William Allen and Fred Davis purchased land at Fort Hartsuff in 1897 and sent Amos to Oregon on the first of many trips to deliver cattle to their ranch.

His second wife, Elizabeth Jane Fears, daughter of John and Emma (Ridgley) Fears of Grand Island, was 35 years younger than him. After Amos’s death she married Reed Gunn and lived in Grand Island until her death.

A testimony to Harris’s nature and affinity for children is found in a story shared by Steffan Baker of Ord. His grandfather had grown up near Harris’s ranch at Ericson. Upon encountering 8-year-old Gilbert Baker and his brother shoveling coal into a wagon, Amos told them they were too young for that kind of work. He gave the boys money for ice cream and finished the job himself.

On Feb. 22, 1911, Amos felt unwell and left his ranch at Ericson to see a doctor. He stopped in Greeley where he suffered a stroke and died on February 23. Multiple newspapers reported on his passing. The Grand Island Independent noted Harris was well known to many Grand Island merchants and that funeral services for the “well to do” man would be held in Grand Island at the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church at Seventh and Lincoln. The Greeley Leader-Independent reported “he was known by every old settler of the Loup Valley whose doors were ever open with a welcome to him.” The Burwell Tribune wrote that “if sunshine ever shone in the heart of any man it shone in the heart of Amos Harris.”

An interesting side note — Hall County Historical Society Vice President Vernon Haun, the same position held by the author of this article, was credited in an article in the Grand Island Independent in 1968 for helping find and mark Harris’s grave in the Grand Island Cemetery.