Harris was born in Llanddeusant, Carmarthenshire, but as a young man migrated to Ystalyfera in the Swansea Valley and later to Aberdare, where he opened a grocer's business in Harriet Street, Trecynon.
[1] At this time, Trecynon was a growing industrial community, and Harris was one of a number of enterprising tradesmen from rural Wales who established businesses in Harriet Street.
[1] His earliest known involvement was in 1879 when he was part of a deputation of tradesmen and working men who attended a meeting at Swansea to request Richard Fothergill, one of the two sitting members to offer himself once again as a candidate for the Merthyr Boroughs.
Leaders of the Baptist denomination in the Aberdare Valley, most notably Thomas Price, had been instrumental in securing Fothergill's election for Merthyr Boroughs, alongside Henry Richard in 1868.
[8] In 1892, there were rumours, immediately denied by Harris' supporters that he intended to contest the Hirwaun ward in the county council election against the sitting member, Rev Richard Morgan.
He was buried at the Aberdare Cemetery and a large number of mainly Baptist ministers and laymen took part in the proceedings, including Edward Thomas (Cochfarf).