James H. Harris was born around 1844 in Connecticut to John and Elizabeth Harris. His father was a merchant who owned $1,500 of personal property by 1860. The family moved to Coventry, Rhode Island, sometime before 1860. By 1870, Harris was working as a carpenter, and he owned $1,450 of real estate. He remained in his parents’ household until at least 1900. In 1910, he was working as a store keeper, and he was living with a woman named Phebe L. Cottrell. He married a woman named Ardella in the early 1910s. Harris died sometime after 1925.