W.T. Harkness and the Peoples Bank Building of Biloxi, Mississippi – Mystery Solved!

Posted on July 1, 2019 Updated on July 1, 2019

Interesting blog post to share. Great job by “misspreservation.com!

https://misspreservation.com/2019/06/11/who-designed-biloxis-peoples-bank/

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My comment about the post…”W.T. Harkness’ father was J.R. (John Rankin) Harkness, an architect by education from Pelham, Massachusetts. J.R. Harkness was my Great Great Grandfather. The family was a Biloxi pioneer family who built many of the Biloxi buildings long since gone and undocumented as told to me personally by my Great Aunt Stella, J.R.’s daughter.

Perhaps you ran across that newspaper clipping from my blog here on Word Press? I have researched and posted extensively about the Harkness family. I grew up knowing, thanks to Aunt Stella, the Harkness family built the building known as the People’s Bank. I can assure you no tantrums were at issue in this family’s history as they were instrumental in the progress of their beloved Biloxi.
My blog is The Tenderly Rose Collection. That is where that newspaper clipping was originally posted about W.T. Harkness. It had never been available until I began my documentation of the Harkness pioneers.”

This entry was posted in Genealogy.

3 thoughts on “W.T. Harkness and the Peoples Bank Building of Biloxi, Mississippi – Mystery Solved!”

toniclifton said:
January 22, 2022 at 4:08 am

The building in question appears to be the remodled Lopez building designed by W. T. Hartness… remodled because a fire swept through the Biloxi residental and the business district in 1900. The fire destroyed the 1890 Lopez home that your great-great- grandfather J. R. Hartness had contracted to build. Checkout the Lopez building as it was before the 1900 fire:The Biloxi Herald, 20AUG1898,Sat. Page 5.
All I know is what I read in the papers.

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TRose responded:
January 22, 2022 at 8:31 am

Thank you so much for your comment! Great information! I don’t have access to those old articles, so, I appreciate your sharing it! I am in touch with a good friend and distant cousin who is a Lopez-Dukate descendant.

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toniclifton said:
January 23, 2022 at 1:43 am

I found this information and photo at newspapers.com.

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David Edmund “D. E.” Morris of the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Rosie S. Morris with Millard Ayers “Boots” and Helen Hoagland Mason. Mississippi Gulf Coast Out for supper at the “White House” Restaurant. It used to be a favorite place to dine for many Gulf Coast residents. I believe that shadow photographer may be my mother’s shadow and I would have been four years old at the time of this photo so was that me beside her?

Judge John Smith “Johnny” Morris, Gulfport, Harrison, Mississippi, USA – Harrison County Chancery Court Judge

Janie Morris, Pam Beatty – Gulfport, Mississippi

David Edmund Morris, Chief Engineer, USS Ranger – David Edmund Morris is the officer on the left of the photo.

cir 1957 Playing in an old fishing boat that belonged to Ed Morris, Kevin Cooper and Tenderly Rose enjoy the sand in the re-purposed john boat. The boat’s final resting place was Rosie and John Morris’s home at 1711 Wisteria Street in Gulfport, Mississippi (Gulf Gardens).

Biloxi Pioneers – John Rankin Harkness and his wife, Irene Jordan Harkness. Old Biloxi Cemetery, Biloxi, Harrison County, Mississippi

Janie and her grandkids, Kate, Justin and Evan – 1990’s Gulfport, Harrison, Mississippi, USA at Hungry Hill, 1711 Wisteria Street.

Helen Marie Hoagland Shales Bosworth Mason – Unknown year Biloxi, Mississippi and Elgin, Illinois

Gulfport, Harrison, Mississippi, USA Bama Smith Grayson, Tenderly Rose Bosworth held by Janie Morris Bosworth, Rosie S. Morris, Patsy Grayson Gendron and Helen Hoagland Bosworth Mason standing together on front yard of “Hungry Hill” at 1711 Wisteria Street.

David Edmund Morris 1920’s Puerto Rico Photo of D.E. Morris on a ship while he was a Chief Engineer of the USS Ranger

The Daily Herald-Chicago Illinois 1974 January 27 John Mosiman: his painting comes from the heart

Aunt Tommye - Stranded-Milw Journal 19 Jul 1949

cir 1920 – David Edmund Morris, Chief Engineer, USS Ranger. David Edmund Morris is the officer in the middle of the photo.

cir 1920 – David Edmund Morris, Chief Engineer, USS Ranger. David Edmund Morris is the officer on the right of the photo.

Capt. John Rankin Harkness 1830–1903 / Biloxi Pioneer / Architect and builder of many homes, the school and businesses in Biloxi. Harkness was street commissioner on the Biloxi City Council and was a member of the school board as evidenced in The Biloxi Herald newspaper at the time.

Janie Morris Estrada

David Edmund “DE” Morris, 1902 – Biloxi, Harrison, Mississippi, USA Photo from Daily Herald Biographical Sketch

Helen Marie Hoagland, second child on the left side of this photo, was my biological paternal grandmother. She took part in this “Tom Thumb Wedding” in Elgin, Kane County, Illinois.

Janie Morris – abt1954 Gulfport, Harrison County, Mississippi Gulfport High School Majorette

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