September 5, 2020

One of the longest consecutive annual family reunions in the United States will have a different look during this pandemic year.

The Descendants of William and Rhoda Harris will gather in Lee’s Summit on the second Sunday in September for the 110th annual Harris Family Reunion.

“This year’s reunion will be dramatically different than all our previous 109 reunions, due to concerns about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” says John Harris, chairman of the board of the Descendants of William and Rhoda Harris.

Instead of holding the traditional large reunion, with 100 or more descendants from all over the US, the reunion is being scaled back, and will be attended only by the Board members. The Board will meet briefly on Sept. 13 in Harris Park practicing social distancing.

“The Board and other family members discussed what we should do about the reunion this year, due to the pandemic concerns,” says Harris. “Of course we wanted to hold the full reunion with all our family traditions. However, we decided that because of the risk (especially for many of the older attendees), that we should keep the reunion very small. But we decided that we absolutely wanted to meet, so that we can continue our uninterrupted tradition of family members meeting together, on ‘the second Sunday in September.’”

In 2010, Mary McCarty Harris wrote this brief history of the Harris family’s relationship with Harris Memorial Park.

The annual Harris Family Reunion is held in the Harris Park Community Center, Harris Park, Lee’s Summit, MO. The Reunion is held the second Sunday of September every year. The Harris family celebrated its 100th consecutive annual family reunion in 2010. Ninety-four of the first one hundred Harris Reunions were held in this park.

The land for the Park was originally owned by W. H. Howard, a wealthy Kentuckian who owned over 1000 acres of land in Blue Township, MO. In October 1865, he laid out the town of Lee’s Summit on his own land. The original plot covered seventy acres. He also laid out Howard Park, which comprised 20 acres.

On 6 May, 1911 an organization to be known as The Descendants of William and Rhoda Harris was formally organized at the home of John H. Harris near Lee’s Summit. The purpose was to meet annually to honor the memory of their parents (William and Rhoda). For several years the group met at various locations. In 1917 the family voted to hold the annual reunion thereafter at the land owned by John H. Harris in Lee’s Summit, MO (the former Howard Park land). After John H. Hardin’s death in 1918, this land, including the park area, was sold to Milton Thompson. In 1922 the City of Lee’s Summit bought the land for $12,361.00 raised in part by public subscription. The Harris family paid $1,000 toward the purchase price, with a clause in the contract thereafter reserving the park for the second Sunday in September for the Harris Reunion (at no charge).

Over the years, the park has been known as Howard Park, Lee’s Summit City Park, Harris Park and since 1978, Harris Memorial Park.

Older members of the family remember early reunions being held in old open wooden structure. This was replaced by a community center in 1955 (still standing as of 2010). The Reunions were held there for 38 years. The latest park site for the Reunion has been the Harris Park Community Center, since 1998.

Inside the Community Center is a 250-pound bell removed from the belfry of the Powell School when it was consolidated with the Lone Jack Public Schools about 1936. The bell was donated by Bev Harris and his twin sister, Beula (Harris) Neuhart, to Harris Park. The Powell School was located at the intersection of the Tarsney-Buckner Road and the Lone Jack-Lee’s Summit Road.