[Paul Percy] Harris met Jean Thomson, Scottish-born daughter of John and Ann Youn[g]son Thomson, during an outdoor excursion of what would later become the Prairie Club.

“One beautiful March Saturday in 1910 I joined my fellow Prairians on an Elgin and Aurora electric train bound west. I was a bachelor and quite open-minded on the matrimonial subject. That is to say, I had never closed my mind and heart to the possibilities of conjugal bliss … Here is where she came in, blythe, bonny Jean.”

They married on 2 July 1910 in Chicago. In 1912 they purchased a house on Longwood Drive in Morgan Park, a suburb of Chicago. The Harrises named their house Comely Bank after the street in Edinburgh where Jean had lived as a child. They entertained friends from Chicago and around the world, and hosted gatherings and reunions of the Rotary Club of Chicago. Many gatherings took place outside, in what they referred to as their “Garden of Friendship” or “Friendship Garden.”

The couple had no children and Jean joined Harris on his visits to Rotary clubs around the world. After Harris died, Jean briefly continued to live at Comely Bank. She later sold the house and returned to her native Edinburgh, where she died in 1963.

The Paul and Jean Harris Home Foundation purchased the house in 2005 and plans to restore it.

Excerpted from this website.

Scotland Marriages, 1561-1910 (Does this record refer to Jean's parents?)

Name: John Thomson
Spouse's Name: Ann Youngson
Event Date: 20 Jun 1873
Event Place: Saint Nicholas, Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland


1891 Scotland Census

Name: Jean Thomson
Age: 9
Estimated Birth Year: 1882
Relationship: Daug
Father's Name: John Thomson
Mother's Name: Ann Thomson
Gender: Female
Where born: Edinburgh
Registration Number: 685/2
Registration district: St Andrew
Civil parish: Edinburgh St Mary
County: Midlothian
Address: 33 Cumberland St
Occupation: Scholar
ED: 94
Household schedule number: 143
Line: 7
Roll: CSSCT1891_344
Household Members: Name Age
John Thomson 45
Ann Thomson 39
Ann Thomson 16
John Thomson 13
Alexander Thomson 11
Jean Thomson 9
James Thomson 6
Mary Thomson 5


Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, 1871-1920

Name: Jean Thomson
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Birth Year: 1882
Marriage Type: Marriage
Marriage Date: 2 Jul 1910
Marriage Place: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
Spouse Name: Paul P. Harris
Spouse Age: 40
Spouse Gender: Male
Comments: 416 W. 60th Pl.
FHL Film Number: 1030481
Household Members: Name Age
Paul P. Harris
Jean Thomson

Her father John Thomson, born ca. 1845, died in 1938 and her mother, Ann (Youngson) Thomson, born ca. 1851, followed in 1944.

U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007

Name: Jean Thomson Harris
SSN: 319401353
Gender: Female
Birth Date: 6 Nov 1881
Birth Place: Edingurgh MI, United Kingdom
Type of Claim: Original SSN.
Notes: Mar 1963: Name listed as JEAN THOMSON HARRIS
Household Members: Name Age
John Thomson
Ann Youngson
Jean Thomson Harris