Commemorative biographical encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania : containing sketches of prominent and representative citizens and many of the early Scotch-Irish and German settlers. Pt. 1, Part 16

Author: Egle, William Henry, 1830-1901. cn; Dudley, Adolphus S. 4n; Huber, Harry I. 4n; Schively, Rebecca H. 4n; J.M. Runk & Company. 4n
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chambersburg, Pa. : J.M. Runk & Co.
Number of Pages: 1164

USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > Commemorative biographical encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania : containing sketches of prominent and representative citizens and many of the early Scotch-Irish and German settlers. Pt. 1 > Part 16

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ii. John, m. Hannah -; in 1796 he resided in Washington county, Pa. iii. Isabella.

iv. William-Augustus.

v. Margaret, she married William Wirtz, of Lancaster; and their children were : Margaret, Elizabeth, Esther, Christian, Hannah, and William. Otherwise concerning thein we have little knowledge.

vi. James.

As previously remarked, the Findley's went to Western Pennsylvania, and from thence their descendants have scattered over the States of the Union beyond the Ohio, where they are to-day a representative people.

ESTHER HARRIS, the second daughter of the elder John Harris, born about 1724, died in 176S. She married Dr. William Plunket, a native of Ireland. At that time he was practicing medicine in Carlisle. He was an officer in the Provincial service; subse- quently located at Sunbury, where he became the leader in the so-called Pennamite War- efforts made by the government of Pennsyl-

vania to drive off the Connecticut intruders upon the Wyoming lands. During the war of the Revolution he was suspected of dis- loyalty, and was once placed under arrest. Sabine, in his loyalists of America, tells some fabulous stories of Colonel Plunket. We doubt if he was ever a loyalist. As in the recent civil conflict, however, it may be that as he was not for, he certainly must be against. All of his friends and family con- nections were ardent for independence-and lie would have entered heartily into the struggle, but with the other officers of the French and Indian war, they found them- selves supplanted by inexperienced men as officers, and this rankled in their bosoms and they stood aloof. At this distance from that era it is difficult to inquire into the canses why old and well-tried officers were totally ignored in the organization of the Pennsylvania Line, and the chief places given to men who knew not the " art of war." Plunket and his fellow officers of the Pro- vincial war, at the outset of the Revolution, hurriedly organized the militia of the counties, but when the Continental Line was formed they were left out in the organization. And so the old hero quietly retired to do- mestic life, only annoyed by repeated charges of disloyalty to the cause of liberty. He died at Sunbury in the month of April, 1791, and is there buried. The children of Esther Harris and William Plunket were :

i. Elizabeth, who married Samuel Ma- clay, brother of William Maclay, a member of the Senate of Pennsyl- vania, speaker of that body, and afterwards United States senator ; an influential man in public affairs, and whose descendants have oc- cupied and do occupy honorable and prominent positions in Penn- sylvania.

ii. Isabella, who married William Bell, of Elizabethtown, N. J. She was a remarkable woman, was principal of a young ladies' seminary many years, and died on the 10th of March, 1843, at the good old age of eighty-three years.

iii. Margaret, married Isaac Richardson. A descendant was recently a repre- sentative in the United States Con- gress from one of the New York dis- tricts.

iv. Esther-Harris, married her cousin, Col. Richard Baxter, of the British

DAUPHIN COUNTY.

service. She died young, leaving a daughter, Margaret, who became the wife of Dr. Samuel Maclay, of Mifflin county, Pa.

Dr. Plunket had besides the foregoing, five other children, all sons, who died in carly life.

JOHN HARRIS, the eldest son of the first John Harris, and the founder of Harrisburg, was born in 1726 at Harris' Ferry. He was but twenty-three years old when his father died. At that period Harris' Ferry was an important place on the frontiers of Pennsyl- vania; and that with the management of his father's estate and the guardianship of his younger brothers required care and good judgment. Soon thereafter the French and Indian war broke out. The ferry was the entre-pot for the Provincial forces stationed on the frontiers. The story of John Harris' life through these exciting times, down to its close, remains to be written, and we pro- pose at some future day to venture upon the subject. Much of it reads like a romance. He lived in perilous times-and he was equal to the emergency. He was an officer in the Provincial service, and during all that struggle for white supremacy against the treacherous Delawares and perfidious Shawa- nese he was active and energetic. The Rec- ords of Pennsylvania contain a great deal of correspondence between John Harris and the Provincial authorities, principally relat- ing to the condition of the frontiers and ac. counts of Indian forays. During the Pax- tang Boys' affair of 1763 and 1764 he was among those censured by the government, but had that government taken his advice and removed that viperous and blood- stained band of Indians on the Conestoga, there would never have resulted the neces- sity in the Paxtang Boys taking summary justice in their own hands. When the revo- lutionary struggle came John Harris was not behind his friends and neighbors in taking sides with the Colonies. Not only his influence, but his money was given to the authorities to assist in the contest with the mother country. One of his sons, his eldest born, fell in front of Quebec in De- cember, 1775; another, David, became an officer in the war, and served with distinc- tion. Prior to the Revolution, with a far- seeing eye, John Harris proposed the laying out of a town at the ferry-but that contest put an end for the time to all projects. No sooner had peace been declared than the

proposals for the new town were set forth. In the newspapers of 17S-1 an advertisement to that effect was published. The new county project, however, changed the origi- nal plans, and provided Harris' Ferry was chosen as the county seat the proprietor of- fered lands for the public use-town, county and State-and agreed to appoint commis- sioners who should value the lots of the town of Harrisburg, and which were to be sold at the sum fixed therefor. On the 4th of March, 1785, the General Assembly of the State passed the act for the erection of the county of Dauphin, designating Harris' Ferry as the county seat. Agreeable to John Harris' plans the lots of the town were ap- proved and valued, and report thereof made on the 14th day of April, 1785. The town grew rapidly, and the founder lived to see it prosperous. He died on the 30th of July, 1791, and his remains were interred in the graveyard of old Paxtang church. A marble slab bearing the following inscription marks the spot :

John Harris was in reality one of the " men of mark " in the early history of Penn- sylvania. During the French and Indian war his services were invaluable, and so down to the close of his active life he was the same unflinching patriot-a generous hearted and enterprising citizen. He had strong faith in the advantageous position of the town which he had laid out, and some years before his death, in his efforts to dis- suade Matthias Hollenbach, of Hanover township, who was then removing to Wilkes- Barre, and who became quite prominent in the history of that locality, said this place [Harrisburg] would eventually become the center of business in interior Pennsyvania and in time be selected as the seat of govern- ment of the State. He was far-seeing. At his death he owned about 900 acres of land, including most of what is now embraced in the city of Harrisburg. Also 200 acres on the Cumberland side of the river, including the Ferry, as also a large traci of land at the mouth of the Yellow Brecches, in Newberry township, York county, with 600 acres at the mouth of Conedoguinet creek, where an old Shawanese town once had been.

HISTORICAL REVIEW

John Harris, the founder, was twice mar- ried. In the year 1749, by the Rev. John Elder, to Elizabeth McClure, born 1729 in Paxtang, and died January 20, 1764, at Harris' Ferry. The following incidents, eredited to the wife of the first John Harris, refer to this noted woman. "The log house of Mr. Harris, situated on the river bank, was surrounded by a stockade for security against the Indians. An English officer was one night at the house, when by accident the gate of the stockade was left unfastened. The officer, clothed in his regimentals, was seated with Mr. Harris and his wife at the table. An Indian entered the gate of the stockade and thrust his rifle through one of the port-holes of the house, and it is sup- posed pointed it at the officer. The night being damp, the gun simply flashed. In- stantly Mrs. Harris blew out the candle to prevent the Indian aiming a second time, and he retreated." On another occasion a servant girl was sent upstairs for some pur- pose, and she took with her a piece of lighted candle, without a candlestick. The girl soon came down without the candle, and on Mrs. H. asking what she had done with it, she said she had stuck it into a barrel of flaxseed. This, however, happened to be a barrel of powder. Mrs. Harris instantly rose, and without saying a word, for fear of alarming the girl, went upstairs, and advanc- ing to the barrel, cautiously placed her hands under the candle and lifted it out, and then coolly reproved thegirl for her careless- ness. "These occurrences prove her to have been well fitted for the life of a pioneer.

The children of John Harris and his wife Elizabeth McClure were :

i. Mary, b. April 13, 1750; m. William Maclay.

ii. John, b. August 20, 1751. He is the son of whom his father wrote on the 4th of July, 1775, after speaking of his son David, who was an ap- plicant for a commission in the patriot army: "I shall let my other son Johnny go cheerfully in the service, anywhere in America." He joined at this time Capt. Mat- thew Smith's company, and fell mortally wounded in front of Que- bec, on the 31st of December, 1775. iii. David, b. February 24, 1754, at Harris' Ferry. He received a good English and classical education under the care of the celebrated

Dr. Alison. At the time of the breaking out of the war for Inde- pendence he was in Baltimore. He accepted a commission in the Pennsylvania Line and was ap- pointed paymaster of Col. William Thompson's battalion of riflemen. He served in various positions until the close of the Revolution, when he returned to Baltimore where he married. After the death of his father, being one of the ex- ecutors of the estate, he came to Harrisburg, and was appointed by his old friend and companion in arms, Governor Mifflin, one of the associate judges of Dauphin county, August 17, 1791. This position he resigned on the 20th of February,

- 1792, to accept an appointment in the Bank of the United States. Upon the establishment of the office of discount and deposit, in Balti- more, lie accepted the cashiership thereof. Major Harris died in that city on the 16th of November, 1809, at the age of fifty-five years. His wife was Sarah Crocket, of Baltimore, and their children were : John, who died in Europe, and Mary Crocket, who married Joseph Sterritt.

iv. William, b. January 23, 1756 ; d. July 3,1764.

v. Elizabeth, b. November 22, 1759; d. s. p.

John Harris married, secondly, in Novem- ber, 1764, by Rev. John Roan, Mary Read, daughter of Adam and Mary Read, of Han- over, b. 1730; d. November 1, 1787, at Har- risburg, and buried in old Paxtang church graveyard. Their children were :

vi. Adam, b. November 7, 1765; d. s. p. vii. James (1st), b. February 15, 1767; d. s. p.

viii. Robert, b. September 5, 1768; m. Elizabeth Ewing.

ix. Mary, b. October 1, 1770; m. John Andre Hanna. x. Jean, b. March 18, 1772; d. s. p.

xi. Joseph, b. October 23, 1774 ; d. s. p.

xii. William, b. September 1, 1776; d. August 17, 1777. xiii. Read, b. October 5, 1778; d. s. p.

xiv. Elizabeth, b. October, 1780; d. s. p. xv. James (2d), b. 1782; d. May 17, 1806; unm .; buried in Paxtang church graveyard.

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DAUPHIN COUNTY.

WILLIAM AUGUSTUS HARRIS, son of John Harris, the elder, born about the year 1730, at Harris' Ferry ; d. in 1760, near Elizabeth- town, now Lancaster county. He married, October 4, 1752, Margaret Simpson, daughter of Samuel Simpson, of Paxtang. She sur- vived her husband only a year or two. They left children :

i. John, d. s. p.

ii. Simpson, was a soldier of the Revolu- tion, and died in the service at Ashley Hill.

SAMUEL HARRIS, son of the first John Harris, b. May 4, 1733, at Harris' Ferry. At the beginning of the Revolution, he was a settler in Northumberland county, and took an active part in affairs there, as also in the so-called " Pennamite War." He afterwards removed to near Cayuga Lake, New York, where he died on the 19th of October, 1825. At West Cayuga, or Bridgeport, on the shore of the Cayuga Lake, in the town of Sencea Falls, is a monument erected to Samuel Harris. From it we take the following in- scription, although the date of his birth is seven years out of the way :

Samuel. Harris | Born at Harrisburg, Penn., | May 4, 1740 | An active porticipant in the

Stirring scenes of the old French War | was -

On the same monument is this inserip- tion :

Elizabeth Harris wife of Samvel Harris ! born at Philadelphia March 17, 1740 | Died Dec. 25, 1828 | Aged 88 yrs 9 mo. 8 da. | Blessed are the merciful for they shall ob- | tain mercy.

Samuel Harris married, in 1758, Eliza- beth Bonner, of Philadelphia. Their chil- dren, all born at Harris' Ferry, were :

i. John, b. September 26, 1760; m. Mary Richardson.

ii. William, b. October 3, 1762; m. Miss Mead, and left issue.

iii. Ann, b. 1761; d. s. p.

iv. David, b. April 22, 1771; m. Ann -; and their children were Alfred, Samuel, and Elizabeth.

DAVID HARRIS, the youngest son of the first John Harris, born about 1737, received a good education, settled at Sunbury, and was prothonotary of Northumberland county in 1777 and 1778. He died while on a voy- age to Europe. He married a Miss Mahon, of Baltimore, and they had one child, Esther, concerning whom we have not been able to secure information.

MARY HARRIS, the daughter of the second John Harris, and his wife, Elizabeth MeClure, was born April 13, 1750, at Harris' Ferry ; d. April 20, 1809, at Harrisburg, and is buried in Paxtang church graveyard. She married, April 16, 1769, William Maclay. He was the son of Charles Maclay and Elea- nor Query, and was born July 20, 1737, in New Garden township, Chester county, Pa. In 1742 his parents removed to Hopewell township, Lancaster county, now Lurgan township, Franklin county, where he grew up to man's estate. He was at Rev. John Blair's classical school, in Chester county, when the French and Indian war broke out, and desiring to enter the Provincial service, Mr. Blair recommended him as a "judicious young man and a scholar." He was ap- pointed an ensign in the Pennsylvania bat- talion, subsequently promoted to lieutenant, and served under Forbes and Bouquet. He afterwards studied law and was admitted to the York county bar, April 28, 1760. He was appointed one of the deputy surveyors of the Province, and until the Revolution was busily engaged as the assistant of Sur- veyor General Lukens on the frontiers. By direction of the Proprietaries he laid out the town of Sunbury, where he erected a stone house and resided until the close of the war. During that struggle he marched with the Northumberland county associators, partici- pating in the battles of Trenton and Prince- ton. He was afterwards appointed assistant commissary of purchases. In 1781 he was elected to the Assembly, and filled many offices in the county and State, while in 1789 was chosen to the United States Senate, tak- ing his seat there as the first senator from Pennsylvania. A diary of the proceedings of these two years was kept by Mr. Maclay, the original of which was in the possession of his grandson, William Maclay Lyon. Upon leaving the Senate he took up his permanent residence in Harrisburg, where he built the stone house yet standing at the corner of Front and South streets. He represented the

HISTORICAL REVIEW

county of Dauphin in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1795 and 1803, and was a Presidential elector in 1796, and from 1801 to 1803 one of the associate judges of the county. IIe died at Harrisburg on the 15th of April, 1804. In the old Paxtang churchyard is a flat marble stone with this inscription :

" Words of truth for once told on a tomb- stone," said William Darby, the geographer, who knew Mr. Maclay well. For further notes concerning him see " History of Dau- phin County." The children of Mary (Mc- Clure) Harris and William Maclay were (surname Maclay):

i. John-Harris, b. Feb. 5, 1770 ; d. s. p.

ii. Elizabeth, b. Feb. 16, 1772; d. April 19, 1794. In Paxtang church burial ground is a large marble slab with this inscription :

iii. Eleanor, b. January 17, 1774; m. Will- iam Wallace.

iv. Mary, b. March 19, 1776; m. Samuel Awl.

v. Esther, b. September 19, 1778; m. Dr. Henry Hall.

vi. Sarah, b. January 5, 1781; m. John Irwin.

vii. Jean, b. March 19, 1783; m. John Lyon. viii. William, b. 1784; d. 1785.

ix. William (2d), b. May 5, 1787 ; d. Mon- day, March 22, 1812, at Harrisburg, unm.

ROBERT HARRIS, son of the second John Harris, and his wife Mary Read, was born September 5, 1768, at Harris' Ferry. He re- ceived a good education, and was brought up as a farmer, residing during the early por- tion of his life in the old log house which stood where the Harris Park school building is erected. He filled various positions of honor, and during the war of 1812-14 served as paymaster of the Penn'a troops. He was elected to Congress two terms, 1823 to 1827. Mr. Harris was one of the most active and energetic men of his day. Possessed of great public spirit, he aided in the establishment of various enterprises, including the bridge over the Susquehanna, Harrisburg Bank and Harrisburg and Middletown turnpike. When the Assembly of the State decided to remove the seat of government to Harrisburg he was selected as one of the commissioners for fix- ing the location of the Capitol buildings be- fore removal. Many of our old citizens re- member well the last prominent act in his long life, the address of welcome made by him to President Taylor. Mr. Harris died at Harrisburg on the 3d of September, 1851, at almost the age of eighty-three years. He married in Philadelphia, May 12, 1791, Eliza- beth Ewing, daughter of Rev. John Ewing, D. D., provost of the University of Pennsyl- vania. She died at Harrisburg on the 27th of April, 1835, in the 63d year of her age. The children of Robert and Elizabeth Ewing Harris were:

i. John, b. March 9, 1792; died June 22, 1846; unmarried.

ii. Hannah, b. December 21, 1793 ; d. s. p. iii. David, b. March 27, 1796, at Harris- burg. He received his education in the schools of the town and at the academy there. At the age of cigh- teen he went to Philadelphia, where he was engaged in mercantile pur- suits several years, when he re- turned to his native town and es- tablished himself in the general

DAUPHIN COUNTY.

transportation business in connec- tion with the canal, and subse- quently in merchandizing. For many years he was clerk of the borough and city councils, was a jns- tice of the peace under the borough charter, and one of the first alder- men elected under the city charter. In 1814 Mr. Harris marched to Bal- timore-one of the youngest in that band of brave defenders-with the " Harrisburg volunteers," and was among the last of its survivors. Upon his retirement from councils · he lived in quiet retirement, his age rendering it impossible for him to participate in any active business. He was a man of strict integrity, and lived an honorable and correct life, doing what he had to do faith- fully, beloved and respected by his friends and neighbors. He died at Harrisburg on the 14th of March, 1880. Mr. Harris married Eliza- beth Latimer, who survived to a ripe old age. Their children were Mary, Philip-Small, Henry-Latimer, Louisa, m. Charles H. Wilson, and Sallie-Latimer. Of these Mary is de- ecased ; Philip-S. resides at St. Paul, Minn .; Mrs. Wilson, a widow, at Philadelphia, and the others at Har- risburg.

iv. George- Washington, b. June 23, 1798, at Harrisburg, where he died on the 13th of August, 1882. He re- ceived a preliminary education at the old Harrisburg academy and select schools of the town. Subse- quently he went to Dickinson, Jeff- erson and the University of Penn- sylvania, graduating at the latter institution. He studied law and was admitted to the Dauphin county bar at the December term, 1820. He remained at Harrisburg several years, during a portion of which period he served as deputy attorney general for the county of Dauphin. He afterwards removed to Philadelphia and entered into law partnership with Calvin Blythe, at one time judge of this district. He returned, however, in a short time to Harrisburg, and resumed his place at the Dauphin county bar, and was appointed reporter of

the Supreme Court of Pennsylva- nia, publishing a series of volumes of reports. For a number of years he filled the position of secretary to the Library Committee of the Uni- ted States Senate. Until the last day of his long life he was very ac- tive-physically and mentally. In his address, appearance and man- ners, he belonged to the old school. He was a great reader, a man of good information and of fine con- versational powers. He was ex- emplary and upright in his inter- course with his fellow-citizens, and was highly respected by all. Mr. Harris married Elizabeth Mary Hall, daughter of Dr. Henry Hall, whose wife was Hester Maclay, daughter of Senator William Ma- clay. She died during the year 1884. Their children were Eliza- beth-E .. , m. J. Wallace Kerr ; Catha- rine-Hall, m. William Morris ; Robert, William-HI., and Julia-Todd. Mrs. Kerr, a widow, resides at Har- risburg, as does Julia T. Robert and William H. were both physi- cians, and died in the prime of life. Mrs. Morris resides in Delaware.

v. Thomas-Jefferson, b. October 17, 1800. He received a good education, and was appointed a midshipman in the U. S. Navy. He passed a few years in the service, but having lit- tle inclination for a man-of-war life, he resigned and returned to Har- risburg, where he lived in quiet re- tirement until the close of his life, which terminated on the 10th of August, 1878. He was genial and generous, affable and entertaining, and a student his whole life long. Mr. Harris married, in 1859, Eliza Stine, of Harrisburg, but she died within a year thereafter.

vi. Robert (1st), b. January 29, 1804; d. March 8, 1804.

vii. Robert (2d), b. March 21, 1SOS. He was a physician and practiced his pro- fession at Harrisburg a number of years. He died there on the 19th of December, 1863, unmarried.

viii. William-Augustus, b. August 21, 1810. He was an Episcopalian minister, resided at Washington, D. C., and the last survivor of the children of

HISTORICAL REVIEW

Robert Harris. He married Cath- arine Butcher, and their children were James-Otey, Catharine, Will- iam, and Robert.

MARY HARRIS, daughter of John Harris and his wife Mary Read, was born October 1, 1770, at Harris' Ferry. She was an active and energetic woman, and closed a life of four score ycars on the 20th of August, 1851. She married John Andre Hanna, a native of Flemington, N. J., where he was born about 1760. He was the son of Rev. John Hanna and his wife Mary McCrea. He re- ceived a good education under the direction of his father, and was partly educated at the College of New Jersey. It is probable that he came to Pennsylvania as a tutor, after- wards studying law with Stephen Chambers, of Lancaster, a noted lawyer of his day, and was admitted to the bar of that county in 1784. Upon the formation of the county of Dauphin he located at Ilarrisburg, where his marriage to a daughter of the founder of the new town gave him a prestige and promi- nence he would perchance not otherwise have had. With this influence of family, and his great natural abilities, he soon be- came the leader at the bar. Probably an ac- tive participant in the war of the Revolu- tion, he had a decided taste for military af- fairs. He commanded one of the first com- panies raised in Harrisburg, and during the so-called Whiskey Insurrection of 1794 was in command of the Second brigade of the l'ennsylvania forces. The same year he was elected to Congress, and up to the time of his death served in that illustrious body, He died, somewhat suddenly, on the 18th of July, 1805, and his remains repose in the cemetery at Harrisburg. General Hanna was a man of rich promise, was a leader of the anti-federal party, and the colleague of Gallatin, Smilie and other Pennsylvanians, then quite prominent in the political affairs of the Nation. He was a gentleman in man- ners and deportment and eminent in his life work. The children of General Hanna and his wife Mary Harris were :

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Commemorative biographical encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania : containing sketches of prominent and representative citizens and many of the early Scotch-Irish and German settlers. Pt. 1, Part 16

Author: Egle, William Henry, 1830-1901. cn; Dudley, Adolphus S. 4n; Huber, Harry I. 4n; Schively, Rebecca H. 4n; J.M. Runk & Company. 4n Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chambersburg, Pa. : J.M. Runk & Co. Number of Pages: 1164

Author: Egle, William Henry, 1830-1901. cn; Dudley, Adolphus S. 4n; Huber, Harry I. 4n; Schively, Rebecca H. 4n; J.M. Runk & Company. 4n
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chambersburg, Pa. : J.M. Runk & Co.
Number of Pages: 1164