Dr. Plunket had besides the foregoing, five other children, all sons, who died in early 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 Pennsylvania; 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 propose 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 Shawanese he was active and energetic. The Records of Pennsylvania contain a great deal of correspondence between John Harris and the Provincial authorities, principally relating to the condition of the frontiers and accounts of Indian forays. During the Paxtang 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 necessity in the Paxtang Boys taking summary justice in their own hands. When the revolutionary 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 December, 1775; another, David, became an officer in the war, and served with distinction. 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 1784 an advertisement to that effect was published. The new county project, however, changed the original plans, and provided Harris’ Ferry was chosen as the county seat the proprietor offered lands for the public use—town, county and State—and agreed to appoint commissioners who should value the lots of the town of Harrisburg, and which were to be sold at the sum fixed therefor. On the 4^th 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 approved and valued, and report thereof made on the 14^th day of April, 1785. The town grew rapidly, and the founder lived to see it prosperous. He died on the 30^th 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:

In memory of

John Harris

Who died on the 30^th Day of July

1791

In the 65^th year of his age

And gave name

To the Town of Harrisburgh.

The remains of

Elizabeth his first

And Mary his second wife

Lie interred with him

Under this Stone.

John Harris was in reality one of the "men of mark" in the early history of Pennsylvania. 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 dissuade 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 Pennsylvania and in time be selected as the seat of government 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 tract of land at the mouth of the Yellow Breeches, in Newberry township, York county, with 600 acres at the mouth of Conedoguinet creek, where an old Shawanese town once had been.

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John Harris, the founder, was twice married. 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, credited 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 supposed pointed it at the officer. The night being damp, the gun simply flashed. Instantly 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 purpose, 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 advancing to the barrel, cautiously placed her hands under the candle and lifted it out, and then coolly reproved the girl for her carelessness. 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:

1. Mary, b. April 13, 1750; m. William Maclay.
2. John, b. August 20, 1751. He is the son of whom his father wrote on the 4^th of July, 1775, after speaking of his son David, who was an applicant 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. Matthew Smith’s company, and fell mortally wounded in front of Quebec, on the 31^st of December, 1775.
3. 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 Independence he was in Baltimore. He accepted a commission in the Pennsylvania Line and was appointed 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 executors 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 20^th 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 Baltimore, he accepted the cashiership thereof. Major Harris died in that city on the 16^th 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.
4. William, b. January 23, 1756; d. July 3, 1764.
5. Elizabeth, b. November 22, 1759; d.s.p.

John Harris married, secondly, in November, 1764, by Rev. John Roan, Mary Read, daughter of Adam and Mary Read, of Hanover, b. 1730; d. November 1, 1787, at Harrisburg, and buried in old Paxtang church graveyard. Their children were:

6. Adam, b. November 7, 1765; d.s.p.
7. James (1^st), b. February 15, 1767; d.s.p.
8. Robert, b. September 5, 1768; m. Elizabeth Ewing.
9. Mary, b. October 1, 1770; m. John Andre Hanna
10. Jean, b. March 18, 1772; d.s.p.
11. Joseph, b. October 23, 1774; d.s.p.
12. William, b. September 1, 1776; d. August 17, 1777.
13. Read, b. October 5, 1778; d.s.p.
14. Elizabeth, b. October, 1780; d.s.p.
15. James (2d), b. 1782; d. May 17, 1806; unm.; buried in Paxtang church graveyard.

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

1. John, d.s.p.
2. Simpson, was a soldier of the Revolution, 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 19^th of October, 1825. At West Cayuga, or Bridgeport, on the shore of the Cayuga Lake, in the town of Seneca Falls, is a monument erected to Samuel Harris. From it we take the following inscription, although the date of his birth is seven years out of the way:

Samuel Harris

Born at Harrisburg, Penn.,

May 4, 1740

An active participant in the

Stirring scenes of the old French War

Was present at surprise and defeat

Of Braddock near Fort Du Quesne

He was the decided friend of his

Country and her Cause,

In the War

Of the Revolution, during which he was

Appointed Captain of Cavalry

Emigrated to and settled on the

Bank of the Cayuga Lake in the year 1795

Where he died Aug. 19, 1825

Aged 85 years 3 months 15 days.

On the same monument is this inscription:

Elizabeth Harris wife of Samuel 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, Elizabeth Bonner, of Philadelphia. Their children, all born at Harris’ Ferry, were:

1. John, b. September 26, 1760; m. Mary Richardson
2. William, b. October 3, 1762; m. Miss Mead, and left issue.
3. Ann, b. 1764; d.s.p.
4. 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 voyage 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 McClure, 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 Eleanor 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 appointed an ensign in the Pennsylvania battalion, 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 Surveyor 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, participating in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. 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, taking 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

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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. He died at Harrisburg on the 15^th of April, 1804. In the old Paxtang churchyard is a flat marble stone with this inscription:

Sacred

To the memory of

William Maclay, Esq.,

Late of Harrisburgh,

Who departed this life April 16, 1804,

Aged 68 years.

In the death of this valuable member of

Society his Country has lost an enlightened

Citizen and his family their only support.

He held some of the most honourable offices

In Pennsylvania and the United States

And discharged their duties with firmness

And integrity.

To an enlarged and superior mind he added

The strictest morality and served his God

By improving himself in virtue and knowledge.

He has gone to receive a glorious reward

For a life spent in honour and unsullied by crime.

His afflicted wife and children raise this stone

Over his grave and have no consolation but

In the remembrance of his virtues.

O’er thy loved tomb shall angels bend,

And true affection tribute pay,

To mourn the Father, Husband, Friend,

Untimely torn by Death away.

Tho’ power and honour could not save

Thy mortal part from Death’s abode,

Th’ ethereal spirit bursts the grave

And seeks the bosom of its God.

"Words of truth for once told on a tombstone," said William Darby, the geographer, who knew Mr. Maclay well. For further notes concerning him see "History of Dauphin County." The children of Mary (McClure) Harris and William Maclay were (surname Maclay):

1. John-Harris, b. Feb. 5, 1770; d.s.p.
2. Elizabeth, b. Feb. 16, 1772; d. April 19, 1794. In Paxtang church burial ground is a large marble slab with this inscription:

Sacred

To

The Memory of

Eliza Maclay.

A lingering distemper

Borne with resignation

Put a period to her life

On the 19^th of April, 1794

In the 23d year of her age.

The duties

Annexed to her station

Were dischargad <sic> without a

Blot.

Her weeping Parents

Have placed over her this stone

The monument

Of her virtues and of

Their affection.

3. Eleanor, b. January 17, 1774; m. William Wallace.
4. Mary, b. March 19, 1776; m. Samuel Awl.
5. Esther, b. September 19, 1778; m. Dr. Henry Hall.
6. Sarah, b. January 5, 1781; m. John Irwin.
7. Jean, b. March 19, 1783; m. John Lyon.
8. William, b. 1784; d. 1785.
9. William (2d), b. May 5, 1787; d. Monday, 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 received a good education, and was brought up as a farmer, residing during the early portion 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 fixing the location of the Capitol buildings before removal. Many of our old citizens remember 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, Elizabeth Ewing, daughter of Rev. John Ewing, D. D., provost of the University of Pennsylvania. She died at Harrisburg on the 27^th of April, 1835, in the 63d year of her age. The children of Robert and Elizabeth Ewing Harris were:

1. John, b. March 9, 1792; died June 22, 1846; unmarried.
2. Hannah, b. December 21, 1793; d.s.p.
3. David, b. March 27, 1796, at Harrisburg. He received his education in the schools of the town and at the academy there. At the age of eighteen he went to Philadelphia, where he was engaged in mercantile pursuits several years, when he returned to his native town and established himself in the general

 

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transportation business in connection with the canal, and subsequently in merchandizing. For many years he was clerk of the borough and city councils, was a justice of the peace under the borough charter, and one of the first aldermen elected under the city charter. In 1814 Mr. Harris marched to Baltimore—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 faithfully, beloved and respected by his friends and neighbors. He died at Harrisburg on the 14^th of March, 1880. Mr. Harris married Elizabeth 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 deceased; Philip-S. resides at St. Paul, Minn.; Mrs. Wilson, a widow, at Philadelphia, and the others at Harrisburg.

4. George-Washington, b. June 23, 1798, at Harrisburg, where he died on the 13^th August, 1882. He received a preliminary education at the old Harrisburg academy and select schools of the town. Subsequently he went to Dickinson, Jefferson and the University of Pennsylvania, 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 Pennsylvania, publishing a series of volumes of reports. For a number of years he filled the position of secretary to the Library Committee of the United States Senate. Until the last day of his long life he was very active—physically and mentally. In his address, appearance and manners, he belonged to the old school. He was a great reader, a man of good information and of fine conversational powers. He was exemplary and upright in his intercourse 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 Maclay. She died during the year 1884. Their children were Elizabeth-E., m. J. Wallace Kerr; Catharine-Hall, m. William Morris; Robert, William-H., and Julia-Todd. Mrs. Kerr, a widow, resides at Harrisburg, as does Julia T. Robert and William H. were both physicians, and died in the prime of life. Mrs. Morris resides in Delaware.
5. 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 little inclination for a man-of-war life, he resigned and returned to Harrisburg, where he lived in quiet retirement until the close of his life, which terminated on the 10^th 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.
6. Robert (1^st), b. January 29, 1804; d. March 8, 1804.
7. Robert (2d), b. March 21, 1808. He was a physician and practiced his profession at Harrisburg a number of years. He died there on the 19^th of December, 1863, unmarried.
8. William-Augustus, b. August 21, 1810. He was an Episcopalian minister, resided at Washington, D. C., and the last survivor of the children of

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Robert Harris. He married Catharine Butcher, and their children were James-Otey, Catharine, William, 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 years on the 20^th 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 received 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, afterwards 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 Harrisburg, where his marriage to a daughter of the founder of the new town gave him a prestige and prominence he would perchance not otherwise have had. With this influence of family, and his great natural abilities, he soon became the leader at the bar. Probably an active participant in the war of the Revolution, he had a decided taste for military affairs. He commanded one of the first companies raised in Harrisburg, and during the so-called Whiskey Insurrection of 1794 was in command of the Second brigade of the Pennsylvania 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 18^th 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 manners and deportment and eminent in his life work. The children of General Hanna and his wife Mary Harris were:

1. Esther-Harris, d.s.p.
2. Eleanor, d.s.p.
3. Sarah-Eaton; she married in 1820 Richard Templin Jacobs, who died November 25, 1842. He was a prominent merchant of Harrisburg. Their children were Samuel, Henrietta, James, George-W., and Eliza. The latter was twice married, first to A. K. Cornyn, a lawyer, and secondly John J. Clyde, of Harrisburg.
4. Henrietta, d. 1840; unm.
5. Caroline-Elizabeth, b. 1795; d. 1880 at Harrisburg. She married, in 1813, Joseph Briggs, of Silvers Spring, and they had John-Hanna, m. Julia Ann Todd, and Mary, m. Hon. John J. Pearson.
6. Frances-Harris, m. John Carson McAllister, and left issue.
7. Juliana-C., m. John Fisher.
8. Mary-Read, m. Hon. John Tod. He was the son of David Tod and Rachel Kent, and born in Suffield, Hartford county, Conn, in November, 1779. His father was a Scotchman by birth and a man of an original turn of mind, possessing much shrewdness, and a dry kind of wit, many of his sayings being familiarly repeated years after his decease. His mother was a native of the town of Suffield. Young Tod received his preliminary education at the public schools of the village, but his classical education was pursued under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Gray, pastor of the Presbyterian church of that town. His rapid progress in his studies enabled him on examination to enter the junior class at Yale College, where he graduated two years afterwards with great credit and honor to himself. After graduating he entered the office of his brother, George Tod, then a practicing lawyer in New Haven, and it is said was also a short time in the office of Gideon Granger, Postmaster General under President Adams. He was admitted to the bar of Hartford in 1800. Shortly after he went to Virginia, where he filled the position of tutor in a family in one of the southern counties of that State. In 1802 he located at Bedford, Pa., where he did some clerical labor in the prothonotary’s office, and the same year admitted to the bar there. His practice rapidly increased, and such was his standing and popularity in the county that he was elected to the House of Representatives of the

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Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1808, serving in that branch until 1813— the last two sessions being speaker of that body. In 1813 he was elected member of the State Senate, of which he served as presiding officer from 1814 to 1816. He was re-elected in 1816, but resigned the office December 20, 1816. In 1820 Mr. Tod was elected a member of Congress, and again in 1822. The tariff question was the leading measure of Congress during the session of 1823-4. His speeches on the subject—particularly his opening speech, delivered on the 10^th of February, 1824, and that with which he closed the debate on the 8^th of April—are remarkable; the first for the data, facts, statistics and other important information it conveys—the second for its powerful and persuasive reasoning, fervid eloquence, with and satire, all expressed in chaste and elegant language. Few subjects have elicited more masterly and brilliant displays from American statesmen. On the 8^th of June, 1824, he was appointed president judge of the Fifteenth judicial district, and thereupon resigned his seat in Congress. In May, 1827, he was appointed by Governor Shulze a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He had been engaged with two other judges in holding a court at Lancaster, and becoming ill, hastened to his home at Bedford, where, after a brief illness, on the 27^th of March, 1830, in the fifty-first year of his age, he breathed his last. The character of Judge Tod was that of a plain, practical Republican—a downright honest man. Without the least ostentation or disguise he remarkably exemplified, in a Spartan simplicity of manners, the truth of his own sentiments—that there may be a social equality in the intercourse of men on all proper occasions without at all interfering with the difference conferred by intellect and education. He was too humble to think himself wiser than others, and too honest to account himself better. The children of Mary Read Hanna and John Tod were Julia-Ann, m. John H. Briggs; Rachel, m. Samuel A. Gilmore, of Butler; Isabella, m. William M. Kerr, and Henrietta. Mrs. Briggs and Mrs. Kerr, both widows, reside at Harrisburg.

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