Harris Family

Harris Family is a Michigan historical marker in Oshtemo Township, Kalamazoo County, dedicated 1973.

Eleventh Street and Parkview Road, Oshtemo Township

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Among the earliest pioneers of Oshtemo Township was a black family, that of Enoch and Deborah Harris. Born in the East in the late 1700s, they settled in the Ohio wilderness about 1810. Moving westward with the advancing frontier, they claimed land near here in 1831. Early accounts agree that Harris planted the first apple orchard in the area, and their daughter was said to be the township’s first bride. Farming over two hundred acres, Harris won the respect of his fellow settlers. He died in 1870 and was buried here, one-quarter mile east of his farm.

TodayHistorical map

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Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1819 · Ohio & Indiana (H. S. Tanner, 1819) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1853 · Map of the surveyed part of Michigan (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1854 · A map of the surveyed part of Michigan / by John Farmer ; engraved by S. Stiles & Co. (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
1873 · (Map of Van Buren County, Michigan) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
[Road map of southwestern Michigan, Grand Haven and Grand Rapids to Benton Harbor and… (University of Chicago Library, Mapping Chicagoland · CC BY-NC 4.0, used by permission)

Ohio & Indiana (H. S. Tanner, 1819), 1819, covering the location of Harris Family, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Ohio & Indiana (H. S. Tanner, 1819), 1819, covering this location. Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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Marker data: Michigan History Center
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Harris Family

Historical maps covering this location

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