Person:William Harrison (104)

William and Betsey had eight children, 6 sons and 2 daughters. Three of the sons, George Pearce, Reason V. and Hiram, joined the gold rush to California in 1850. Two (Reason and Hiram) died en route, while George died soon after arriving in California.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Christensen, Anthony J. A branch of the Piscataway Dunn family: a few members of the Dunn family whose branches spread from Pisctaqua, New Hampshire, to Piscataway, New Jersey, to Southwestern Pennsylvania, to Harrison County, Kentucky, and to points West. (Salem, Utah: Mac Anthony Corp., c1998)
   p. 5-17.

   William Harrison, the son of William Harrison and Sophia Dunn, was born 16 April 1796 in Harrison County, Kentucky. He moved with his parents to Fayette County, Ohio, where they settled for a time in the village of Washington. On 10 November 1814 he married Elizabeth Hendrix, called "Betsey", who was born 6 October 1798 in Kentucky.
   
   About 1818 William and Betsey moved to Sullivan County, Indiana, to an area that became Greene County in 1821. Before the year 1827, William and his family moved north up the Wabash River to Warren county. Here William built a port on the river for his horse ferry and for the landing of river boats. In November 1828, William hired a surveyor to help lay out a town on his property at the port site on the Wabash. The town was made up of four blocks extending back from the river. Each block consisted of eight lots. The town was named Williamsport, in honor of William and his port. The following year additions were made to the town and it became in that same year the county seat for Warren County. The first court in Williamsport was housed in a log house that belonged to William Harrison. William opened a tavern and continued to operate his horse ferry.
   
   About 1838 William and his family moved to Lewis County, Missouri, where they were reported in the 1840 census. Soon after they moved again to Polk County, Missouri, where they appeared in the 1850 census. Later they returned to Lewis County, where William died 8 December 1856 and Betsey died 3 February 1865. They were both buried in the Dover Baptist Church Cemetery in Lewis County. They left a family bible.

2. ↑ Counties of Warren, Benton, Jasper and Newton, Indiana: historical and biographical. (Tucson, Arizona: W.C. Cox Co., 1974 (1883))
   p. 55.
3. ↑ Vol. 4, Film #1976844, in Warren County (Indiana). Recorder. Deed records, 1827-1901. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1994)
   pp. 64, 128, 257, 298, 337.
4. ↑ "Williamsport in 1829", in Whicker, J. Wesley. Historical sketches of the Wabash Valley. (Attica, Indiana: J.W. Whicker, c1916)
   p. 91.

   “The town then consisted of five families, viz: William Harrison, the proprietor of the village, who kept the ferry, and a little tavern and grocery at the foot of Main street; Dr. Jas. H. Buell, Ullery, [William] Search [who kept a boarding house on Main Street] and a man called wild Cat Wilson. Two only (Harrison and Wilson) of the families above named had children large enough to go to school. The rest of my patrons lived in the country, some two or three miles from town, and consisted of John Semans, sheriff of the county, Wesley Clark, Robb. Hickenbotham, and one or more.”

   Quoting from Sandford C. Fox, "Recollections of the Early Settlement of the Wabash Valley"

5. ↑ Vol 1, Film #1976843, in Warren County (Indiana). Recorder. Deed records, 1827-1901. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1994)
   1826-1864.

   Both William Harrison and William Harrison Jr. listed as grantors of lots