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Understanding 9/11tv Harris- Cameron Mansion CSPAN January 22, 2017 2:44pm-2:59pm EST
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any even commercial table -- cable channels. we have a format that appeals to people. we are financially responsible and sound. we have good support from the cable companies, great support from the cable companies, so knock on wood we can keep it going. >> c-span is visiting harrisburg, pennsylvania. right now we are on the pedestrian bridge that connects midtown to the islands. up next, we will visit with john harris to learn about pennsylvania's two politicians from two different centuries. >> simon cameron mentioned here in harrisburg. this is the oldest house in what was the original harrisburg. it was built in 1776, and we are celebrating our 250th
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anniversary of the mansion. john harris senior, we usually call him the first. he came here from yorkshire county, england, in the 1690's. an introduction to william penn's secretary. he was looking for someone to go into the colony and secure the fur trading rights. that's how harris got here, approximately 1719. he built a crude log cabin. there was a replica made of a we believe the cabin looked like during the bicentennial in 1985. it's over on city island. there was available fur trade in this area and it was supposed to go to england. but there were some intruders of french and dutch origin that were trading to the indians, and i think that's one of the reasons why they sent someone like harris to this area.
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basically, he built the storehouse to store the furs you would get from the indians. by pak course he would take them back to philadelphia to exchange them for supplies. this was a gradual thing. but he didn't have many other people to trade with. but there was a small contingent, as they had demands, he would bring more and more things out from philadelphia. this area has long been a river crossing by the indians. they had used it to cross the river to war on neighboring tribes. there was a natural mock shelf the ran out across the river, approximately where the dam was built in 1916, that made it possible to walk across the river in times of low water in the summertime. harris got the idea of having a ferry service in 1733, and build a flat blue -- flat boat. there was wrote to guided across
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what was turkey island. take take wagons across the river. what made him wealthy were these grants, land grants he got. it was altogether on what became harrisburg, 800 acres. he was land rich. john harris was very intimate with him. marry shippen's niece. you would think they had a lot to talk about. eventually brought -- here. they later expanded the trading house.d built a log they had about six children between them, including john harris junior, the first white person born west of the conestoga valley. person really no other
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that.pute that. john harris senior died in 1748. interestingly enough, his marriage had split up. esther had left him several times, and at one point he ran advertisements in the philadelphia gazette, which was the only newspaper that he would not be responsible for deaths wife.ed by my there was some tension there. he's buried across the street. he was very attached to a mulberry tree across the street. wife. there was some tension there. the story exists in legend only. he was working along the river bank one day. a band of rather inebriated indians came up or down the river and thought that he had trading post, storehouse, which he probably did. he didn't care to sell it. the story goes that they tied him to a large mulberry tree and
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were going to burn him alive. his faithful african-american servant, hercules, ran for help and brought back some friendly indians from across the river who saved him. the only thing we have that possibly documents that is being is the fact that harris in his will actually mentions hercules and freed him. harris the first died when his son turned 21, till he was of age, that he could take over what had become a plantation. 1766,use was started in and probably first occupied a couple years later. we think john junior saw a flood, and the site had not flooded. it not only overlooked his father's grave, and it was high
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ground. we think that's why it chose this one. it was the first style of the colonies. the more windows, the more wealthy you were. think of the logistics of getting glass through a remote place like this in one piece. by virtue of it being stone, it was a mansion. this area was not populated at all other than harrison and the small contingent out of the paxton church. , the building of the house and what grew to become a
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1785, dauphin county -- they decided to make this the county seat. they named the new county after the dauphin of france. helping in the revolutionary war. so they named the new county harris' did much to spleasure, the county
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commissioners decide to rename harris' been known as ferry, lewisburg after king louis the 16th. harris was not happy about this at all and refuse to write a deed toferry, lewisburg after kg louis any of the properties he sold. and i checked. he decided to sell the area between the house, as far north as south street, which is where his son-in-law lived. clay married harris' oldest daughter, and was by profession a civil engineer. he and harris got together and in the newe locks town of harrisburg. from the time he first started to sell lofts in 1785, which coincided with the founding of basicallyunty, he only had another six years to
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live. and he died in 1791, and coinciding with his death, county commissioners finally wereesced and said -- they officially naming the town harrisburg. following john harris' death, house stayed in the harris family for many years. ther it became part of elder family owned it, and by the 1850's it had become the ,ennsylvania female college started by a licensed methodist ,piscopal
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started by a licensed methodist episcopal minister who chose to teach at the baltimore female academy. the legislature,the legislaturea charter to school, similar school for pennsylvania and he founded the school here in the as war secretary. lincoln and he sort of but heads. cameron was a little involved in graft. ownas moving troops by his railroads and lincoln was taking heat from it. he dismissed him as war secretary and made him minister to russia in the middle of the winter. --ittle earlier than that this is wall he was putting up the house for sale.
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the president had sent cameron and his wife and daughter over .o russia he decided to send back to one of his cohorts to buy this house. he and his wife -- by way of france -- basically did a shopping trip for this new house. they wanted a victorian house because they had seen all of this in europe, it was called the victorian age. feelings on everything, and they said that's what i want for that house. the original layout was for rooms of, for rooms down. john harris had five children by his first wife and 10 by his second. he had 15 children running around here. it was a mix of plantation as well as wilderness. this house had been a simple georgian style house when it was built. the various owners that came after harris, there had been various remodeling's to it, the wide veranda upfront, window
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dormers. when cameron came here, the house was -- had to low of ceiling to accommodate two mirrors he bought in france. somehow he got them across the atlantic in what would have been sailing ships, in one piece. for my mind, those mirrors change the whole complexion of the house. he wanted to victorian eyes it -- victorianize it. front bedrooms upstairs are likely were both the harris family and the cameron family, they made those their master bedrooms. the south rim of their with furnishings that would have been .ommon furnishings that would have been more common when cameron and his family lived here. the house was basically 2
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pieces. the back portion probably dates original in 1874. so he was a widower for the last few years of his life. 1889, but he was a
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much sought after batchelor because he was so wealthy. the historical society of dauphin county was founded in 1869. four -- fortunately the cameron ayers -- heirs gave the historical house, and it has been in our care ever since. i think what people will take away from here is a story of survival of a house, but also the man who really decided that this should be the capital of the state of pennsylvania, before anybody else did. and i think that's really amazing. some foresight. >> all weekend long, american history tv is joining our comcast cable partners to showcase the history of harrisburg, pennsylvania. to learn more about the cities on our current tour, visit c-span.org/citi
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