Englishman John Harris arrived in Philadelphia as one of the first emigrants to accompany William Penn. In 1719, he and his wife Esther moved west and built a log cabin on the banks of the Susquehanna River in what was then a part of Chester County, and in what is now Harrisburg. In 1727, John Harris Jr. was born. By 1729, their acreage along the Susquehanna had been apportioned to Lancaster County. John Harris Sr. developed a 300-acre farm and began a successful partnership with local Indians, trading furs and skins. By the time John Harris Sr. died, father and son had expanded their business to include numerous trading posts, and a ferry service across the mile-wide Susquehanna.

In 1782, John Harris Jr. argued before the General Assembly against the inconvenience of having to travel to Lancaster to conduct legal business, and won his arguments: Dauphin County was created in 1785. Its name was chosen to honor the son of the French king, Louis XVI, who came to America’s aid in the Revolutionary War. Harris Jr. showed amazing foresight when he donated a part of his land to the Commonwealth: Harrisburg became the state capitol in 1812. By the mid-1800’s, Dauphin was a canal and railroad center, steel mills prospered in Steelton, and the American Tube and Iron Company flourished. Today agriculture, tourism, and politics thrive in Dauphin County. John Harris Sr. knew a little bit about the latter: he had once been tied to a mulberry tree near the Susquehanna, where hostile Indians planned to burn him. He sent out an appeal to his Indian friends, who came to his rescue. Upon his death in 1748, he was buried, at his request, under the tree.