My Genealogy Hound

William R. Harrison (commonly known as Gen. Harrison, in Clark County), was born in Wheeling, W. Va., June 22, 1800. He first came west as an Indian trader in 1819, and in 1822 he settled on the Des Moines River, building the first house in the county at old Maryville, and establishing a trading post there with Indians. He followed this all through the north and west, up the Mississippi and Des Moines Rivers, until the disappearance of the Indians. He was a pilot and an interpreter in the Black Hawk war. He was for two years in the employ of the American Fur Company, also followed hunting and trapping all his life. He knew Black Hawk and Keokuk well, and he is now the only survivor of thirty-two first settlers of Clark County. They were as follows: William and Samuel Bartlett, J. Wayland, George Haywood, Col. Rutherford, Floyd, William and John Clark, Clayton, Judge Taylor, Charles Sanford, the McDanielses (about three of them), William Beadle, Esq. (up near Athens), Peevler, Johnson (who helped lay off Waterloo) and others. Gen. Harrison’s first wife was Eleanor Webb, of Kentucky, whom he married in 1831. To them were born five children—three sons and two daughters—two sons and the daughters now living. His second and present wife’s maiden name was Mary Shoemaker. This union resulted in the birth of seven children living—two sons and five daughters. The General was an old line Whig before the war, and since that event he has been independent in his political views. He practiced medicine a great deal during the late war, using Indian remedies. He was quite a successful Indian fighter in his day. The General has owned ten acres of land, one mile up the St. Francis River since 1838; it was originally owned by Col. Church, and leased of him. The General built a house on it in 1882.