MOUNT VERNON — A few random sheets of paper can sometimes reveal amazing stories hidden for many years. Dr. Lorle Porter, Muskingum College professor emeritus, has found just such papers in her research of the history of Knox County, and she shared some of them with a large audience at the Brown Bag Chat at the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County Wednesday at noon.
Porter had found three references in A. Banning Norton’s 1862 history of the county to an early settler named Enoch “Knuck” Harris, who was mentioned in passing as being “colored.” Although intrigued by these references, Porter initially was not able to find any more information. But while searching through the Knox County archives researching information for an upcoming book about Dan Emmett’s family, Porter discovered a page full of land transactions to and from Enoch Harris.
The paperwork indicated that not only was Harris one of the founders of Mount Vernon, but he also was a key figure in the early history of the city. At a time when even free blacks had their rights severely restricted by national and local laws, Knuck Harris owned one-sixth of the existing town. Porter said Ohio’s “black laws” in the early 1800s required free African Americans to pay a bond of $500 to settle in the state, and for anyone employing a black to pay an additional $500 bond. Yet Porter has found no evidence of any such bonds ever being paid by or for Harris. Porter suspects the law was quietly ignored because Porter was too important a pillar of the fledgling community.
According to Porter, the earliest notation found Harris buying a piece of property in August 1805, one month after the village of Mount Vernon was platted. The property, now the site of the Dilley Funeral Home at the corner of Hamtramck and North Main streets, was purchased for $8. With the influx of new settlers, land values began rising. Harris sold the property one year later for $50.
By shrewd buying and selling, Harris profited by 265 percent during his years in Knox County. He opened up a store, served in the Ohio militia during the War of 1812 and was also one of the initial investors in the local Owl Creek Bank, which collapsed during the Panic of 1819, losing Harris $750, the equivalent of over $10,000 dollars today.
After living in town for some time, Harris moved to Bloomfield Township, near Sparta, now part of Morrow County. He bought and sold land there and near Cardington, but decided to move farther out on the frontier in 1825, when he left and headed north to become one of the founders of Kalamazoo, Mich.
Evidently Harris had picked up some knowledge from his one-time Mount Vernon neighbor John Chapman, better known as “Johnny Appleseed,” for Harris ended up planting the first apple orchard in Kalamazoo, where he lived out the rest of his life. On the last census to report on Harris, in 1870, his real estate was valued at $10,000.
According to additional information Porter and other researchers in Michigan have uncovered, Harris was an imposing man of over 6 feet in height, with blue eyes and well-known for his honesty and integrity. A number of census reports listed him and his wife Deborah as “mulattos,” an old term used to describe persons of mixed racial ancestry.
The part of Knuck Harris’ life which Porter has not been able to uncover is his early years.
“I don’t know where he was the first 20 years of his life,” she said.
According to Porter, Harris’ obituary states he was born Nov. 11, 1784, in Virginia, but grew up in and was educated in Pennsylvania, which is where his wife was born as well. But what is not known is whether he was born free, or born into slavery and somehow became free at some later point. It also is unknown how he managed to be so financially well off when he came to Mount Vernon, buying almost $1,000 worth of property. Considering the scarcity of records from the early federal period, these answers may never be known, Porter said.
