Harrison Genealogy Repository

Notes

Bazil Harrison the first white settler in Kalamazoo county 1828.

History of Kalamazoo Co by George Torry https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mikalama/obits/pion006.htm "The first settlement of Kalamazoo county dates back to 1828. In the. fall of that year, Bazil HARRISON with his family of sons and daughters, with a desirable collection of household goods, arrived on Prairie Ronde and settled on the timbered marge by the side of a little lake, which he called after his name. Harrison was born in Maryland; went when young to Virginia, then to Pennsylvania, then to Clark county, Ohio, and in his 58th year came to Michigan where he lived till August 30, 1874, dying at the great age of 103. He was a nephew of Benj. Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and cousin of President Harrison. He was a model pioneer, and lived loved and respected by all. He was our first county judge. He is the hero of one of Cooper's most thrilling stories -- the Bee Hunter. With Judge Harrison came his son-in-law, Henry WHIPPLE, and a man named DAVIDSON; and in the following winter, Abram J. SHAVER, a very eccentric character and Erastus GUELFORD; and to the new settlement were added William DUNCAN, Christopher BAIR, George BROWN, Abner CALHOUN, John INSLAY, and others; so that by the spring of 1830 there was a circle of settlers about the border of Prairie Ronde, and at the island in Schoolcraft, numbering some sixty families, including Dr. Nathan N. THOMAS, E. Lakin Brown, Delamore Duncan, Dr. David E. Brown, Henry and Pelick STEVENS, Abial FELLOWS, Stephen HOYT, Rev. Benj. TAYLOR, Jas. BAIR, Robert TRAKES, E. H. LOTHROP, G. V. N. Lothrop, and others, arrived. A township organization, the first in the. county, was formed, and on the 4th of April a meeting was held at the house of Abram Calhoun, at which Edwin H. Lothrop (brother of G. V. N., Lothrop, of Detroit) was elected supervisor, Hosea B. HUSTON township clerk, and the other offices filled. In June, 1829, Titus BRONSON came to the site of the present village of Kalamazoo, and soon built a shanty, preempting a large share of the plain upon which the village is located, the little hamlet being named Bronson, after its founder. In 1830, a man named Nathan Harrison, son of Bazil, settled on the banks of the river near the foot of Main street. Soon after came Wm. HARRIS, William MEAD, and Elisha HALL." ^[S1374]