Martin Henderson Harris: Harrisville's First Settler
Near Ogden, Utah
Just north of Ogden, in what became Harrisville, a man named Martin Henderson Harris arrived in eighteen fifty and never left. He was the nephew of Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, though the younger Harris built his own legacy here on the land itself. He became the settlement's first schoolteacher, gathering children in whatever space he could find before permanent buildings existed.
He also served as presiding elder of the local congregation, helping organize community life in the years when Utah was still a territory. Harris lived here until his death in eighteen eighty-nine, nearly four decades after he first planted roots. The marker standing near this spot honors him as an outstanding pioneer, a phrase that meant something literal in the eighteen fifties, when a teacher and a community leader were the difference between a camp and a town.
