Captain William Plunkett Harris

Born at Cayuga, New York, on February 27, 1797, Harris clerked as a youth and sold goods from a craft on the Allegheny River before he and Robert Wilson ran ships on the Mississippi. In 1832 their vessels Nelson and Mecana were used to eject the Mexican garrison during the Anahuac Disturbances. After independence he was land commissioner of Harrisburg County in 1838 and an alderman of Harrisburg in 1842, a director of the Harrisburg Town Company and one of the proprietors of the town of Cushatte on the Trinity. He died on December 8, 1843.

What the plaque says

Captain William Plunkett Harris Early Texas entrepreneur and pioneer settler. New York native William Plunkett Harris (1797-1843) ran a steamboat line in partnership with Robert Wilson before moving to Texas in 1830. At Harrisburg, founded by his brother John Richardson Harris (d. 1829), for whom Harris County was named, he and Wilson took over a mill operation. Later William started a plantation here at red Bluff, where he lived with his wife Caroline (Morgan) (1816-1867) and two children. Harris was active in the early efforts to reform the Mexican government's control of Texas. He served as a representative from this area to the Conventions of 1832 and 1835. As a member of the Consultation of 1835 he was selected chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs. He also served on the General Council until becoming collector of customs for the Port of Galveston in 1836. Harris operated his steamboat "Cayuga" during the Texas Revolution, providing passage to settlers fleeing the advancing Mexican army. At Galveston, April 15-26, 1836, his boat served as temporary capitol for the interim Texas government. After the Revolution Harris served in local government and also pioneered in the planning of the area rail industry. He died in 1843 and is buried near his homesite (300 yds. N). (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Space Center Houston — 7.4 mi
  The visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, with flown capsules, a shuttle replica riding a 747, and tram tours to Mission Control and a Saturn V.
• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 12 mi
  The 1,200 acres of coastal prairie and marsh where the Texas Revolution ended in eighteen minutes, and the 567-foot shaft of fossil-studded limestone that has stood over them since 1939.
• Texas Seaport Museum and the Elissa — 23 mi
  An iron barque launched in Aberdeen in 1877 that called at Galveston twice, ended up smuggling in the Adriatic, and was bought back from a Greek scrapyard to sail again from Pier 22.
• The Strand — 23 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.

More markers nearby

• Prehistoric Indian Campsite — 0.6 mi
• Houston Yacht Club — 1.6 mi
• Ritson Morris and Elmwood Plantation — 2.7 mi
• Saint Mary's Seminary — 4.2 mi