DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just here to make sure you hear it right. Now settle in, because this one covers a lot of ground — river, revolution, and all. William Plunkett Harris was born in New York in 1797, and if you'd told him then that he'd one day be running a floating government on the Texas coast, well — he might've believed you.
The man had a knack for being exactly where history needed him. Before Texas, Harris was already in the steamboat business, running a line in partnership with a fellow named Robert Wilson. Then 1830 came around, and Harris made his move south.
He landed at Harrisburg — a settlement founded by his brother, John Richardson Harris, who had died the year before in 1829. That's the brother for whom Harris County itself was named. William and Wilson took over a mill operation there and got to work.
But William wasn't content to stay put. He started a plantation out here at Red Bluff, where he lived with his wife Caroline — Caroline Morgan Harris, born in 1816 — and their two children. A family man building something on the frontier.
And yet the times had a way of pulling men like Harris into bigger rooms. He was active in the early efforts to reform the Mexican government's control of Texas, and that activism put him in consequential places. He served as a representative from this area to the Convention of 1832, and again to the Convention of 1835.
Then, as a member of the Consultation of 1835, he was selected chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs. Chairman. Of naval affairs.
For a revolution that hadn't quite started yet. He also served on the General Council — until 1836, when he became collector of customs for the Port of Galveston. Now here's where the story really opens up.
Harris owned a steamboat called the Cayuga. And when the Texas Revolution broke and the Mexican army started advancing, settlers needed to flee. Harris ran that boat as passage — ferrying people away from the danger bearing down on them.
That was already enough to earn a place in the telling. But then comes April 1836. April fifteenth through the twenty-sixth, to be exact.
The interim Texas government needed somewhere to operate, somewhere safe — and the Cayuga, anchored at Galveston, became the temporary capitol of Texas. Eleven days, a boat, a revolution mid-swing, and the business of a newborn republic conducted on the water. After the Revolution, Harris came back to solid ground.
He served in local government. He turned his attention to the planning of the area rail industry — pioneering that next wave of Texas infrastructure before most folks had even caught their breath. He died in 1843.
And he's buried near his homesite — just three hundred yards to the north of where you're standing right now. New York boy. Steamboat man.
Mill operator. Planter. Delegate.
Naval affairs chairman. Revolutionary ferryman. Temporary landlord to a government with nowhere else to go.
William Plunkett Harris packed all of that into one life — and left it buried just up the road.
What the marker says
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).