Henry Harrison Harriman and Sarah Elizabeth Hobbs
Born 2 December 1808 Franklin Pennsylvania
Died 4 May 1899 Tucson Arizona
History
First Cabin in Bluff:
In 1879 the Harrises headed for what would become Bluff, Utah. They were traveling toward southeastern Utah after having hauled logs for the Royal George Railroad project in central Colorado. The Harrises would have been aware that their daughter Angeline Harris Hyde and her family were called to the San Juan Mission. That may have been their motivation in going to the San Juan area and establishing a cabin and homestead in the Bluff valley. Hole-in-the-Rock scout George Hobbs recorded, “just south of today’s town of Bluff, the Harrises had built a log cabin (Bluff’s first) and were working a 10-acre homestead.”
Fed Starving Scouts:
The Harris family was at the right place at the right time to feed the Hole-in-the-Rock scouts who had been without food for four days. George Sevy, Lemuel Redd Sr., George Hobbs, and George Morrell were searching for a feasible route between the Hole-in-the-Rock crevice at the Colorado River and Montezuma Fort.
On January 6,1880, the scouts reached the valley that would become Bluff City. They were anticipating another 18 miles before encountering people and food at Montezuma Fort. To their surprise, they encountered the Harris family. According to Hobbs’ account, the Harris’ family “…was so short of provisions that they adopted the custom of but two meals a day.” The scouts arrived as the Harrises were about to eat their evening meal. When they learned of the scouts’ starving condition, “The entire meal of this large family was set before them [the scouts] and the whole meal was devoured.” – George Hobbs
Family Members:
George Hobbs’ account mentions the following Harris family names: John, 72, and his wife Lovina Eiler, 73, son Daniel, 49, son George, 30, and daughter Rebecca (Warren), 38.
Based on the 1880 census taken two months later, Rebecca’s two children were with them, daughter Emma Warren, 16, and John Warren, 21. According to George Hobbs, there were 10 adults and five children. The above names account for six adults including John Warren and one child, Emma Warren. Based on the same census, Daniel’s wives and children were in SLC at the time. George may have had his wife Martha Thornton and children George W., 3, and Charles, 1, with him. George, his wife, and children are missing from the 1880 census. They may have been in transit when it was taken.
Delivered Mail to the En Route Hole-in-the-Rock Pioneers:
When the four scouts returned to the pioneers’ main encampments, Daniel Harris accompanied them to obtain desperately needed supplies from Escalante. On Daniel’s return to his family, he spent weeks unsuccessfully searching for an alternative to the long Cedar Mesa route. On two more occasions, Daniel and his brother George traversed the Hole-in-the-Rock route to take mail to the pioneers and possibly made additional trips to Escalante for supplies.
Allocated a Town Lot, Helped with the Ditch but Decide to Move On:
When the main body of Hole-in-the-Rock pioneers arrived in the Bluff valley, the Harris men labored on the community’s irrigation ditch. When the town lots were allocated, the Harrises were given one. However, the Harrises decided not to stay and went back to Colorado, then on to New Mexico and Arizona. Platt D. Lyman’s journal entry April 22, 1880 (Bluff,Utah), “I have bought a log house 10 acres of land, a cook stove, table, 3 gals of coal oil, and some work on the ditch, and one town lot, from Geo Harris for 1 horse & 2 cows and calves.” From that transaction with Platte D. Lyman, combined with the fact that the Harrises had only built one cabin, and George was the only one allocated a town lot, it would appear that it was George Harris who was the one planning to make the Bluff Valley his home. His brother Daniel, parents, and sister Rebecca may have just been there to help him get established.
Daughter Angeline Harris and Husband Arrive in the San Juan Area:
Angeline and her husband William Hyde arrived in the San Juan area about four months after her parents, sister, and brothers had moved on. They settled in Montezuma Fort, where William was eventually called to preside over the branch until floods destroyed the town in 1884.
Earlier Right-Place at the Right-Time Miracles:
Amazing circumstances initially brought John and Lovina Harris to Utah many decades earlier. In 1846 John and Lovina Harris and their seven children left their home in South Bend, Indiana, and headed to Oregon. About 250 miles into their journey, their two-year-old son Jacob died and was buried at Colebrook Township, Illinois.
Not long after continuing west, John became deathly ill. For three days Lovina could do nothing to relieve his suffering. Joseph Knight Jr., who was nearby working on a broken wagon wheel, felt impressed to check on the nearby stranger’s camp. Joseph needed to complete the repair on his wheel quickly in order to be able to move out with the others in his company of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who were heading to Nauvoo, Illinois. After more strong promptings, John left his wagon wheel, got another brother to go with him, and approached the stranger’s camp. In asking if everything was all right, they learned of Harris’s desperate situation. They asked Lovina if they could give her husband a blessing. She did not know what that meant but consented to their offer. John was instantly healed. John, who was a wheelwright by trade, immediately went to Joseph Knight’s wagon and repaired his wheel.
John and Lovina were so impressed with the kindness of these Latter-day Saints that instead of continuing on to Oregon, they went with them to Nauvoo, where they were baptized March 29, 1846. One month later they attended the Nauvoo Temple Dedication. Shortly afterward John Harris was elected to be the captain of one of the wagon trains heading for Winter Quarters near Council Bluffs, Iowa. John built the first log cabin in a series of many which housed 300. This portion of Winter Quarters was named Harris Grove.
Their eighth child, Oliver, was born at Winter Quarters in 1847. After two winters there, the Harris family headed west for Salt Lake City in Brigham Young’s second company. Along the way, the team died that was pulling a wagon containing the Church’s records. John Harris was in the right place at the right time to provide a replacement team that pulled the cherished records to Salt Lake City.
Calls and Missions
The Harrises initially settled in Farmington, Utah, where their ninth child, George, was born in 1850. Their tenth child, Jacob, was born in 1852. Early in the 1850s the Harrises were among 437 who were called to establish a settlement in San Bernadino California. While there, John was called on an 18-month proselyting mission to the mining fields in northern California. In 1856 when Johnson’s Army was approaching Utah, the San Bernadino Mission was abolished, and all were asked to forgo their homes and farms and return to Utah. A few of John and Lovina’s adult children remained in California.
For the next 24 years all that is known about John and Lovina and their other children is that they were in Filmore, Utah, at the time of the 1860 census, in Levan, Utah, during the 1870 census, and in La Plata County, Colorado [near Durango], for the 1880 census. The 1880 census lists both John and Daniel’s occupation as teamsters. That occupation typically involved hauling freight, which may have contributed to traveling to numerous locations for employment. John and Lovina ended up in Arizona, Daniel in Mexico, Angeline and Joseph in Utah, George in Arizona, Jacob in New Mexico, Rebecca in Oregon, and Lucinda, Susannah, and Oliver in California.
Source:
By, Lamont Crabtree February 10, 2025 – Last update 3-16-2026
References:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/KWJ6-G6Q
Platte D. Lyman Journal, March 29, 1880 and April 5, 1880
George B. Hobbs scouting expedition account, “First Exploring Expedition of the Forbidding San Juan Country” Deseret Evening News, December 27th, 1919.
“Six Harris Generations Book, Sections Two and Three: Life Stories of John and Daniel Harris”
By Mark F Harris
Family Search:
Harris, John and Family
