WELCOME

Meet The Author

Meet Dan Harris

Meet Dan's Family

Access Booklets

Hear Audio Clips

Use Related Links


DAN HARRIS STAKES HIS CLAIM


The 1861 Survey of Bellingham Bay Claims
    During February and March of 1861, sixteen of the original nineteen DLC's in Whatcom County were surveyed by George F. Whitworth and John A. Tennant.28 [I] Their survey notes give a detailed picture of the topography and vegetation of the Harris claim. Commencing at the northwest corner of the claim, at a point which was 20.17 chains (1,331.22 feet) north and 8.7 chains (574.2 feet) east of the post set by the 1859 survey to mark the corner to Fractional Sections 1 and 2 in Township 37 North, Range 2 East, a post was set on top of the bluff at a point where it was fifteen feet high. The boundary line then followed the meander of the beach south and west for 29.66 chains (1,957.56 feet) to the line between Sections 1 and 2 and then due south 1 Chain (66 feet) to the corner of Fractional Sections 1 and 2. [J] Then the line ran for 44.49 chains (2,936.34 feet) around Post Point and south-westward to the corner of Fractional Sections 2 and 1 where a post had been set by Smith and Hurd. The references and bearings given at this point by Whitworth and Tenant are identical to those found in the 1859 survey notes.

    From there the boundary line ran due south for exactly 5 chains (330 feet) through a marsh to a point where a post was set in Section 11 for the southwest corner of the claim. The line then ran east through a Salmon Berry and Cedar bottom, then up a hill, crossing the line between Sections 11 and 12 at a point 4.95 chains (326.7 feet}south of the intersection of Sections 1, 2, 11 and 12. After reaching the top of the hill, the line crossed a northward flowing creek (probably Padden Creek, which Smith and Hurd had overlooked) and reached a point 58 chains (3,828 feet) from the southwest corner of the claim, where a post was set for the southeast corner. [K] The reference points and bearings at this point and along the common Harris/O'Conner boundary are identical in the survey notes for the two claims, except they appear in reverse order, since the line was run from north to south in surveying the O'Connor claim.

    From the southeast corner of the Harris claim, the boundary line ran due north 40 Chains (1,320 feet or one-half mile) to a point at which a post was set for the northeast corner of the claim. [L] This was just 1 Chain (66 feet) north of the intersection of the road to O'Connor's house and only 169 links (111.54 feet) west-northwest of that structure. The line then ran due west downhill to the place of beginning, this being also the southwest corner of the Morrison claim, a distance of 18.58 chains (1,226.28 feet) from the northeast corner and just 2 chains and 58 links (38.28 feet) west of the "Chuckanuts Trail." The survey notes describe the claim as having level land and "first rate" soil with timber including Fir, Cedar, Alder and Maple and an undergrowth of Willow and Salmonberry.

.    Following the lines of the Thomas claim, the Harris claim was shaped like a reversed "L." As surveyed it contained 145.56 acres rather than the 160 acres Harris had claimed and Thomas had originally recorded. The survey notes attribute this shortfall to the presence of the Poe claim on the south, which seems to indicate that it had been surveyed previously. In any case, the Poe claim was not included in the 1861 survey. The survey notes assert that the survey of the Harris claim followed the meandering of the shoreline and the original line of the claim. However, the line running due south from the corner of Fractional Sections 2 and 11, which left a strip of apparently unclaimed land between itself and the shoreline, seems to have been a new departure. As related above, Poe's DLC Notification described the northwest corner of his claim as being a point on the shore of Bellingham Bay that was identical with the southwest corner of the Thomas claim. The 1861 survey moved the southwest corner of the Harris claim some distance inland from that point. Click on Map 3 to see the boundaries of the Morrison, Harris and O'Connor Claims as they are described in the field notes of the 1861 survey.

    On July 15, 1861, Dan Harris addressed the following sworn statement to the Registrar and Receiver of Washington Territory linking his claim to the Government Survey:
The undersigned hereby gives notice of the connection of his donation claim with the Government Survey as follows Viz, Beginning at a point on the Shore of Bellingham Bay in Sec 1 Town 37 N. R No 2 East said point being 20.32 chs North and 8.8 chs East of cor to Fract Sections 1 & 2 in said Township - the same being on the south end of James Morrisons [sic] land claim and running thence one half mile east along the eastern side of Bellingham Bay W. T. & joined by the the [sic] Original Claim of A. M. Poe on the South, thence East a half mile, thence north about one half mile to James Morrisons [sic] South boundary line and thence west one half mile along the said line of James Morrison to the place of beginning, so as to Contain one hundred and sixty acres. . .29 [M]
    This description was accompanied by an explanation of why the required connection of the claim to the Government Survey had not been submitted on a timely basis:
- And the undersigned Daniel J. Harris being first duly sworn says the foregoing is a correct and true description of his land Claim as originally taken by him and occupied and cultivated since May 28th 1854 - that the reason why he has not given this notice prior to the 4th day of March 1861 as required by the Registrar and Receiver is that he was absent from the Territory in the Northern Mines and has never until today seen the notice published by the Register and Receiver requiring him so to do.30 [N]
    This statement was subscribed, sworn and sealed in Whatcom County; however, the signature of the person taking it was not entered. An accompanying document signed by Ezra L. Smith, Secretary of Washington Territory, on July 28, 1868 certifies that J. A. Timwill (?), who was a duly commissioned and qualified Notary Public in Washington Territory on July 15, 1861, had been the one who notarized the document.31 Dan Harris's affidavit of July 15, 1861 was witnessed the same day by Joe Conn in an oath sworn before James Carr, stating that Dan Harris had "left Whatcom County early in the fall of 1860 for the Northern Mines in British Columbia and did not return until about the middle of June 1861."32 Conn also certified that the location of the Harris donation claim had always been known in the neighborhood as the waterfront tract lying between the claims of James Morrison and A. M. Poe. He further asserted that Dan Harris had continuously occupied and cultivated his claim since May 1854, making improvements valued at $400.

< 1859 Survey - Table of Contents - DLC Certifications >