A Donation Land Certificate was issued to Alonzo Poe on June 29, 1861,³³ to John W and Mary Frances Lysle on June 11, 1862,³⁴ to James Morrison on February 15, 1866,³⁵ to Maurice O'Connor on October 12, 1867³⁶ and to Dan Harris on July 28, 1868.³⁷ For some reason, the certificates issued to Poe and Harris describe their respective claims in terms of fractional lots while those given to the Lysles, Morrison, O'Connor and the remaining Bellingham Bay claimants, several of whose claims include fractional lots, use linear measurements and compass bearings. The same difference is found in the patents later issued, to Poe on February 19, 1866, to the Lysles on March 6, 1866, to Morrison on June 16, 1866, and to Harris and O'Connor both on August 27, 1871

    Alonzo M. Poe's DLC Certificate describes his claim as being:

. . . the following tracts of Public Lands known and designated in the Surveys and Plats of the United States as the Lot No one in Section No two, Lots Nos. One, two, three and four, and the East half of the North East quarter and the East half of the South East quarter of Section No Eleven in Township No thirty seven North, Range No two East of the Willamette Meridian - Containing Three Hundred and three and twenty-five hundredths acres of land.³⁸ [O]

    The final boundaries of the Poe claim included Lot No. 1 in Section No. 2, a forty-three acre tract encom-passing Post Point, which had originally been part of the Thomas/Harris claim. No records have been found explaining how it came to be included in Poe's certificate.

Claim No. 37 of Section No. One in Township No. thirty-Seven North of Range No. two East Bounded and described as follows: Beginning at the North East Corner of Said Claim twenty Seven Chains and Seventy nine links West and five Chains and twenty links South of the North East Corner of Section No. One in Said Township - Thence West thirty five Chains and Sixty Six links - thence South Seven Chains - thence South fifty-five degrees West Eleven Chains - thence South ten degrees West three Chains and fifty links - thence South four- teen and ¾ degrees East six Chains and fifty links - thence South thirty-eight and¾ degrees West three Chains and fifty links - thence South Nine degrees East Eleven Chains and fifty links - thence South Eight and ¾ degrees West two Chains and Seventy five links - thence East Ninety two links - thence East forty two Chains and forty links - thence North thirty Nine Chains and Ninety five links to the point of beginning. Containing One hundred and Sixty five acres and Eighteen hundredths of an acre.³⁹

    Morris O'Connor's Donation Land Claim Certificate describes his claim as follows:

Claim No. Thirty Eight, being part of Sections One and Twelve in township Thirty Seven North of Range two East, bounded and described as follows: Beginning at a point twelve Chains and Seventy five links, West & five Chains &Eighty five links South of the North East Corner of said Section twelve running thence North thirty nine Chains, & ninety five links, thence West thirty nine Chains & forty links, thence South forty chains, thence East forty Chains to the place of beginning. Containing one hundred and fifty eight acres & sixty eight hundredths of an acre.⁴⁰ [P]

    The description in the certificate for Dan Harris's Donation Land Claim awarded him:

. . . a tract of Public Lands known and designated in the Surveys and Plats of the United States as the lots three, four, five & six of Section No. two & the Lot No. three & the North West Quarter of the North West Quarter of Section No. twelve, in Township No. thirty Seven North of Range No. two, east, and Containing one hundred & forty six acres & forty hundredths of an acre."⁴¹ [Q]

    The end-paper in the Harris file contains an entry stating: "Description of tract incorrect, should read Sect. one instead of Sec. 2."⁴² This change was subsequently penned into the body of the certificate and the word "the" before "Lot No. three" and the four number designations ("No.") were crossed out. The end-paper also reveals that the patent for his claim was issued on August 27, 1871.⁴³ The patent was signed by J. Parrish, Secretary, on behalf of President Ulysses S. Grant.⁴⁴ The patent describes the claim correctly; however it gives Dan Harris's Notification Number as 647 rather than as 649 as is entered on the certificate. The patent was not recorded in Whatcom County until December 27, 1773.⁴⁵

    The claim for which Daniel J. Harris received a certificate, and ultimately a patent, was not the full, square quarter section (160 acres) for which John Thomas had filed in Island County and which Dan Harris had specified in his DLC Notification, but an "L" shaped tract consisting of five fractional lots and a quarter of a quarter section totaling 146.4 acres. It bordered Morrison's claim to the north, Poe's claim to the west and wrapped around the southwest corner of O'Connor's claim to the east. How and when these boundary adjustments were made by the Washington Land Office is not clear. Perhaps Poe, Harris and O'Connor were involved in arriving at the final demarcations. A map showing the boundaries of the Morrison, Harris, O'Connor and Poe Donation Land Claims and portions of the Pattle and Lysle DLC's, as described in their respective certificates and patents appears on the following page.

    Three decades of U. S. Census records for Whatcom County attest to the Dan Harris's residence and the appreciating value of his Donation Land Claim. The 1860 U.S. Census enumerated Dan Harris as a head of household in the Town of Sehome. His age was given as thirty (twenty-eight would have been correct), his sex as male, his color as white, his occupation as farmer, the value of his real estate as $200 and his place of birth as Massachusetts.⁴⁶ Listed in the same household was a twenty-one year old carpenter from Indiana named Joseph Gibson. The U.S. Census of 1870 listed Dan Harris as an inhabitant of the Whatcom Precinct. It gave his age as thirty-six (thirty-eight would have been correct), his sex as male, his color as white, his occupation as farmer, his parents as both being native-born, his citizenship as American, his place of birth as New York, and the value of his real estate as $2,000.⁴⁷ The 1880 U.S. Census listed Dan Harris⁴⁸