(from a series by Alice J. Bostick that ran in the Inkster Ledger-Star in 1978-79 titled “Our Roots.”)

 

Bucklin Township, newly created in 1827, covered 143 square miles and included what later was Nankin, Livonia, Dearborn and Redford townships.

 

Marcus Swift, the first Supervisor of the township,  reported that when he came to Nankin in 1825, there were only two dwellings in all of Nankin, and one of those belonged to Marenus Harrison.

 

Joseph Harrison came to America, landing in Virginia. His service of eight years in the Continental Army included a captaincy. He was in campaigns in Tryon and Albany counties in York state. Later he married a young woman (Sarah Giles) whom he met in some connection with George and Martha Washington.

 

Joseph and Sarah and their three sons, Leonard, Marenus and Charles, migrated to Michigan about 1785. He settled in the Dearborn area and is known to have owned the land where the Ford plant was later located.

 

Records show Joseph was a member of the Hook and Ladder Corps of the Volunteer Fire Department and was assigned, with Joseph Campeau, to inspect the ladders and buckets, fire bags and water barrels. He was chosen as the first Supervisor of Detroit Township and later (1803) as Coroner of the County.

 

Having been a member of St. Patrick’s Masonic Lodge in Johnstown, N.Y., he was accepted as a member of Zion Lodge in Detroit on December 29, 1801. A news item tells of his entertaining members of that lodge in his home on that date. The Lodge paid $3 a year for use of a room in his house.

 

Joseph engaged in real estate and in July 1876 bought in Dearborn on the River Rouge 500 acres which later became a part of Ford property. With others he signed a petition to the US Congress to have Michigan organized into its own territory. This did not come about until 1805.

 

The death and funeral of Joseph Harrison in February 1804 are recorded in the Annals of Masonry.

 

Of the three sons of Joseph Harrison, Leonard (1791-1841) was an assessor in Nankin Township in 1832. Marenus (1795-1849) and Charles (1799-1887) engaged in real estate and, of course, farmed.

A map in the Wayne County Atlas of 1876 shows property of Marenus Harrison at the northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Inkster Road (this is probably the son of Marenus the first). This choice location must have been in the family from the earliest pioneer days.

 

(The information below comes from Where the Lilacs Grow by Barbara MacDonald and Julia E. Rogers.)

 

Both Marenus and Charles served in the War of 1812. Marenus served as a private in Capt. W. T. Cullom’s Company of the 2nd Ohio Militia from September 1813 to March 2, 1814. Marenus and his brother Leonard both worked on the fort built in Dearborn.

 

Charles Harrison served in the War of 1812 as a sergeant in Capt. Joseph Vance’s Co. of Riflemen, attached to the 2nd Ohio Militia under Col. James Findley from May 20 to June 8, 1812, and from Aug. 19 to Aug. 29, 1812. He was a private in Capt. W. T. Cullom’s Company of the 2nd Regiment Ohio Militia from Sept. 4, 1813 to Mar. 2, 1814. This was in Col. Zumwalts’ Regiment, which was stationed in Detroit. He later served in Capt. J. H. Audrain’s Co. of Michigan Militia from Nov. 1, 1814 to Nov. 30, 1815.

 

Leonard was a sergeant in Capt. Antoine Dequindre’s Company of Major Witherell’s detachment of Michigan Volunteers and Riflemen in the War of 1812. He was the first Clerk of the newly formed Nankin Township in 1835.

 

 

(What follows is from statements made by Willis Harrison to his daughter Mabel in 1969.)

 

Martin Harrison (son of Marenus the first, and father of Willis) was born in a log cabin on the north side of the Rouge River in Inkster. Marenus Harrison, Sr., following the births of his 12 children, moved the family to the “ancestral” home on Michigan Avenue (“Plank Road”). Son David and daughter Emily lived there until their deaths.

 

Martin Harrison purchased 20 acres on the south side of Avondale Road from August Bevernitz. This land had been part of Harriet Jacques’ (wife of Martin) inheritance from her father. Harriet’s brother George bought the land from her for $200 and then sold it to Bevernitz.

 

                                          -#-