Encyclopedia Dubuque
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HARRIS, Robert Scribe
Ancestry.com--https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/117671953/person/370168638632/facts
HARRIS, Robert Scribe (Kortright, NY, Mar. 21, 1810--Dubuque, IA, Dec. 25, 1885). Harris was one of the first stockholders and directors of the FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF DUBUQUE. His accumulation of wealth began in 1826 when, with his brother, he discovered a rich deposit of LEAD which became known as the "Harris Diggings" near Galena. (1)
In 1833 Harris built the "Jo Daviess," the first boat on the MISSISSIPPI RIVER north of St. Louis, with materials gathered from a scrap heap in Cincinnati. (2) Harris, known by rivermen as "Scribe," opened the first regular river commerce with St. Paul, Minnesota, using the packet "Otter." (3) Leaving the river in 1845, Harris and his brother opened stores in Dubuque, Iowa; Galena, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and St. Paul, Minnesota, before settling permanently in Dubuque.
Harris enjoyed the reputation as one of Dubuque's inventors. He devised a special shoe to aid a man with a crippled foot and later developed a brace to relieve curvature of the spine. (4) Secretary of War Jefferson DAVIS found Harris' design for a steam ram worthy of being implemented in the navy. Harris is also credited with inventing the time lock, although others claimed the rewards. (5)
It was Harris who attempted to have the government place into operation a line of lighthouses and telegraph stations fifty miles apart between New York and London so that ships were never far from light. Harris also believed such a line would eliminate much of the danger of collisions at sea as ships proceeding in the same direction would remain on the same side of the lighthouses. (6)
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Source:
1. "Death of Scribe Harris," The Dubuque Herald, December 27, 1885, p. 8
2. "History of Old Steamboat Days," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, May 5, 1912, p. 5
3. "Death of..."
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
Oldt, Franklin. The History of Dubuque County, Iowa. Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1880, p. 801