Pennsylvania - Capitol
Native Americans lived the area which is now Harrisburg until about 1785.
Some of the tribes were the Shawnee, Conoy, Tuscarora, Delaware, and Susquehannock.
Harrisburg is the county seat of Dauphin County and the capital of Pennsylvania.
It is located in the southern most part of the state and it became the state capital in 1812.
It was settled around 1719 by John Harris from Yorkshire, England and was
the origin of a trading post and ferry. He arrived in Philadelphia as one of
the first emigrants to accompany William Penn. Harris was responsible for the
first ferry across the Susquehanna, which in time became so popular that that
place was no longer called by its Indian name of Peixtan, but Harris' Ferry.
It was renamed Harrisburg when it was laid out in 1785.
Penn moved with his wife Esther from Chester County to Lancaster County.
They then soon built a log cabin on the banks of the Susquehanna, near
what is now Paxton and Front streets.
John Harris, Jr. was born about 1727. Harris, Jr. and became the founder of
Harrisburg and the leader in the movement to establish Dauphin County.
This city was the place where the first national Whig Party Convention was held.
It was also noted for the opening of the Pennsylvania Canal in 1834, and the
arrival of the railroad in 1836.
The county it resided in was named "Dauphin," to honor of the eldest son
of the King of France, who had helped the American colonies during the
American Revolution.
The first court house was a small log cabin on South Front Street, which
was owned by John Harris and was funded from the proceeds of the ferry.
The first real courthouse was a two-story red brick building by the side of
the old Lancaster Road.
Under the Act of February 21, 1810, it became the temporary Capitol of
Pennsylvania in the fall of 1812, when state government was moved from
Lancaster to Harrisburg.