Prospering in the Back Country

Prospering in the Back Country. Fort Harrison Story Walk. , The Town of Dayton, formerly known as Rifetown, did not exist when Daniel Harrison and his family settled here in the 1740s. He chose to build his stone house overlooking the creek which served as a valuable water source for his farm., Over the years Daniel Harrison made changes to this rural landscape. He built a mill on Cooks Creek, probably located to the left of the road on the east side of today's Main Street. Later maps show a mill pond on the west side of the same road. A mill race was located still further west and roughly followed today's fence line on the far side of the creek. This pasture area was likely crowded with many outbuildings including a distillery. Archaeological excavations in the pasture in front of you revealed a brick hearth, indicating the location of at least one outbuilding. Numerous artifacts found in this pasture revealed 18th-century household goods., Three generations of the Harrison family lived here, and examples from their daily lives have been generously donated by family members to Fort Harrison's collection., (Captions):, Dr. Dennis Blanton, (Above) Archaeology students from James Madison University, led by Dr. Dennis Blanton, uncovered this likely hearth. The orange/red color was created by intense heat; the gray band just above it is ash. This site of a possible early Harrison cabin or slave building is about 20 feet in front of you., (Above and below) The archaeology students also located a nearly intact midden layer not far from where you are standing. It yielded a variety of late 18th and early 19th-century items, including buttons and sherds., A view toward the future town, as it may have appeared in early years, from the Daniel Harrison home, (Above) A quilt made by Mary Stuart Harrison features extraordinarily intricate work, with creative variation in the quilting of the background. She was the wife of the prominent Dr. Peachy Harrison, grandson of Daniel Harrison., A map ca. 1850 shows a subsequent mill and mill dam on the probable site of Daniel Harrison's mill., This interpretive sign is made possible through a gift from the Margaret Grattan Weaver Center, Bridgewater College.