Harrisville, Utah

The first settler in the Harrisville area was a man named Urban Stewart. He built a log home and planted a garden. Not long after, he heard a rustling in his corn patch and fired into the garden, killing Chief Terikee of the Shoshone. The Shoshone retaliated by killing a transient employee at Farr's Mill. As soon as word got out, the LDS Church sent in 150 members of their militia to protect the fledgling Weber colony. Before the situation got worse, Stewart left the area. The next year, Martin Henderson Harris moved in and real settlement began.

Martin Harris was the first school teacher in the area and taught students in his home for the first few years. Then the population rose enough to require the building of an official schoolhouse. In 1868, the population in the area had grown enough that the Harrisville Stake came into being, just as the western part of the district was broken off and became the settlement of Farr West. It was also in 1868 that the Union Pacific Railroad built its tracks through Harrisville on the way to that momentous meeting of the rails at Promontory Point in 1869.

Most of the area was an agricultural district at first but with the building of the railroad came small industry. Folks made bricks, cheese, brooms, silk and wool cloth. Then came a sawmill, molasses plant, shoemaker's shop and slaughterhouse. These days, the area is known for its amount of high tech manufacturing and the high rate of growth.