Harris County (TX)
| Harris County, Texas | ||
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| County | ||
| Harris County | ||
The Harris County Civil Courthouse in Houston
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 Location in the U.S. state of Texas |
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 Texas's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | 1837 | |
| Seat | Houston | |
| Largest city | Houston | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 1,777 sq mi (4,602 km2) | |
| • Land | 1,703 sq mi (4,411 km2) | |
| • Water | 74 sq mi (192 km2), 4.2% | |
| Population (est.) | ||
| • (2016) | 4,589,928 | |
| • Density | 2,608/sq mi (1,007/km²) | |
| Congressional districts | 2nd, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 18th, 22nd, 29th, 36th | |
| Time zone | Central: UTC-6/-5 | |
| Website | www |
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Harris County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 4,092,459, making it the most populous county in Texas and the third-most populous county in the United States. Its county seat is Houston, the largest city in Texas and fourth-largest city in the United States. The county was founded in 1836 and organized in 1837. It is named for John Richardson Harris, an early settler of the area. By the July 2016 Census Bureau estimate Harris County's population had grown to 4,589,928.
Harris County is included in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land Metropolitan Statistical Area , which is the fifth-most populated metropolitan area in the United States.
John Richardson Harris, early Harris County settler and founder of Harrisburg, the son of John and Mary (Richardson) Harris, was born in Cayuga, New York, on October 22, 1790.
On May 7, 1813, he married Jane Birdsall. John and Jane Birdsall Harris settled near Waterloo, New York, where two sons, DeWitt Clinton and Lewis Birdsall Harris, were born. In 1819 they were living in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, where their daughter Mary Jane Harris Briscoe was born. A third son, John Birdsall Harris, was born in 1821.
At Ste. Genevieve Harris met Moses Austin and decided to move to Texas. He came to Texas in his own vessel in 1824 and received title to 4,428 acres of land at the junction of Bray's and Buffalo bayous in what is now Harris County. He boarded with William Scott while he built a house on the peninsula between the bayous and a store and warehouse on Buffalo Bayou.
In 1826 he employed Francis W. Johnson to lay out the town of Harrisburg. With his brother David Harris, John Harris established a second trading post at Bell's Landing on the Brazos River. Their sloops and schooners plied between Texas and New Orleans. One of these vessels, the Rights of Man, carried eighty-four bales of cotton to New Orleans in 1828.
Harris was building a steam sawmill-gristmill at Harrisburg in 1829, when he went to New Orleans to buy equipment and there contracted yellow fever. After his death on August 21, 1829, his sawmill and shipping enterprise were operated by his brothers David, Samuel, and William Plunkett Harris. His widow and son DeWitt moved to Texas in 1833; the other children came later.
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