Celebrating Early African American Innovator Bambo Harris

It’s “Black History Month,” when America honors the contributions to society made by its African American citizens. 

With the grand opening of our “Makerspace” inventor’s den at MidPointe Library-West Chester tomorrow, it’s only fitting that we recognize one of the Middletown area’s earliest local African-American “makers” who was practicing “high-tech” centuries before the term was even coined. 

Images from MidPointe Digital Archives

One of the first African-American citizens in Butler County was Bambo Harris, “who, as an engineer, erected the first grist mill in [Butler] county. It was built along Elk Creek at Miltonville in 1800. It would grind either corn into meal or wheat into flour depending on the mill stone used. (1) 

The late Middletown Historian George Crout reported that the Harris mill “became the center around which a prosperous Miltonville developed. [Harris] merged into the life of the community and was a prominent member of the Little Prairie Baptist Church...” (2) 

African-American Historian Cheryl Wilson has described Harris as a “...free African-American man, squatter, mill wright and inventor of the water-powered grist mill and saw mill…He is a remarkable person because he not only is a free African-American man; but he also applied his skills for the betterment of the community, state and nation during these primitive days before ‘black laws’ were strictly sanctioned...” (3)  

She reported that his gravesite “is in the church yard of the Village of Miltonville” and that over a hundred years later “a federal housing apartment complex in Hamilton was built” in his memory. (3) 

 

References:  

1) The illustration of Harris at work and the color image of his mill can be found in MidPointe’s Digital Archives:

 www.midpointelibrary.org > eResources > Digital Archives > Bambo Harris  

2)”Blacks played role in area’s settlement” by George Crout, Middletown Historian. Published on the “Middletown Journal Scope Page” February 2, 1986 

3)”Bambo Harris, Saw Mill Operator – Early Local Black Man was ‘Remarkable,’” by Cheryl Wilson, African-American Historian, published in the Middletown Journal, June 7, 1992 

Both Journal articles can be viewed on microfilm at MidPointe Library Middletown. Paper copies can be found in a “Vertical File” labeled “African Americans” within the Ohio Room at the Middletown location. Ohio Room materials do not circulate. Contact a librarian for questions about the use of materials in the Ohio Room. 

 Interested in the history of African-American scientists, engineers and “makers”? Do you want to be a “maker”? Then please click through the images directly above of items (among many) that are available for checkout at MidPointe Library! All it takes to borrow an item is a free MidPointe library card available at any location - Middletown, West Chester, Trenton, Monroe, Liberty Township (2nd floor, Liberty Center) and onboard our “Library On Wheels” bookmobile.