From the Ross H. Coller notes at the Western Michigan University Regional Archives:
 

 “Pallbearers (at Bazel Harrison’s funeral) were from 69 to 84 years and ages totaled 466 years: John Brown, Robt. Pursel, Judge E. B. Dyckman, Preston J. McCreary, Abner Mack and Godfrey Knight.

Au. 21, 1873-At 102 makes only visit to a Pioneer Picnic.  Held Dyckman’s Grove, Schoolcraft, his funeral was held on same day as the next Pioneer Picnic…Sept. 1, 1874.  Picnic at Galesburg.”

Additional notes from Ross H. Coller:
 

“Harrison, Bazil
Nov. 5, 1927---His arrival as first white settler in Kalamazoo county honored at home of Owen Harrison at Schoolcraft.
June 9, 1901—First county judge, 1831-36, named in story on judges in Gazette by Wyllys [sic] Ransom.
Mar. 15, 1771-Date family agreed on as his birthday.
Voted for Washington's second term 1792.”
“Five of his 17 children were at funeral:
Nathan of Wis. 78
Dr. Bazil Jr. Prairie Ronde, 62
John S. Harrison 56, youngest son
Almira (Mrs. John Crose) about 50, youngest daughter.
Present also were 18 grandchildren and 8 or 10 great grandchildren.”
 

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From “Hearth and Home”, magazine published in January 1870, (prior to the biography published by James H. Stone, in 1874), E. Lakin Brown, another early pioneer of Schoolcraft, (mentioned in the 1978 program "Commemorating the Arrival of Bazel and Martha Harrison", by his great grandson Congressman Gary Brown) wrote the following article about Bazel Harrison:
 

“The Original of Cooper’s “Bee Hunter.”

“In those parts of our country which within the memory of the present generation have been opened up to settlement and civilization, “the oldest settler” becomes an object of no little interest in the region which he was the first to explore, and where he was the first to endure the perils and privations of that almost savage condition, a pioneer life.
    Many of these pioneers of the wilderness have other claims to regard than the mere fact that they were such, in their simple integrity of character, their kindness of heart, their hospitality, their contempt of danger, and their cheerful endurance of toll and privation. Scarcely a more striking and inspiring figure can be presented than one of these hardy and athletic frontiersman, with only his family about him, establishing his home in the, solitary wilderness.

 “His strong right hand the ready rifle grasps;
 His axe the left with equal vigor grasps;
 With equal nerve prepared the foe to meet,
 Or lay the forest prostrate at his feet.”

    The readers of HEARTH AND HOME are presented in this number with a striking and life-like portrait of one of these pioneers of the West: Bazel Harrison, the first settler of Kalamazoo, Mich.
    Mr. Harrison is now ninety-seven years of age having been born in Frederick County, Md., March 15th, 1772.  His father was a brother of Benjamin Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independence; consequently, he was a cousin to the late President Harrison.  From Maryland he early emigrated to Pennsylvania, where he married Miss Martha Stilwell; subsequently removed to Butler County, Ohio; thence to Clark County, in the same State; and thence to his present residence, Prairie Ronde, Kalamazoo County, Mich., where, accompanied by his wife, six sons and four daughters, he “located” November 6th, 1828.
He was one of the bench of judges for Kalamazoo County, commissioned by Governor Cass, in 1830, and for many years intimately connected with the history and growth of his township and county.  Though destitute of any but the merest rudiments of education, his strong common sense stood him well instead; for although some sharp-witted lawyer might now and then gavel him—as when; in behalf of a medical client charged with malpractice, the attorney presented to the court his own college diploma, and found its Latin quite sufficient to prove his quackish client a regularly graduated M.D.—still his decisions generally did substantial justice, and were satisfactory to the rude suitors who came before him.  Judge Harrison has also acquired a local celebrity as the original from whom Cooper drew his character of the bee hunter, in his novel, “Oak Openings, or the Bee Hunter”—he having visited Prairie Ronde, and became acquainted with Harrison while preparing the materials for that work.  Although now nearly ninety-eight years old, his bright eye, upright form, and quick intelligence indicate that he may easily pass into his second century."

_____
E.L.B.

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From the Kalamazoo Gazette dated 5 June 1928:
 

“D.A.R. Will Mark
Site of Initial
Cabin in County”

_____

“SPOT WHERE BAZIL HARRISON
SETTLED TO BE SCENE
OF UNVEILING JUNE 9”

_____

“Lucinda Stone chapter, D.A.R., will unveil a tablet on the Harrison farm one–half mile north of Schoolcraft next Saturday afternoon at 2, commemorating the spot where Judge Bazil Harrison, first white settler of Kalamazoo County, erected his log cabin 100 years ago.  History records Judge Harrison’s having settled in Kalamazoo County in November, 1828, while his descendants declare their forefather came into this county in November, 1827.  The D.A.R. are setting the time for unveiling the memorial halfway between the disputed dates.  The large boulder on which place the memorial tablet was moved to the historic spot by Schoolcraft citizens and residents of that village are given a special invitation to participate in the memorial exercises of next Saturday.  Mrs. John den Bleyker, D.A.R. chairman of historical research, will participate in the program, giving a review of Judge Harrison’s life.  The address will be given by Judge Samuel H. Van Horn, president of the Kalamazoo Historical Society and the tablet will be unveiled by two young descendants of the county’s first white settler.  Mrs. C.C. Blankenburg, regent of the local D.A.R. chapter, will preside.  Music will be furnished by members of the Schoolcraft American Legion auxiliary.  Arrangements for unveiling ceremony have been in the hands of Mrs. Den Bleyker and Mrs. Charles A. Weissert, historian of the county D.A.R. chapter."

BAZEL HARRISON

FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER ARRIVED IN
KALAMAZOO COUNTY, NOVEMBER 5TH 1827
OR 1828.  GUIDED TO THIS SITE BY
POTTOWATTOMIE CHIEF SAGAMAW AND BRAVES
HE TRAVELLED THROUGH TRACKLESS
WILDERNESS WITH LOADED WAGONS DRAWN
BY HORSES AND ONE YOKE OF OXEN.
 WAS COMMISSIONED BY GOVERNOR CASS,
“ASSOCIATE JUDGE OF COUNTY COURT”
IMMORTALIZED BY COOPER AS “BEE
HUNTER’ IN OAK OPENINGS.
DIED IN 1874 A CENTENARIAN

The inscription on the bronze marker attached to the front of the Judge’s bench, in Circuit Court No. 1, Kalamazoo County Building, reads as follows:
 

“JUDGES WHO HAVE PRESIDED IN THIS COURT”
BAZEL HARRISON.  1831-6  EPAPHRODITUS RANSOM.  1836-42
ELIAS COMSTOCK.  1842-45  HEZEKIAH C. WELLS.  1845-50
CHARLES W. WHIPPLE.  1848-52   ABNER PRATT.  1850-57
BENJAMIN F. GRAVES.  1857-66  FLAVIUS J. LITTLEJOHN.  1858-70
CHARLES R. BROWN.  1870-75  DARIUS E. COMSTOCK.  1874-75
JOSIAH L. HAWES.  1875-82  ALFRED J. MILLS.  1882-88
GEORGE M. BUCK.  1888-1900  JOHN W. ADAMS.  1900-08
FRANK E. KNAPPEN, 1908-13  NATHANIEL H. STEWART, 1913-[sic]
GEORGE V. WEIMER, 1914-48...."

The following passage from the “Michigan Pioneers”, Volume 14, published in 1889, demonstrates how important the relationship between the early settlers of Kalamazoo County and it's Native Americans were:
 

“A.D.P. Van Buren said: “Last evening when Mr. Copely was reading his paper on the Pottawattomies, I was very much interested.  I have always been interested in the history of the Indians of this State, and especially in that of the Pottawattomies, as we have in Calhoun county now the only remnant of that tribe that I know of in Michigan.  A little incident comes to my mind now; along way back in the forties, before the Indians left Michigan (many of them went to Canada), there were three brothers, Sam-o-ka, Pen-e-moo and Not-ta-way.  I knew them well.  Sam-o-ka was a sort of chief among them; he was very proud of his title, and when he was in liquor he would say: ‘Me, me, Sam-o-ka, and General Harrison;’ as much to say that he stood among the lords of the land in high authority.  Basil Harrison settled on the Prairie, and in talking with him afterwards I heard him say how they got along with the Indians.  He said: “We never could have got along without the Pottawattomies in those days.  He was a sort of a leather stocking.  They were are friends, and we were there friends.  When we got out of provisions we were in a bad fix indeed; we had to hunt, and being poor hunters, we were sometimes in a condition where we would have starved if it had not been for the Pottawattomies; they brought us game that they had killed, and they carried us through the hard places and preserved our lives.”