Bambi Harris
Painting of the Grist Mill built by Bambo Harris. In ca. 1795, Bambo Harris, a freed black slave built and operated the first water driven gristmill in the area on Elk Creek, Madison Township, Butler County. That was only 4 years after the building of Fort Hamilton. For fifty years his millstones ground wheat and corn. A member of the Prairie Baptist Church, he was highly respected in the community. Bambo Harris is buried in the Miltonville Cemetery in an unmarked grave on Howe Road. If there was a stone at one time, it is possible that it was one near the church that was lost by fire in 1949. The fire destroyed many stones that were near the building. At one time, the Butler Metropolitan Housing Authority operated the Bambo Harris Homes, a 141-unit public housing project on Front Street in Hamilton, Ohio. Many people in Hamilton referred to it as Bamboo Harris. It was demolished in 2007 due to widespread asbestos and lead paint.