Background
James Harrison was born on October 10, 1803, in Bourbon County, Kentucky, United States, the second son of John and Betsy (McLanahan) Harrison. His ancestors were emigrants from the north of Ireland.
James Harrison was born on October 10, 1803, in Bourbon County, Kentucky, United States, the second son of John and Betsy (McLanahan) Harrison. His ancestors were emigrants from the north of Ireland.
James's boyhood days were spent on his father's farm, and he received such school advantages as his section afforded.
When he was nineteen James Harrison moved to Fayette, Howard County, Missouri, where he soon showed a genius for business. He engaged in many successful enterprises, among these activities being shipment of livestock and grain to St. Louis and thence to New Orleans on flatboats. During 1831 - 1832 he traded with Mexico, largely purchasing and transporting silver bullion, and personally conducted expeditions to Chihuahua. He experienced many of the perils incident to such expeditions, and was one of three survivors of a party of thirteen attacked by Indians between the “Jesus Marie” mine and Chihuahua, in 1832 he furnished Indian supplies under contract with the United States government. He also maintained profitable trading establishments in Arkansas from 1834 to 1840.
In 1840 Harrison removed to St. Louis and became a member of the firm of Glasgow, Harrison & Company. Three years later he initiated the development of the mineral resources of the state, stimulating enterprises of great value to the city of St. Louis, and to the individuals who speculated therein. Long before, the attention of scientists and capitalists had been attracted to the Breat deposits of iron ore in the vicinity of Pilot Knob.
As early as 1836 Van Doren, Pease & Company purchased Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain and laid out plans for a large city. These plans failed, and it remained for James Harrison to accomplish results. His achievement was not without many costly experiments and bitter disappointments, but his unfaltering energy and confidence overcame the many obstacles.
In 1843 Harrison marshaled forces of men having wealth and business capacity, the most important of his urbanizations being the American Iron Mountain Company. He promoted the organization of the Iron Mountain Railroad Company, and negotiated the seven-million-dollar loan when the Pacific Railroad Company was bought from the State of Missouri. The welfare of his employees was ever in his mind. For their benefit he built a handsome church and established schools at Iron Mountain.
At the time of the Civil War Harrison maintained his usual conservatism, but his sympathies were with the South, and it was known among the stanch Southerners of the community that there was a horse saddled in his stable ready for any young man who wished to ride into the Southern lines and join the Confederate forces. His home was opposite Dr. McDowell’s Medical College, which, used by the government during the war, was famous as Gratiot Street Prison. Harrison and the ladies of his family ministered to the Confederate prisoners, when permitted to do so, and many tales have since been told by former prisoners, of the warm clothing and much- needed food received.
Harrison was a man of strong will, good judgment, public spirit, and generous impulses, who inspired confidence and stimulated charitable and other undertakings for the public good. He had a commanding personality: he was tall, stately, grave, and dignified; courteous without familiarity; serene in misfortune, conservative in prosperity.
Harrison was married in 1832 to Maria Louisa Prewitt, daughter of Joel Prewitt of Howard County.