Leonard Harrison
| Leonard Harrison | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
January 10, 1850 Delmar Township, Pennsylvania |
| Died | January 13, 1929 (aged 79) Baltimore, Maryland |
| Resting place | Wellsboro Cemetery |
| Nationality |
 United States
|
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Leonard Harrison State Park |
| Home town | Wellsboro, Pennsylvania |
Leonard Harrison (January 10, 1850 – January 13, 1929) was a lumberman and businessman who spent most of his life in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania and donated Leonard Harrison State Park to the state of Pennsylvania in 1922.
Harrison's maternal grandparents, William and Catherine Meek, lived in England, where his mother, Catherine, was born in 1816. The Meek family came to Wellsboro in 1833, where William was a merchant and tailor. Harrison's father William was born in New Jersey, and also came to Wellsboro in 1833, where he helped build the Tioga County courthouse. Harrison's parents met in Wellsboro, married, and had seven children, although only three survived to adulthood. Leonard Harrison was born on January 10, 1850.
Harrison attended the Wellsboro public schools and the Wellsboro Academy. He worked as a carpenter in his father's business initially, then began working as a clerk in the Wellsboro post office and for a bookstore when he was 15. From 1878 to 1884 he worked as a clerk in the Tioga County Commissioners' office, where he became familiar with land throughout the county. He began to work in the lumber business, and in 1883 began a coal business, which operated for ten years.
In 1882 Harrison married Mary Green. They lived at 10 West Avenue in Wellsboro and had three children: George, Emily, and Catherine. Emily died before 1900, and William was killed working in the family lumber business in West Virginia in 1941. Catherine never married and died in 1971. All are buried in the Wellsboro Cemetery.
Harrison was a founder of the "Tyoga Lumber Company" which owned large tracts of land for timber and coal in Nicholas County, West Virginia, as well as land in Michigan, Newfoundland, and Pennsylvania. Harrison owned a substantial amount of land in the Pine Creek Gorge. In the 1890s Harrison operated a sawmill on Pine Creek at Tiadaghton in the middle of the gorge. This mill was supplied with logs, not by train as was most common in that era, but by a log slide built into the side of the gorge. The log slide was used on a year-round basis: during the winter the logs slid down on ice; following the snowmelt the slide was greased to ease the descent of the logs.
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