24 Facts About Christopher Harrison

Christopher Harrison was the first Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, serving with Governor Jonathan Jennings.

Christopher Harrison became a Quaker in his later life and freed all the slaves he inherited from his family.

Christopher Harrison lived a long life for his era, and died at age 88.

Christopher Harrison was born in Cambridge, Maryland sometime around 1780, the son of Colonel Robert Harrison and Milcah Gale who were important and wealthy land owners.

Hoosier tradition holds that Christopher Harrison courted Elizabeth and she at one point promised to marry him.

Christopher Harrison secretly continued to carry on a love affair with Elizabeth for some time.

Christopher Harrison considered his reputation tarnished from this affair and he left Maryland and moved to Indiana around 1808.

Christopher Harrison settled near Hanover, Indiana where he lived for five years as a hermit in his cabin with only a dog for company.

Christopher Harrison was one of the founding investors of 1814 to establish the Farmers and Mechanics Bank, located in Madison, one of the first two banks in Indiana Territory.

Christopher Harrison sold his cabin in 1815 to George Logan and moved to Salem, Indiana where he opened a business in partnership with Jonathan Lyons selling dry goods.

Christopher Harrison served a one year term as Judge of Washington County on the circuit court of the Indiana Territory.

In 1816, Jonathan Jennings was elected as Governor of Indiana, and he had convinced Christopher Harrison to run as his lieutenant governor.

Christopher Harrison won the election defeating John Vawter and becoming Lieutenant Governor of Indiana.

In 1817, Christopher Harrison became one of the founding members of the Grand Lodge of Indiana.

Christopher Harrison became involved in a scandal when Jennings returned by refusing to vacate the governorship, claiming Jennings' actions had violated the state constitution and that Jennings was no longer eligible to be governor.

Christopher Harrison seized the state seal and set up his own governor's office from where he attempted to run the state.

Christopher Harrison was the only member of the commission who arrived on time to the location that was sixty miles into the wilderness.

The other commissioners were long delayed in reaching the site, and Christopher Harrison, being a practical man, decided he formed a majority of the present commissioners and voted to begin laying out the town without them.

Christopher Harrison choose Alexander Ralston, who had been an assistant to Pierre Charles L'Enfant, to survey the site.

In 1824 Christopher Harrison was again part of a commission that studied the possibility of building a canal around the Falls of the Ohio near Clarksville, Indiana.

Christopher Harrison's home was known in the community for his many flowers, and his friendliness to the local children.

Christopher Harrison was an artist and he created many works of art including several portraits of several early Hoosiers.

Sometime after his father's death in 1802, Christopher Harrison sold his land in Salem on January 10,1834 and returned to Maryland where he inherited his family's plantation which he maintained with his sister, Elizabeth Christopher Harrison Skinner, for several years.

Christopher Harrison died at age 88 in 1868 in Talbot County, Maryland.