(6 July 1822-March 1907), merchant. (George Harrison the Tanner, The Big Tanner, George Harrison Sr) Born in Stirling Castle, Scotland. Parents: John Harrison, an NCO in the British Army, and his wife, whose name seems to have been Ann McIntosh. When “a mere lad,” George accompanied his parents to Canada, where they lived at St. Andrew’s (Stormont County), and at Martintown. “As early as the year 1844,” George settled in Alexandria, where he was first an employee and later a partner of Angus S. Macdonald, the firm taking the name Macdonald and Harrison. “Their business extended [sic] very rapidly and in addition to the tannery operated by them they carried on a large general store, harness shop and shoemaking establishment.” At some time, also, Harrison was a partner of Donald Alexander MacArthur, of Alexandria. The Patrons’ Directory section of the 1879 atlas of SDG includes Harrison, terming him a “General Merchant, Leather Manuf’r.” Contemporary references to Harrison seems to assume that he was a businessman who ran a tannery rather than an artisan working at tanning. He was a member, in the 1860s, of the first board of trustees of Alexandria High School, and a member, 1884, of the first village council of Alexandria. Politically, he was a “life long Conservative.” See also the entries for Angus Cattanach, the DaPrato family, Duncan A. Macdonald, and Harrison’s son-in-law Allan Ban Macdonald.
Harrison was married in 1850 to Barbara McDonald, who predeceased him by about two years, then about 18 months before his death he went to live with a daughter at Plattsburg, N.Y. It was at Plattsburg that he died. (seven children surviving him, but at the time of his death none of the family were Alexandria residents). Roman Catholic. In a year which was probably 1885, it was noted (ASC, ii, 70) that three of his daughters were in the Ursuline Convent at Quebec City.
Glengarry News 29 March 1907 (QF) (portrait) * The Story of St. Andrews West as Recorded on the Index Cards of Edwin McDonald, ed. Duncan MacDonald (1987) 25-27 (geneal.) * Elliott 112 * 1876 [189] * Belden Atlas 53 * GN supplement 1903 [5] (portrait) * Harkness 347 * his business is prospering, Cornwall Reporter 15 Oct. 1881 * promotes separate schools, True Witness 10 Sept. & 10 Dec. 1858 * his tannery mentioned, A. W. McDougald’s hist. of GC, GN 23 June 1933