Georg Harrison

Georg Friedrich Ferdinand Harrison (March 29, 1826 - September 2, 1892) was an American pioneer, politician, businessman, the acknowledged leader of the pioneering Harrison Group, one of the primary founders of Seattle, Okanagan, and later one of the city's wealthiest citizen during his lifetime. Seattle's former Harrison Hill was named after him; it was flattened in a series of regrading projects and its former site is now known as the Harrison Regrade. The city's Ferdinand Way is also named after him.

Missouri, Iowa, and the way west

Harrison was born in St. Charles, Missouri into a family of Protestant German-English settlers. Harrison had two older brothers, Karl and Martin, and 4 younger siblings: Manfred, Sigmund, Marlene, and Ilma. Harrison resided in St. Charles for the first six years of his life until his family and numbers of other German residents moved northwards. Harrison's family in addition to numerous other Germans from St. Charles settled in Pella, Iowa. The name "Pella" is a reference to Pella of the Decapolis, where the Christians of Jerusalem had found refuge during the Roman–Jewish war of 70; the name was selected in reference to the encroaching populations of Catholic Irish and German immigrants throughout Missouri.

His father, Diederick Harrison (1792-1858) was a former employee for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in St. Louis, Missouri and served alongside "Ashley's Hundred" during the Arikara War. Returning home from the war, he alongside his family settled in St. Charles where he participated in the state general assembly, elected as a Whig. Diederick's service in the Arikara War as part of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and service in the general assembly would be the root inspiration for Harrison's pioneerism, militarism and political future. During his time in St. Charles, Harrison's father taught him of gunsmithing and later in Pella, Iowa, he learned of carpentry, civil engineering, and logging. In 1846, he married Adelheid Van der Berg and together they had five children: Edith Annelien Harrison, Miriam Diana Weber Harrison, Wilhelm Oskar Harrison, Ludwig Johannes Harrison, and Elisabeth Gretchen Harrison.

His mother, Griselda Sauber, was a novelist, short-story writer, and poet of German-Jewish descent from Cincinnati, Ohio. After meeting Diederick, she converted to Protestantism.

Both Harrison and his father had long-standing ambition of settling westward. Diederick and Georg, both not seeing a promising future any longer in Pella assembled the Harrison Group and left Iowa in May 12 1850. The only members of the Harrison family which did not travel westward were Karl, who chose to pursue politics in Philadelphia, and Griselda, who wished to stay in Pella. The group, accompanied by other pioneers from the greater midwestern U.S, embarked from Kansas City and arrived in Portland on September 22 1850. In November, Diederick booked passage on the schooner Burgundy and the group sailed on to the Puget Sound, arriving at Olympic Point at the northernmost extent of Elliot Bay on November 16, 1850. An additional influx of settlers affiliated with the original group combined with the rough terrain of Olympic Point made the location unusable for long-term settlement. The Harrison Group moved further inland before settling at the southernmost parts of Lake Haahchu, which are now the grounds of Pioneer Square, the original center of gravity for the city of Seattle before it would soon move southward towards Federal Yard and Bakersville (what is currently downtown Seattle today).

Land Claim & Early Career

Harrison (and his wife's) land claim—664 acres (2.69 km²)—was only slightly above the average amount of land for just a married couple. The land claim ran from what is now Westlake Center towards the western border of Madrona. It's northern boundary was E Expansion Street and its southern boundary Hanseatic Boulevard and E Cherry Street.

On February 26, 1851, Harrison and others filed land claims. Taking note of the joint-like structure of the Seattle isthmus and the abundant natural greenery, Harrison proposed to name the settlement Greenland or Kniegelenk, German for "knee joint". Most of the settler population, being of German heritage, being able to speak fluent German, or were Dutch and understood the German language naturally gravitated towards the latter suggestion.

On August 29, 1851, Harrison was a delegate at the Cowlitz Convention that drafted a petition to US Congress to create a new territory north of the Columbia River.

By September 11, 1851, Harrison having employed the help of local Indians and local pastor Stefan Schneider, installed a carpentry shop and gunsmith adjacent to his home in partnership with Stefan Schneider. Wishing to facilitate positive relations with the local Salish people, most of the items created were weapons for trade with the Salish peoples. Though more sophisticated firearms were growing more steadily available, wood was a resource in surplus, and Harrison faced criticism from other settlers for arming the potentially hostile Indians, the gesture was generally received with positivity by the Duwamish and Suquamish, particularly their Chief; Seattle. This would be the beginning of Harrison's and Seattle's friendly relationship and cooperation in both preventing and diffusing tension between American settlers and local Indians. This relationship would lead to Seattle's baptism in the Lutheran Church. Harrison's carpentry shop would also be the start point of his hobby of wood-carving. Though the carpentry building was primarily used to create trading items for the Indians, it also functioned in general service to the public as a store. On the other hand, with the exception of trade with the Salish, Harrison kept the gunsmith locked away to all but his wife; believing that it would be in the best interest of the settlement to have a community armory in the case of crisis.

On the 4th of December, Wilhelm Harrison, Georg and Adelheid's third child and first son, was born. Though only the third child born at that point in Kniegelenk, he was the first male child born at the settlement.

Establishment of New York Alki

In March of 1852, Arthur Denny, having had explored the Puget Sound region alongside other members of the Denny Party for a new site to settle upon, had unknowingly encroached onto Diederick's land claim of Kniegelenk. Meeting Diederick himself, the encounter of the two strangers quickly escalated into an armed confrontation; Diederick prompting Denny to leave while threatening him at gun point. The confrontation only de-escalated after Travis Newton, a local storeowner, arrived to the scene. Still suspicious of Denny, Diederick, accompanied by Newton, marched him [Denny] north towards Lake Haahchu: the site of the only courthouse within the region. Denny was not put on trial or charged for any criminal violation as Georg, Leon Müller, and Sascha Frink, the only men at the courthouse at the time had no legal wit to act as a judge or jury; the only lawyer in the settlement, Samuel Cobain, suffering from a bout of cholera. Despite that inconvenience, the three all believed that Denny should be accompanied on the way back to his settlement. Bitter over Denny's lack of punishment, believing that he was a rogue bandit or a Canadian agitator, left Georg and Leon to take Denny back to Alki Point. Frink, who had general uninterest in the fate of Denny unless he truly was of Canadian or British citizenry, also left the task to Georg and Leon.

Be that as it may, both Georg and Leon were accommodating to Denny's grievances, yet also steadfast in taking him back to diffuse any potential future conflict. Arriving at the Alki Point settlement by the end of the day, Harrison and Müller both saw the decaying state of it in thanks to the recent winter. Believing that migrating settlers would ignite cultural conflict and worsen the consequences of that same day's encounter, Harrison offered to gift crop to the settlement in agreement to not step onto the land of the Kniegelenk settlement. Kniegelenk wasn't in the position to trade significant amounts of timber, most of it mutually agreed to be reserved for commerce, but the settlement did have a minor excess of crop which could be shared. Denny, embittered by his treatment, originally refused any offering but reasoned himself and decided to notify the other men of the settlement. Harrison and Müller reminded Denny that they would need the consent of the rest of their settlement but would agree to come days later both with a decision and whatever they could gather in spite of a negative decision. Returning early morning, Harrison and Müller rested till that afternoon to begin deliberations with the rest of the settlement.

Even though he was still fatigued from his trip yesterday, Georg travelled around the settlement, persuading the men to take part in what he described as a "delegation to address foreign threats". Besides a few, most men partook in the town meeting at the same courthouse Denny was admonished in the day before, but under the assumption that it would be in reference to the Indians. The assembly took place at the Lake Haahcu courthouse, and though there are no official records of the vote, Georg Harrison's autobiography and the personal journal of Stefan Schneider both say that any notion of assisting the Alki settlement lost in a 12-4 settlement.

Two days later, Harrison, accompanied by Müller and this time Manfred, his younger brother, travelled back to Alki to inform the settlement of the unfavorable conclusion. Embittered, Denny, his younger brother David, and others of the Alki settlement took the news with grace.

Troubled by the recent string of events, Georg entered into a short-term apprenticeship with Samuel Cobain. Lasting until the end of the year, Cobain recommended that it would be much more fruitful for Harrison to attend a formal academic institution. Accepting his advice, Harrison, in spite of advisory to study within the western half of the nation by Cobain and his wife, decided to journey to Philadelphia; having always wished to travel to one of the former Thirteen Colonies once in his lifetime and to visit his brother Karl. Worried about potential legal ramifications, Harrison relegated his land claim over to Manfred and entrusted him with the upkeep of his mill.

Education, Legal, and Political career in Philadelphia

University of Philadelphia

Harrison had arrived to Philadelphia in June of the same year. With the little money Harrison had left over from trip expenses, he rented a tenement in the now defunct Belmont District of Philadelphia. Planning to enroll into the University of Pennsylvania's fall season semester, he spent much of his time alone in his home. Despite his anticipation, he wasn't able to spend much time with his brother (who had now changed his legal name to Charles) who, though he knew from their few letters to and from each other, was raising a family, unknowledgeable to Harrison, Charles was serving as state senator to Pennsylvania.

A frequent victim of price gouging, Harrison worked as a carpenter during his stay in Philadelphia. On numerous occasions would Harrison's employers attempt various forms of wage theft upon him. Harrison's frontier and generally unworldly character was taken as a form of social and financial ignorance and was in deep contrast to the sophisticated and cosmopolitan nature of the local Philadelphians, and that proved itself as a constant source of conflict, both in and outside of university. According to Georg's biographer, Elizabeth Hoffman, most of his time in Philadelphia outside of studies was comprised of him roaming Germantown or spending time alone in his one-room apartment. Though Charles offered Georg an apprenticeship at the law firm of a friend, Georg refused the position, likely out of him considering it patronizing from his brother, who had gone as far as assimilating his name into the culture of Anglo-Saxon America. Georg came to quickly resent his idealized belief of Atlantic America.

Philadelphia Legal Firm & Investment into Abolition

Harrison graduated from Pennsylvania in 1856. Though both Harrison's relationships were strained, they remained cordial. Harrison's opinion of Philadelphia was, for the most part, deeply negative. By the end of 1856, Georg had moved into a new apartment in Germantown and was reading law at the law office of vocally abolitionist Quaker Eric Haas. Georg was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1857 and began formally working at the firm.

During his time at the firm, Georg kept communication with Charles and his family in Kniegelenk. While most of his family, Adelheid in particular, urged him to return, Charles recommended he stay in Philadelphia for longer. A member of the fledgling but rapidly expanding Republican party, representing them as the sitting senator of Pennsylvania, Charles invited Georg to numerous political rallies. Beginning to identify with more radical elements of the party, he'd begin to write to the Philadelphia Inquirer and a litany of other newspapers on abolition, irritated by their frequently neutral and uncontroversial stand on the issue. Gaining notoriety as a passionate speaker at Republican events, he gained the admiration of Haas who had revealed to him been assisting numerous slaves escape, sometimes hiding them in his own home unbeknownst to anyone but his only daughter and closest associates, now including Georg. By mid-1858, Georg was deeply invested into the cause of abolition; a member of the Vigilant Association of Philadelphia he directly assisted in the escape of slaves along the Underground Railroad. Not able to hide escaping slaves within his own apartment complex, he'd instead conduct (railroad terminology for a guide) safe passage for them throughout Pennsylvania, New York and British North America. Georg's entry both into Republican politics and involvement with the Underground Railroad strengthened the two's brotherly bond. Charles put forward the idea towards Georg of becoming the chairman of the Republican party's Philadelphia chapter, but he refused, believing that any political office would slow his return to Kniegelenk.

Deeply homesick, Georg prepared to return back to Kniegelenk, believing that he had overly extended his stay in Philadelphia. In July of 1859, Georg left Philadelphia. At this time, many others were also moving westwards towards Seattle, spurred by newspapers claiming that gold deposits were found throughout the region.