Record. xxxv 



EDWIN HARRISON. 

 SKETCH OF HIS LIFE BY G. C. BROADHEAD. 



James Harrison was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, 

 October, 1803. He married Maria Louisa Prewitt of Howard 

 County, Missouri, in 1880. He was of north of Ireland ex- 

 traction and of English ancestry and of strong mental and 

 physical vigor. He early traded in Northern Mexico and from 

 1834 to 1840 was in business in Arkansas, maintaining several 

 trading establishments in different towns. 



In 1840 he moved to St. Louis and in 1843 became part 

 owner of the Iron Mountain property. In 1845 he organized 

 the Iron Mountain Company, which soon became one of the 

 strongest companies of the West. He was a director of the 

 Iron Mountain Railroad Company and also of the Missouri 

 Pacific. 



Edwin Harrison, the subject of our sketch, was the son of 

 James Harrison and was born in Washington County, Ar- 

 kansas. He was also of fine form and physical vigor, strong 

 mind and clear judgment. 



When he was four years of age his father moved to St. 

 Louis, which was ever after their home. In 1846 he attended 

 a school in Ste. Genevieve. At the age of twelve he was 

 sent to a school at Nanauer in Belgium, where he remained 

 for several years. In 1851 he returned to St. Louis and 

 attended Wymans School for two years. In 1853 he 

 entered the Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge, 

 Mass,., graduating from it in 1856. While there he had for 

 preceptors the great Naturalist and Zoologist, Louis Agassiz, 

 and Asa Gray, the Botanist. He had a great admiration for 

 Agassiz, and with a natural love for Science this association 

 had its effect in his after life. Although often burdened with 

 the accumulation of business, he always loved to further the 

 needs of Science. 



In 1873 he married Miss Laura E. Sterne of Glasgow, 

 Mo., who with their two sons and a daughter survives him. 



