Early Life
Christopher Harrison was born in Cambridge, Dorchester County, Maryland sometime around 1780, the son of Colonel Robert Harrison and Milcah Gale who were important and wealthy land owners. He attended St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. After his graduation Harrison worked as a clerk for William Patterson, the president of the Bank of Baltimore and became a tutor for Patterson's daughter, Elizabeth. Hoosier tradition holds that Harrison courted Elizabeth and she at one point promised to marry him. However the match was opposed by her father who forced her to break off the engagement. Harrison secretly continued to carry on a love affair with Elizabeth for some time. In 1803, Elizabeth was introduced to Jérôme Bonaparte who was visiting Baltimore with the French Ambassador. Elizabeth eventually married Jérôme Bonaparte by whom she had a child. After a brief marriage Jerome abandoned Elizabeth at the request of his brother Napoleon Bonaparte, the Emperor of the French. Harrison considered his reputation tarnished from this affair and he left Maryland and moved to Indiana around 1808. He settled near Hanover, Indiana where he lived for five years as a hermit in his cabin with only a dog for company.
As settlers begin to move into the territory, Harrison began to emerge from his hermitage. He 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. He 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. He served a one year term as Judge of Washington County on the circuit court of the Indiana Territory.
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