Leonard Harrison

Leonard Harrison (January 10, 1850 – January 13, 1929) was a lumberman and businessman who spent most of his life in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania and donated Leonard Harrison State Park to the state of Pennsylvania in 1922.

Early and personal life Harrison's maternal grandparents, William and Catherine Meek, lived in England, where his mother, Catherine, was born in 1816. The Meek family came to Wellsboro in 1833, where William was a merchant and tailor. Harrison's father William was born in New Jersey and also came to Wellsboro in 1833, where he helped build the Tioga County courthouse. Harrison's parents met in Wellsboro, married, and had seven children, although only three survived to adulthood. Leonard Harrison was born on January 10, 1850.

Harrison attended the Wellsboro public schools and the Wellsboro Academy. He worked as a carpenter in his father's business initially, then began working as a clerk in the Wellsboro post office and for a bookstore when he was 15. The log slide was used on a year-round basis: during the winter the logs slid down on ice; following the snowmelt the slide was greased to ease the descent of the logs. In August 1896, Harrison was chosen president of the First National Bank of Wellsboro.

Harrison died of pneumonia following surgery on January 13, 1929, at the Johns Hopkins University hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. His obituary on the front page of the Wellsboro newspaper read "Borough Loses Greatest Giver",

Harrison left plans and a large bequest for the Soldiers and Sailors Hospital in Wellsboro, which was built only after his death. In 2003, the park had 142,716 visitors, and Leonard Harrison State Park is part of the twenty-one state parks chosen by the DCNR Pennsylvania Bureau of Parks for its "Twenty Must-See Pennsylvania State Parks" list. Leonard Harrison and Colton Point State Parks are the only two parks treated as one unit for the list. The DCNR describes the parks together, noting how they "offer spectacular vistas and a fabulous view of Pine Creek Gorge, also known as Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon".