Charles (2) Harrison

Rev. Charles (2) Harrison SM
File:Harrison, Charles (2).jpg
Died	1925
Residence	Delkatla Lodge, Massett, British Columbia 81 Highbury Hill, N5 [1919] Lucerne House, Lucerne Road, Highbury, N5 [1923]
Occupation	church
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow left 1925 deceased elected_AI 1911.05.27

Contents

Notes

Office Notes

House Notes

1911.03.21 proposed by Arthur J. Evans, seconded by W. Gowland

number given to distinguish from another with same name

death reported in Report of the Council for 1925

Notes From Elsewhere

In respect to the Masset Hudson's Bay Company post, an indication of the type of goods stocked comes from
a letter written by the missionary Charles Harrison in 1886. Harrison (n.d.d) mentions lumber, nails, windows, shingles, doors, coal, and a number of foodstuffs including rice, flour, sugar, tea, coffee, jam, and bacon. Although we cannot be sure that all of these items were carried ten or more years earlier, they were probably stocked in 18?8
as George M. Dawson's photograph of Masset from that year ....
The Rev. Charles Harrison who came to Masset in 1882 (following the tour of duty of George Sneath, 1879-1881) was the first missionary to persuade the Haida to purchase tombstones. Even with this accomplishment, Harrison implies that the raising of mortuary poles had not been entirely obliterated when he writes, "... to prevent the erection of obituary gehangs /giâng/ and the distribution of blankets I have advocated the erection of tombstones
which must be paid for beforehand” (Harrison n.d.b). ...
By 1886 Masset had a new church building built with Haida labor but with a minimum of Halda capital. Harrison (n.d.o) related to England that the Haida were too poor to contribute much towards the cost of the church, but he neglected to mention that the resources of the people were being channeled into the potlatch instead. ...
Though the missionaries worked toward the obliteration of the potlatch at Masset, they do not seem to have tampered much with Haida feasting. Rather, because of the pattern of speechmaking at Halda feasts, the missionaries viewed these occasions as particularly opportune for proselytising. Harrison (n.d.a), for example, wrote in 1884, "I have attended about sixty of their feasts and have always made them sing the well known grace before meals...and after meals. I have always given a short address and tried to make them understand what God desires all good people to do." ...
In some cases the missionaries attempted to visit the suanwr caaqp sites, but Harrison (n.d.a) states, "When they are scattered about in places of great distance îron Masset it is impossible to look after them.” ...
Charles Harrison, former missionary at Masset, wrote to Ottawa from Masset in 1899 that Todd had recently visited the islands for the first time in four years. During Todd's visit, Harrison complained, the agent saw only about one quarter of the people as the majority were away salmon fishing. Harrison (n.d.e), pleading for a resident Indian agent and suggesting himself as the logical candidate, adds, "During the eight months when the Haida are resident in their village they cause a great deal of trouble." It was not until after the turn of the twentieth century
that Masset received its requested Indian agent. ....
At Masset the missionaries discouraged the raising of poles as exemplified by Charles Harrison who encouraged the purchase of tombstones in lieu of the carving of mortuary totem poles. ...
In August of 1884, Harrison wrote to the Church Missionary Society and enclosed eight Maynard prints which
he described in the text of the letter. ...
Rev. Charles Harrison from Masset documented eight Maynard views of Masset as having been made in 1884. ... [other references to him] From BLACKMAN, Margaret Berlin, 1944-
THE NORTHERN AND KAIGANI HAIDA: A STUDY IN PHOTOGRAPHIC ETHNOHISTORY.
The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1973 Anthropology

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