Jonathan Baxter Harrison (April 5, 1835 – June 17, 1907), was a Unitarian minister and journalist who was involved in many of the social causes of his day: abolitionism, Indian rights, forest preservation, and the cultural improvement of the working class.

[1] Born in a log cabin in Greene County, Ohio, he early showed an eagerness for reading, often studying beside the fire at night after a long day spent working in the fields.

He spent the remaining war years as editor of the Winchester Journal in Randolph County, Indiana, where he began corresponding with Charles Eliot Norton, the secretary of the Loyal Publication Society, beginning a lifelong friendship.

To be closer to Norton, Harrison moved east, obtaining a position as Unitarian minister 1870-1873 in Montclair, New Jersey,[3] and then from 1879-1884 in Franklin Falls, New Hampshire,[4] where he lived until his death.

He made the acquaintance of members of Norton’s circle, such as Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect and social critic, and William Dean Howells, the editor of The Atlantic Monthly.