Welcome to our Family History Site
This website contains data on my family history by period. It includes articles, stories, documents and pictures related to the history of my fathere’s Harrison Family ranging from the first Virginia Colonies on the James River, to neighboring Brunswick County Virginia, south to Putnam County Georgia, then to Jacksonville Florida, Wildwood Florida, and beyond to the cities of Seattle, Chicago and Atlanta.
It also traces our mother’s Perry Family from Lancaster County in South Carolina in the 1850s to Sumter and Marion Counties in Central Florida.
NOTE: As this website was developed, I soon realized it would never be complete. DNA genealogy databases such as Ancestry.com, MyHeritage, and Family Search help find DNA cousins with surnames I never would have found in family records. The Internet, DNA, and website technology turned this family history project into a complex information explosion. AI technology has expanded information gathering and use by orders of magnitude. Additions to the site are welcome. I, William Burton Harrison, Jr. (Bill Harrison), wrote most of the narrative in the first person. This home page outlines the site, providing links to each significant time segment from the 1600s to the 2000s.
1600 TO 1800 – COLONIAL VIRGINIA
Our first known Harrison ancestor appears to have been Rebecca Harrison, who appeared in Charles City County, Virginia, in 1675 with her son, Gabriell Harrison.
As people moved westward, Prince George’s County was separated from Charles City in 1703. Brunswick County was formed from the Counties of Isle of Wight, Surry, and Prince George in 1720. With all this renaming, a man could have lived in as many as three counties during his lifetime and never moved from the house in which he was born.
1600s TO 1900s – PERRYS IN AMERICA
Several of Richard Perry’s children migrated with their families from Camden District, Lancaster County, South Carolina to North Central Florida around 1850. They settled in and helped populate Sumter, Marion, and Alachua Counties, including Oxford, Wildwood, Pedro, and Ocala communities. Several of my friends and schoolmates at Wildwood were cousins from Perry descendants [Joel Atkinson, Betty Caruthers(Shealy), Harold Mann, Sondra Perry (Worrell), Lamar York, and more]. Articles, stories, and pictures collected from Perry sources are included in this website.
Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division
1800 TO 1862 – MOVING TO GEORGIA &LIFE IN ANTE-BELLUM GEORGIA
Our ancestors Nathaniel Harrison (1770 – 1845) and Martha Kennon Brodnax Harrison (1776 – 1858), with many of their neighbors, migrated from Brunswick County, Virginia, to Georgia in 1801.
1801 to 1899 – PUTNAM COUNTY, THE CIVIL WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH
Cotton was the cash crop for farmers and plantation owners in Georgia. Slaves who had moved to Georgia with the Harrisons and other families were the primary source of labor. Great-great-grandfather Alexander Brown Harrison, who was born in a wagon on the trip to Georgia, served in the Georgia legislature, both in the House and Senate, in the early 1840s.
Great Grandfather Isaac Rhodes Waller was a country doctor serving much of South Putnam County.
The Waller home still stands on the south side of Twin Bridges Road, less than a mile west of Mt. Ararat Methodist Church at Dennis Station. The Waller Family Cemetery is about a hundred yards east of the home in the woods.
Dr. Waller’s mortar, pestle, and ladle are shown below.
The Civil War in the United States began in 1861, after decades of simmering tensions between northern and southern states over slavery. Great-grandfather Nathaniel C. Harrison served in the 44th Georgia Infantry during the Civil War. Here is the revolver he carried during the war. It now belongs to his great-great-grandson, Jack Chappell.
Nat was wounded and lost his right leg at the Battle of the Wilderness in Northern Virginia on the morning of 5 May 1864. Nat died at home in Putnam County of gangrene on 9 September 1864. He died just weeks before Sherman’s troops, on their march to Savannah, ravaged the farms of the Harrisons and their neighbors. He and several other family members are buried in the historic Harrison Family Cemetery in Putnam County near the corner of Old Copelan Road and Elmwood Drive. We now own the land surrounding the cemetery. We hope to preserve it for future generations of Harrison descendants to visit and to revere.
History shows little mercy for the Confederate soldier. Nor for the emotional scars and economic disasters the mothers, wives, children, and families suffered during and after the conflict. The Harrison family story involves prosperity as plantation owners and slave owners before the emancipation of slaves. Economic disaster and relocations occurred for our ancestors after the US Civil War. We are left to ponder the destruction of a system that enslaved our fellow human beings versus the cost of deaths of more than 600,000 citizens and the destruction of the lands, possessions, and livelihoods of our ancestors. There should have been a better way.
Grandfather Nathaniel Harrison, Jr., moved his family from Putnam County to Macon, GA, before 1900. They relocated from Macon to Jacksonville, FL, in the early 1900s. Grandfather Harrison was a security agent for the Seaboard Airline Railroad (SAL). As his sons matured, most took jobs on the Seaboard Air Line (SAL) Railroad. William Burton Harrison, Sr. (Daddy) spent his young years exploring the waterfront on the Saint Johns River in Jacksonville. He joined the US Army at age 16. He joined the US Navy in 1918 and was discharged in June 1924.
1930 TO 1962 – LIFE IN WILDWOOD
Daddy joined the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1924 as a fireman on a steam-powered locomotive.
He married Louise Perry in 1930. Burton and Louise’s first child was William Burton Harrison, Jr. (yours truly). I was born at 12:05 AM on April Fool’s Day, 1938. Their second child, Clara Louise Harrison, was born August 4, 1941. This section presents stories and pictures from our work, family, and school lives in Wildwood.
1962 TO 1971 – LIFE IN SEATTLE
William B. Harrison, Jr., and Mary Joan Moore were married on 11 June 1961. They moved from Tampa, FL, to Seattle, WA, in November 1962. Bill was a ground test instrumentation engineer for The Boeing Company, and Joan was a nurse at the VA Hospital. William Harrison, III, was born on 9 February 1964, and Brian Charles Harrison was born on 27 March 1968.
After rapid economic growth during the Sixties, layoffs at Boeing came in the early 1970s. Soon after being promoted to management, Bill had the dubious duties of handing pink slips to many of his work friends. He soon tired of backing down a career ladder he had rapidly climbed, and sought opportunities elsewhere.
1971 TO 1978 – LIFE IN CHICAGO
Pursuing a state government opportunity, Bill, Joan, Billy, and Brian packed their belongings and moved to Elgin, Illinois, in March of 1971. Susie was born on 1 August 1971. During Bill’s commuting days to the Chicago Loop, he watched the Sears/Willis Tower under construction in the block next to his office on South Jackson Street. His position as a health and welfare department official, along with those of many other senior officials, ended abruptly when Governor Richard Ogilvie was not re-elected. That is when he became a healthcare and computer consultant. Joan spent most of their stay in Illinois raising their three children and working at the General Offices of the Church of the Brethren. Bill completed his MBA at the University of Chicago before the family headed south.
1978 TO PRESENT- LIFE IN ATLANTA
Winters in Northern Illinois proved unbearable. We moved to Atlanta in August of 1978.
