WAGON TRAINS SOUTH TO GEORGIA – Alexander Brown Harrison and Lucy Wright Claiborne Harrison
THE MOVE TO GEORGIA
Newly-wed Nathaniel Harrison and Martha Kennon Brodnax Harrison (pregnant with her first child), along with other families, most likely drove their caravan of horses, wagons, oxen, cows, pigs, chickens and children down the Fall Line Road past Cheraw and Camden SC to Augusta GA.
Then they would have traveled toward Hancock and Baldwin Counties. The probably crossed the Oconee River near Sparta on a ferry similar to the one shown below that was still in operation in the 1940s.
After crossing the Oconee they would have driven south toward Milledgeville and settled on land lots 312 and 321 near the Oconee and what is now Pea Ridge Road. They occupied territory the United States Federal government was acquiring from Creek Indian nation, as the Creeks and Cherokees were being pushed toward Oklahoma and reservations in the western parts of the country.
[a[dd central GA map
FAMILY LIFE ON THE FARM IN PUTNAM AND HANCOCK COUNTIES
Raising cotton and taking it to market in Eatonton
Educating the children in Putnam County
ALEXANDER BROWN HARRISON SERVED IN THE GEORGIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE GEORGIA SENATE
My great-great grandfather Alexander Brown Harrison was said to have been born in a wagon on the trip from Brunswick County Virginia to Baldwin County Georgia. Putnam was formed in 1807 when several new counties were divided off Baldwin.
He was born October 1801, according to the inscription on the obelisk shaped monument in the historic Harrison cemetery located on the original Harrison property in south Putnam.
Alexander Brown Harrison served in the Georgia legislature while the state capital was located in Milledgeville (about 20 miles on on horseback or carriage ride from his home in Putnam). He served in both chambers of Georgia’s ante bellum legislative branch He was a state representative in 1840 and 1841. According to the State Archives:}”Alexander B. Harrison served in the Georgia House in 1840 & 1841 (1977-78 Statistical Register, p. 1557 (image 1558), and in the Georgia Senate in 1842 & 1843 (1977-78 Statistical Register, p. 1318 (image 1319) “. Here is a copy of page 1557 and here is a copy of page 1318.
Our ancestor was presented a walking stick with an ivory cap as a token of appreciation for his service in both the Georgia House and Senate in Milledgeville, the original capital of the State of Georgia. Unfortunately the pre-Civil War records of the Georgia House and Senate were destroyed when Sherman’s troops passed through Milledgeville on their way to Savannah so records of his services to the State of Georgia are lost forever.
B. A. BUSTIN’S ARTICLES THAT MENTION ALEXANDER BROWN HARRISON
Earl Bustin lived on Pea Ridge Road next door to Concord Methodist Church. Earl and I became fast friends over the years prior to his death. He showed me how to get to the Harrison Family Cemetery back in the 1970s. Earl served as a reader/interpreter for his blind father B. A. Bustin. You can see below some of the articles B. A. wrote for the Eatonton Messenger.
