LIFE IN ANTE BELLUM GEORGIA – ALEXANDER BROWN HARRISON AND LUCY WRIGHT CLAIBORNE
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 Baldwin County it was divided into several new counties.
A. B. Harrson 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.
ALEXANDER BROWN HARRISON SERVED IN THE GEORGIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE AND THE GEORGIA SENATE
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.
Here is a map of Georgia showing the Creek and Cherokee lands into the early 1800s. The last treaty removing these native peoples to the west was signed in 18xx. The Trail of Tears marches were concluded in 18xx.
