VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
was born at the University of Virginia, March
2, 1850. His father was Dr. Gessner Harri-
son, an eminent educator, who was a mem-
ber of the faculty of that institution for a
period of over thirty years. Dr. Gessner Har-
rison was born at Harrisonburg, Rocking-
ham county, Virginia, June 26, 1807, and died
near Charlottesville, Virginia, April 7, 1862.
In the year 1825 he entered the University
of Virginia, and received degrees from the
schools of ancient languages and medicine
iri 1828. He was then appointed professor
of ancient languages on the retirement of
Professor George Long, and served till 1859,
when he established first in Albemarle
county and the following year at Belmont,
\'irginia, a classical school, which had a
wide influence throughout the South. He
was author of "Greek Prepositions and
Cases of Nouns" (Philadelphia, 1848), and
"Expositions of Some of the Laws of the
Latin Language" (New York, 1852). His
motto "Trust God and work," explains his
character, and his name and words are still
echoed in the halls of the University of Vir-
ginia. He married Eliza Lewis Carter
Tucker, the mother of Robert Lewis Har-
rison, daughter of Professor George Tucker,
who was a very well known teacher, his-
torian and scholar. He wrote a history of
the United States, a "Life of Thomas Jeffer-
son," and he was appointed a professor of
moral philosophy at the University of Vir-
ginia by President JeiTerson, dying in 1866.
A number of Harrisons settled in Virginia
in the seventeenth century. Those who emi-
grated before Benjamin Harrison, the clerk,
ancestor of many of the Virginia Harrisons,
apparently died without issue. Very soon
after 1640 appeared Thomas and Edward
Harrison, the former figuring in Neill's
works on Virginia history, first as Gov-
ernor Berkeley's chaplain, and then as a
non-conformist divine. They are also men-
tioned in Savage's "Genealogical Diction-
ary of New England," and they resided there
for some time. They are embraced in the
following tradition, brought over from Eng-
land by the Rev. Joseph Harrison, who
lived in the city of New York in the early
part of the last century, viz: Four brothers
of the name of Harrison went to America
whom the Rev. Joseph Harrison called
Thomas, Richard, Benjamin, and Nathaniel,
of whom his own father had told him two
went north and two south, a fifth brother,
Edward, a clergyman, remaining in Eng-
land. Two brothers went to Virginia and
two other branches of the family, descend-
ants from a third brother, settled in Con-
necticut and New Jersey. The Harrisons of
the latter state claimed that one of their
family went to Virginia and a removal
thither at the beginning of the eighteenth
century is not impossible. Among the other
Harrisons who came to Virginia were Dr.
Jeremy and his wife Frances, the latter a
widow receiving, in 1654, a patent of one
thousand acres in West Moreland county.
In 1655 one thousand acres, another thou-
sand acres, were granted to Giles Brent
in the same county. Benjamin as a baptis-
mal name had some popularity at the time,
and many of the Virginia Harrisons, fami-
lies who had no connection with each other
beyond the community of the family name,
bore the name Benjamin. Benjamin re-
mained a favorite name in the family, and
both the signer, Benjamin Harrison, born in
1726, and the second president bearing the
Harrison patronymic, bore the personal
name.
The earliest acquisition of land made in Virginia by Benjamin Harrison, the emi- grant, was by deed from John Davis, of Kiskiake, dated July 9, 1634, for two hun- dred acres on Warrosquioake Creek, which was said to be a tenure of Thomas Jordan. Other patents followed but "Berkeley" and "Brandon," the seats of the family on the James river, were acquired by later gener- ations. The first Harrison appears to have left bui two children surviving him, Ben- jamin md Peter, both by his wife Mary, who afterward married Benjamin Sidway.
The father of Gessner Harrison was Dr. Peachfv Harrison, who resided -at Harrison- burg, jtockingham county, \'irginia, a phy- sician, like his son after him. The father of Dr. P-achey Harrison was Benjamin Har- rison, who was born in 1741, died in 1819. He wis a colonel in Macintosh's campaign in 177 during the revolutionary war, and led toops in 1781 to aid Lafayette against Cornvallis. Benjamin Harrison was one of the aptaiiis wi.o took part in the famous battb of Point Pleasant. October 10, 1774 He A^as the son of Daniel Harrison, of Rocingham. In Felix Gilbert's day book covring several years, from December 5, 177, the name of Ca]5tain Benjamin Har- risci frequently appears. Evidently he was
