Linn County, Kansas

INDEX TO

BIOGRAPHIES

ARCHIBALD IRWIN
(also part of the Harrison family)

Upon the maternal side the family dates back to Archibald Irwin who settled in Pennsylvania before the Revolutionary War. He was a cadet of the House of Irwin of Bonshaw, Scotland. His son Archibald married Mary McDowell, and their son Archibald married Mary Ramsey, whose father was a younger member of the Dalhousie family of Scotland. Their daughter was Jane Findlay Irwin, the mother of Colonel James F. Harrison. The parents after their marriage settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the father practiced law, and later died in his father's house at North Bend. The father and mother were blessed with two children, James F. and William Henry. The latter, born May 5, 1828, died in Mexico in April, 1849. Col. James Findlay Harrison was educated in a Cincinnati college. He entered West Point Military Academy in 1841 and graduated in 1845. General Fitz John Porter was in the same class. Colonel Harrison later resigned from the Academy, but when the war broke out with Mexico volunteered in the First Ohio Infantry. He was adjutant of the same when only twenty-one years of age and served with distinction under Colonel Alexander H. Mitchell. At the battle of Chapultepec he rode alongside Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant and they rode together with this conquering army through the City of Mexico.

He became an inmate of the White House at Washington during the incumbency of President W. H. Harrison and was at his bedside when that veteran soldier and statesman entered into rest, mourned by all loyal citizens as a national loss. This was prior to his going to West Point. After his return from the Mexican War Colonel Harrison entered into the study of law and later was admitted to the bar in Indiana and practiced there for a few years. He resided in Dayton, Ohio, from 1854 until 1864 and enlisted in three months service in the Civil War, being Colonel of the Eleventh Ohio Infantry. During the Chickamauga campaign he was aide-de-camp and chief of staff to General W. H. Lytle and was covered by the life blood of that general when he was killed in September, 1863. The friendship between Colonel Harrison and his chief was very strong. Their fathers had been friends, tried and true, as had likewise been their grandfathers. For a short time Colonel Harrison served on the staff of General Phil H. Sheridan, but after the sad demise of General Lytle resigned from the army.

During the last call of President Lincoln Colonel Harrison re-enlisted as a private in the First Ohio cavalry and was transferred as lieutenant to the One Hundred Eighty-Fifth Ohio Infantry. Later as Captain of the One Hundred Eighty-Seventh Ohio he went to Georgia and remained until the close of the war. During the squirrel hunter campaign in Ohio Colonel Harrison was the recipient of the following order, September 12, 1862: "Colonel Harrison, First Regiment State Militia, has been placed in charge of the defense of the Ohio river west of Cincinnati to the Indiana line. He will be obeyed and respected accordingly. By order of Major General Lew " Wallace, Major J. M. McDowell, A. D. C." Colonel Harrison served through the campaign and was discharged by order of David Tod, governor of Ohio. Colonel Harrison raised a company in Dayton, Ohio, in a half hour and was placed in command of a regiment. The same day he was given charge of a brigade, being then engaged for two weeks in the service of the government.

In 1866 Colonel Harrison settled in Linn County, where for many years he was county surveyor and one of the most popular men in his locality. In the year 1848 he was united in marriage with Miss Caroline M. Alston of South Carolina. This estimable lady died in the spring of 1863 and the three children of the union are now deceased. The colonel was married again in December, 1864, to Miss Alice Kennedy, a native of Mississippi and a daughter of John Kennedy, formerly of Belfast, Ireland, originally a Scotch merchant removing to Belfast in mature life. Unto this second union were born six children, five of whom are now living: John Scott, (now in charge of government surveys in Helena, Montana), William Henry (now a successful real estate dealer at Kansas City, Missouri), Mary Randolph Farrar, James Findlay, jr., and Archibald Irwin. Colonel Harrison was a member of the Episcopal church, associated fraternally with Montgomery Post No. 33, G. A. R., of Mound City who had charge of the burial service and was laid at rest by the side of departed heroes in our beautiful National cemetery. He was a member of the Veterans' Association of the Mexican War.

The relationship between Colonel Harrison and ex-president Benjamin Harrison is that of cousin, there being relationship on both the father's and mother's side. The descendant of honored ancestry and himself personally faithful to all his obligations as a man and citizen, Colonel Harrison won a high place in the regard of a wide acquaintance and throughout Linn County, is esteemed as a man of fine attainments, superior ability and sterling integrity of character.

(History of Linnn County, by William Ansel Mitchell, 1928, Pages 340-343)

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