BENSON : HARRINGTON : RIMMER : WILLIAMSON : Genealogy Query


The Genealogy Query Database	Genealogy Query Details

Full Details for Query #152132

Commands:

	Reply to this Query

	Post a new Query

	View all queries posted by this Submitter

	Edit this query

	Is this query offensive?

Date Posted:

30-Oct-2007

Surname(s):

BENSON : HARRINGTON : RIMMER : WILLIAMSON

Query Text:

Looking for ancestors of Whitfield Harrington, a famous methodist in Mississippi. I am extremely hopeful to obtain a picture of Whitfield, who was highly thought of in the Methodist Church in Mississippi and is buried in the cemetery at Georgeville church in Holmes County, MS where he preached. Whitfield was born on December 3, 1829 in Amite County, Mississippi to his parents Hezekiah Harrington and Martha Walters Harrington. He died of pneumonia on May 12, 1874 at his residence near Camden, Madison County, Mississippi. During the 1861 Mississippi State Convention in Jackson, Mississippi, On Wednesday, January 9, 1861, immediately following the vote of succession, the president of the Mississippi State Senate called on the Rev. Mr. Whitfield Harrington to offer prayer in behalf of the new-born Republic, which, in substance, is as follows: "Almighty God! we, the people of the State of Mississippi, in convention assembled, have, in this solemn hour, dissolved the connection which boundus in union with our sister States. In this exercise of that sovereignty with which Thou hast ordained us as a free people, we resume the powers delegated to the Federal Union. To Thee, O, God, we look, in this eventful hour, for guidance and safety. We have heard it with our ears, our fathers of old have told us,that in all Thy Providences, Thou art pledged to the protection and defence of civil and religious liberty. To this end let Thy blessings rest upon this new-born Republic. May the glory of State dawn and culminate upon her future. May her sons be the sons of freemen forever! May the people of Mississippi be armed with the mind which was in their fathers; so that they may ever, as in this hour, bring to her defence and safety their fortunes, their lives and their sacred honor. Her action in the present emergency, we feel, is not the act ofa rash and false patriotism; but a patriotism that, while it would not dare todo wrong, neither would it deign to suffer wrong. Since, in Thy Providence, Thou hast made our interests the same, we pray for a united South. May the futurewitness her prosperity and glory to be far above that which has attended her past. And when the glory of State shall rest upon her, the glory shall be Thine,for Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen." Whitfield Harrington was also a Chaplain for the Confederacy. Under "UNIT" the following is listed: General And Staff Officers, Corps, Division And Brigade Staffs, Non-com. Staffs And Bands, Enlisted Men, Staff Dept. He was listed in the Mississippi 1870 Federal Census Index as being a resident of Camden in Madison County, Mississippi. Whitfield's parents were pious Methodists and brought Whitfield up in the fear of the Lord. At the age of 19, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church South and converted the following year. At the age of 20, his parents sent him to Oxford, Georgia where he enjoyed the benefits of college life and cultivated his mind. There, he met and became acquanted with Isabella Morrison, whom he married. Whitfield Harrington was licensed to preach in October, 1954 and in November of the same year was admitted into the Mississippi Conference on trial. He was appointed at that conference to the Attala circuit for the year 1855, and returned in 1856. For the years 1857 and 1858, he was appointed to Greenville, Washington County, Mississippi. In 1859 and 1860 he was stationed in Jackson, Mississippi; was afterward appointed to the Vicksburg station and remained at that place until it fell into the hands of the Federal army. After this, on account of failure in health, he located for a year or two. He was then re-admitted into the conference and was appointed to the Camden circuit near his home. He served Camden four years, Canton station one year, and as agent for Whitworth College in 1873. One daughter, Emma Harrington, married J. H. Rimmer and resided in Canton, Mississippi. One son, John Harrington, was born in 1868, and another daughter, Mary Bertha Harrington (b. 1863) married my grandfather, John Newton Williamson. Whitfield Harrington is my Great Grandfather.