Henry County AlArchives Biographies.....Purcell, Harrison April 17 1840 - living in 1893
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 27, 2004, 2:17 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
  HARRISON PURCELL, one of the representative business men of Henry county, was
born in Robeson county, N. C., April 17, 1840. He was one of a family of eleven
children born to Malcolm and Closkey (Drake) Purcell, the former of whom was
born in North Carolina in 1800. He grew up on his father's plantation, enjoying
the best of educational advantages, graduating from the university of Virginia
and also from a law school. He was admitted to the bar when quite young; but he
turned his attention to farming, which pursuit he followed in accordance with
scientific principles. Later in life he was elected to the legislature, serving
for a number of years in that body, all the time keeping up his interest in his
farm. He, in fact, preferred the quiet of farm life to politics. He was an old
line whig, and named his son after William Henry Harrison, ninth president of
the United States. At the close of the Civil war he was obliged to free his
slaves, of which he had seventy-five. He was a member of the old school
Presbyterian church. He died in 1879 in the seventy-ninth year of his age. His
wife was born in North Carolina in 1816, grew to womanhood in her native state,
was married at the age of sixteen, and was the mother of eleven children, ten of
whom grew to-maturity. Nine of them survive. She died in 1885 in the sixty-ninth
year of her age. Harrison Purcell was brought up on the farm, attended college
till he reached his junior year, when he enlisted in company E, Twenty-fourth
North Carolina infantry, served two years as third lieutenant and one year as
first lieutenant. At the end of this time he had an attack of rheumatism and was
then transferred to the Sixth Alabama cavalry, Clinton's brigade, in which he
served until the surrender of Lee. He had a very active experience during the
war. While in the east he served a part of the time under Gen. Jackson and part
of the time under Gen. Longstreet. He participated in the seven days' fighting,
in the battle of Harper's Ferry and in the battle of Antietam. When in the west
he fought under Gen. Forrest, just missing, however, the battle of Atlanta, and
being stationed in Greene county, Ala., when the final surrender was made. While
he was never wounded he had numerous narrow escapes, having had his belt cut in
two by a ball and experiencing other close calls. After the war Mr. Purcell came
to Columbia, Henry county, and engaged in farming in connection with other
business.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 1115
Published by
Brant & Fuller (1893)
Madison, WI

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