01/02/2026
Date of visit to Oak Grove Cemetery 1/1/2026
Pictures showing headstone prior to cleaning, and today showing the results of the dedication of the volunteers of Oak Grove Cemetery Society. Shown with a Wreath Across America Wreath laid December 13, 2025.
Grave of Judge John L Harris
Text from Find A Grave
Co. K, 4th GA Cavalry, CSA
_________
Advertiser & Appeal; Saturday 17 May 1879; pg. 1 cols. 3-6
TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF THE HON. JOHN L. HARRIS BY THE BRUNSWICK BAR
Death loves a shining mark, and when a man is stricken down by that grim power, who has exercised a large influence upon his section and his State, has formed a large circle of acquaintance, and is esteemed and loved for his many excellent qualities of head and heart, we pause and realize more deeply the old, old truth that all must die, and that the day, the hour, or the month, or year of Death's coming are mysteries which we cannot pierce and fathom and understand.
Where is Judge Harris? But three weeks ago he sat upon the bench in the exercise of all his intellectual faculties, strong, capable, earnest and conscientious in the performance of his duty as the interpreter of the law to the people, the arbitrator of their disputes, the head of that system of jurisprudence for his circuit, which in the civilization of the present day replaces the violent modes of settlement of barbarous times.
Home, from Ware Superior Court, with his family, he complained of a cold, contracted at Ware during the fearful storm of last month, which we all so well remember, and took his bed, no one dreaming (unless, perhaps, he may have had a premonition of the end) of any fatal result. Fever set in, but was kept under control.—His mind, with a few exceptions when the fever was upon him, remained bright and clear. The play of his genial humor enlivened the sick room. A table by the head of his bed was covered with the books of his favorite authors. Every year since he arrived at mature manhood he has renewed his acquaintance with Latin and Greek, reading the Greek Testament, Horace, Virgil and other authors, and those books had been read by him on the day he died, and lay upon his table, where he had laid them on the night of the 5th, when death came so suddenly into his peaceful home and took husband, son, father, uncle, brother, away from the cares of earth to another and a better world.
Only last Saturday he was sitting on his front porch in the beautiful sunset hour of that charming May day, with his family and friends gathered around him, discoursing in his quaintly humorous way of many things, and then as in the past days of his illness the news came to our people that he was better and would soon be able to again resume his work as Judge of the circuit. So fully was this believed that his physician, who had visited him daily, felt fully authorized to leave his bedside to attend the medical and health conventions in Atlanta. So fully was it believed by our people, that many of his best and closest friends, knowing that he had many visitors, fearful that they might weary him by a visit, stayed away, believing they would soon meet him on the streets, and be able to congratulate him upon his recovery. Monday evening, upon the night upon which he died, the Bar met informally to consult about Camden and Charlton Superior Court, and proposed on the next day to send a committee to consult with him as to the propriety of asking another Judge to hold those courts.
Monday night he sat in his bed talking with his family until 9 P.M., when suddenly, without premonition or warning of any kind, he was seized with a convulsion, which lasted but a moment, and although every effort was made to revive him, all efforts were fruitless, and there is little doubt that the first seizure was his death struggle. The blow to his family and friends, and to the community, was all the more fearful from its suddenness. It is believed the immediate cause of his death was rheumatism of the heart.
While his intellectual faculties remained bright and active to the last, he has been failing in health for years, and it is believed that he has felt conscious of the approach of death, and has kept it from family and friends out of regard for their feelings.
Yesterday the community paid the last sad tribute of respect to his memory, and such a funeral gathering has not been known here for years, if ever before. The bright and beautiful flowers of May which he loved so well, were sent and placed upon his coffin in rich profusion. The Bar, the Masonic fraternity, the fire company and band, and the Mayor and Council, attended in a body. The church was filled to overflowing. Rich and poor, old and young, all classes, colors and conditions gathered around his open grave, attesting the love and respect he had inspired by his long life of usefulness and benevolence.
At a meeting of the Bar on the 6th day of May, 1879, the morning after his death, the undersigned were appointed a committee to perform the painful yet pleasing task of preparing a short sketch of his life, services and character for publication. We approach the task with diffidence and ask that any mistake or failure on our part may be condoned and forgiven, in view of the deep respect and love which we, in common with each member of the Bar of the circuit and of the people thereof, entertained for him.
Judge Harris was born near Augusta, in Richmond county, at the old homestead named "Woodhill." The Miltons were related to the family on the mother's side, the Secretary of State of that name being the grandfather of Judge Harris. Gov. John Milton, of Florida, was his cousin.
He was born in May, 1823, making him fifty-six years of age at the time of his death. He attended a school in Richmond county, kept by a Mr. Gardiner, another kept by Mr. Edmund Graves, and another by a gentleman named Scruggs; and from there went to Pendleton, S.C., and attended a classical school taught by a Dr. Wayland. In his childhood his mind was very bright and active, giving promise of a bright future. At Dr. Wayland's school he took a high rank as classical scholar, which he has sustained through life.
From there he went to Asheville, North Carolina, to a school taught by Dr. Dickson, where he remained for two years, and was prepared to enter Columbia College, but by reason of the losses sustained by his father in the crisis of 1842-43, it was impossible to carry out that intention. Dr. Dickson, who took a great interest in his welfare, then took him back to Asheville as assistant teacher, undertaking to complete his education. But shortly after this Dr. Dickson changed his plans, breaking up his school, and Judge Harris returned to Pendleton, South Carolina, and started a classical school himself, continuing it for a year, when he returned to Augusta and commenced the study of the law under Judge Starnes; was admitted to the bar in Augusta, practiced there for some time; removing to Atlanta in 1848, where he continued the practice of the law. He held the position of City Attorney for a number of years, and was elected a member of the Legislature from Fulton county in 1855; removed to Brunswick in 1857, going into partnership with his brother, Benjamin F. Harris, in the practice of the law.
In 1858 he was elected for the Legislature to fill a vacancy caused by the death of the Hon. J.W. Moore; and in the ensuing year was elected for the full term in the Lower House on the same ticket with the Hon. Thomas Butler King, who was elected Senator, both being elected upon the issue of State aid—and in the House, during his term, was a consistent, earnest and able advocate of State aid, making an argument in its favor which commanded the admiration even of it opponents. He was a member of the Secession Convention from the county of Glynn, being elected with Dr. D.H.B. Troup, and advocated secession.
When the war came on he enlisted as a private in the Brunswick Riflemen, in May, 1861; was promoted to a Corporalship, and upon the reorganization of that corps, two months afterwards, he left that company and joined Captain Hopkins' company of cavalry as a private. On the reorganization of Captain Hopkins' company, he was elected First Lieutenant, and on the organization of the Fourth Georgia Cavalry was elected a Major, and afterwards Lieutenant Colonel, serving in the last named position until the close of the war, and led the regiment in every engagement except at Ocean Pond, Florida, where Colonel Clinch was wounded.
After the war he returned to his home in Richmond county, at the old homestead, where his wife and family had remained, and commenced farming, going resolutely to work to rebuild the shattered fortunes of himself and family. In the autumn of 1865 he removed from there to Waresboro, in Ware county, and again took up the practice of his profession, at once taking the position of leading lawyer of his circuit. In 1868 he stumped the First Congressional district for General Gordon for Governor, and Seymour and Blair for President and Vice President. His name was before the Congressional Convention of that year, but he was disqualified at that time, and therefore did not receive the nomination. In 1870 he was solicited to be a candidate for Congress from the First Congressional district, but declined on account of ill health in a humorous but earnest article in the Savannah News.
In 1872, '74, '76, '78, Judge Harris' name was frequently mentioned in connection with the nomination for Congress, but in each instance he declined to allow his name used.
In 1870 he removed from Ware county to his farm in Glynn county, practicing law in Brunswick in partnership with William Williams, Esq. He removed to Brunswick in the fall of 1871, continuing the practice of the law until January, 1873, when he was appointed Judge of the Superior Court of the Brunswick Circuit by Governor Smith, and to which position he was elected in December, 1878.
Thus briefly we have sketched the main incidents of his life. There is much, did space permit, which might be said of his life and character. Much which did not relate to his public life, but to the man in the family relation and a private citizen. In his family relations he was a kind and loving son to the aged mother who mourns his loss. A loving husband and father to his wife and daughter so suddenly left in mourning. A true brother, an affectionate uncle, a faithful friend. Yet he was more than this. He was the friend of the weak, the wayward, the poor, the unfortunate, both in word and deed. His charity and benevolence was not of the order which is blazoned from the house tops, but it ever responded to the cry of distress and trouble.
We have seen nothing more touching than the gathering of the mass of colored people who mourned yesterday his loss in the cemetery and reverently laid their offering of flowers on his grave. They knew he was their friend; they knew he had dealt justly by them in the court house and in the every day affairs of life.
Of Judge Harris as a lawyer, there is no need to speak. He was well known as an able, fearless and untiring advocate—indeed, was better known in that sense than as a Judge. The play of his humor, the magnetism of his manner, captivated juries and won verdicts. His was the light armor of forensic effort. Heavy blows were not his forte, but the flash of his weapon was bright, its point sharp and piercing, well fitted to his purpose. But his attacks seldom left a sting behind them, and if he has, after his thirty-odd years of practice, made a permanent enemy in Georgia or elsewhere we have yet to know it. As an orator, and especially as an orator before the people in the discussion of public questions, he was popular and powerful, controlling his audiences with that power which, for want of a better word, we call personal magnetism, and carrying them captive whatever their previous convictions while the spell was on them.
He had faults, and who not but they were of the lighter order, and overbalanced by his many good qualities of head and heart. His loss is not a loss to his family alone, or to the people of our city, his adopted home. We mourn his loss, and Southern Georgia also is in mourning, and the sad refrain is echoed back from the hills and valleys of North Georgia, where his early life was spent. His death has left a blank. His memory will remain green in the hearts of the thousands who knew and loved him, through the years which are to come. Requiescat in peace.P. GOODYEAR,
A.J. CROVATT,
IRA E. SMITH,
Committee.
The above report was on motion unanimously adopted.
M.L. MERSHON,
Chairman Meeting Brunswick Bar.
W.E. Kay, Secretary.
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MARRIAGE INFO
Name: John L. Harris
Spouse's Name: Celestia P. Beal
Event Date: 04 Dec 1853
Event Place: Richmond, Georgia
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M39174-2
System Origin: Georgia-EASy
GS Film number: 158602
Citing this Record:
"Georgia, Marriages, 1808-1967," index, FamilySearch ( John L. Harris and Celestia P. Beal, 04 Dec 1853.
