The Col. Elijah Clarke Militia fire a musket salute for freed slave and Revolutionary War patriot Austin Dabney on Jan. 30. [Photo: Brenda Fayard]
Historic celebration brings crowd
Hundreds of people gathered on a cold, wet Jan. 30 to celebrate Austin Dabney Day and recognize the freed slave and American Revolutionary patriot and his best friend and Pike County pioneer William Harris.
"This is history being made in Pike County and in the state of Georgia. Austin Dabney and William Harris were best friends who lived here together, trained horses together and today I consider them still together," said chairman of Pike County commissioners Doug Mangham as he gestured toward the only two graves in the Harris-Dabney cemetery.
One marble gravestone read Austin Dabney, c. 1765-1830, Georgia militia, Revolutionary War, freed slave, devoted friend to Harris family and the other read William Harris c. 1792-1838, state representative, attorney at law, Pike County pioneer, devoted friend to Austin Dabney.
Voelker read out the names of descendants of the Harris family and one by one they stood in the misting rain to demonstrate the number of lives Dabney touched even though he never married or had children of his own. Voelker said not only did Dabney help put William Harris through school at Franklin College (now UGA), but the land he left to the Harris family has remained in the family as timberland and when needed has been cut to finance the schooling of other Harris family descendants.
For more, read the Wednesday, Feb. 3 print/eEdition of The Pike County Journal-Reporter.
One marble gravestone read Austin Dabney, c. 1765-1830, Georgia militia, Revolutionary War, freed slave, devoted friend to Harris family and the other read William Harris c. 1792-1838, state representative, attorney at law, Pike County pioneer, devoted friend to Austin Dabney.
Voelker read out the names of descendants of the Harris family and one by one they stood in the misting rain to demonstrate the number of lives Dabney touched even though he never married or had children of his own. Voelker said not only did Dabney help put William Harris through school at Franklin College (now UGA), but the land he left to the Harris family has remained in the family as timberland and when needed has been cut to finance the schooling of other Harris family descendants.
For more, read the Wednesday, Feb. 3 print/eEdition of The Pike County Journal-Reporter.
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