Representative Thomas W. Harrison View All Years

THOMAS W. HARRISON was born in Waukesha county, Wis., March 7, 1842; he died at Topeka, Kansas, May 21, 1910. He was educated in the common and high schools of Wisconsin and at the University of Michigan. He enlisted in the 10th Wisconsin volunteer infantry in May, 1861, and with his regiment participated in the battles of Perryville, Stone River, Chickamaugua, and the engagements about Atlanta. At Chickamaugua he was captured Sept. 20, 1863, and for ten months confined in Confederate prisons, being removed from one to another. On June 29, 1864, when on the way from the prison at Columbia to Andersonville, he made his escape by cutting through the bottom of the freight car in which he was being transported, and after traveling through the enemy’s country, reached Sherman’s army between Chattanooga and Atlanta. He continued in the army until August, 1865, receiving a commission as lieutenant-colonel for meritorious service. After the war Col. Harrison attended the Law department of the University of Michigan, graduating in 1869. Upon his admission to the bar, he removed to Independence, Iowa, where he practiced for a short time, thence in 1870, to Emmetsburg. He served as county surveyor in 1871, and held a number of minor public offices. He did much to foster horticultural and agricultural enterprises in Palo Alto county. In 1883 he was elected a member of the lower house of the 20th General Assembly. Failing health in 1887 caused his removal to Topeka, Kansas, where he afterward resided. He was a writer on agricultural subjects and was an active member of fraternal societies, being a 33d degree Mason, and a member of the G. A. R., and of the Sons of the American Revolution.