07/14/2026
Two things I love—local history and stumbling across new information!
One of my favorite things about title research is that I never really know where a search is going to take me.
A few days ago, I came across the name Walter W. Harrison in an old deed. Nothing unusual about that—I see hundreds of names in old records. Eventually, though, I had to pull his probate records, and while looking through them, I found his obituary.
Obviously, I read it.
And that’s when I realized Walter Harrison wasn’t just another name in the chain of title.
In 1937, only 1% of Georgia’s farm households had electricity.
ONE PERCENT.
That’s almost impossible to imagine now. But Walter Harrison, a lifelong resident of Jenkins County, was one of the people who helped change that.
In 1937, he organized Planters Electric Membership Cooperative right here in Millen and began working to bring electricity to rural homes and farms. He went on to become one of the founders of the Georgia Electric Membership Corporation and spent decades working to expand rural electrification throughout Georgia.
By the time he retired in 1975, 99% of Georgia’s rural households had electricity.
From 1% to 99%.
Of course, that wasn’t the work of one person alone, but Walter Harrison certainly played an important role in making it happen—and he did it from right here in Jenkins County.
His story didn’t stop there, either. He spent 20 years as mayor of Millen, served as a Jenkins County commissioner, a state representative and a state senator. He helped promote the construction of the Clark Hill and Richard Russell dams on the Savannah River and worked to secure continued federal funding for rural electrification.
And apparently, once he helped get electricity to rural Georgia, he decided everyone needed a telephone, too.
Harrison was instrumental in getting the Rural Telephone Act of 1950 passed in the Georgia Senate, which encouraged telephone companies to expand service into rural areas.
Just a few months before his death in 1985, Governor Joe Frank Harris officially proclaimed Walter W. Harrison “Mr. Rural Electrification in Georgia.”
And somehow, despite living and working in Jenkins County for most of my life, I had never heard his story.
I found him because of an old deed.
That’s what I love about title research. A deed may look like nothing more than names, dates, acreage and legal descriptions—but every one of those names belonged to a real person with a story.
Sometimes you just have to get a little distracted from the title search to find it. 😂
I found the picture below on the Digital Library of Georgia website. According to the description, the picture was taken in Millen on July 25, 1951. Standing from left to right are Walter Harrison, Marvin Wise and Porter Carswell, posing for a photograph beside the Nancy Hanks II of the Central of Georgia Railway. The train was making an anniversary run.
