The Harrison Connection: A Founding Father, Two Presidents, and Our Shared Roots

 

Every genealogist knows the thrill of chasing down a quiet lead on FamilySearch or ancestry archives, only to realize you’ve bumped elbows with national history.

My recent research uncovered a remarkable branch on our family tree that connects us directly to the bedrock of American independence: Benjamin Harrison V (1726–1791), a signer of the Declaration of Independence and 5th Governor of Virginia, who turns out to be my 6th cousin 6x removed.

Even more fascinating than his own storied career is the sprawling political dynasty he launched—a line that produced two U.S. Presidents and a long legacy of American public service.

Who Was Benjamin Harrison V?

Born at the historic Berkeley Plantation along the James River in Charles City County, Virginia, Benjamin Harrison V was raised among the elite tidewater gentry. His formal education at the College of William & Mary was cut short in 1745 when tragedy struck: his father and two sisters were killed by a lightning strike inside the plantation house. At just 19 years old, young Benjamin assumed full responsibility for managing the estate and its sprawling agricultural operations.

He quickly rose through Virginia’s political ranks, serving in the House of Burgesses and later standing firm with fellow revolutionaries like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

• Continental Congress & The Declaration: Serving as a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1777, Harrison chaired the crucial Committee of the Whole during the intense debates surrounding independence. On August 2, 1776, he placed his bold signature on the Declaration of Independence.
• Wartime Governor: As the 5th Governor of Virginia (1781–1784), Harrison managed the state's severe financial plight and reconstruction in the immediate, difficult aftermath of the Revolutionary War and the siege of Yorktown.
• Defender of Rights: During the 1788 Virginia Ratifying Convention, Harrison initially stood with Patrick Henry in opposing the proposed U.S. Constitution because it lacked explicit protections for individual liberties—holding out until a Bill of Rights was guaranteed.

An Extraordinary Presidential Dynasty

Through this same line, our family tree links to one of the most prominent political families in American history:

• Son: William Henry Harrison (1773–1841) — 7th cousin 5x removed. Famous as the hero of Tippecanoe and Indian Territory Governor, he became the 9th President of the United States in 1841.
• Grandson: John Scott Harrison (1804–1878) — 8th cousin 4x removed. Served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio, holding the unique historic distinction of being both the son of one U.S. President and the father of another.

• Great-Grandson: Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901) — 9th cousin 3x removed. A Civil War general who became the 23rd President of the United States (1889–1893).

The Common Ancestral Bridge: The Masterson Connection

Our kinship with Benjamin Harrison V converges in 16th-century England through Edmund Masterson (1544–1621).

While Edmund’s daughter Nancy Netherton Masterson launched the branch that married into Virginia’s tidewater aristocracy (the Ellises, Armisteads, Churchills, and Harrisons), her sister Anne Masterson anchored the line that immigrated to colonial New England—eventually bringing down through the Ellis, Rockwood, Fisher, Hawes, and Plimpton families right to our own doorstep.

                     Edmund Masterson (1544–1621)

                  [Our Shared 12th Great-Grandfather]

                                 |

        +------------------------+------------------------+

        |                                                 |

  Nancy Netherton Masterson                         Anne Masterson 

     (1590–1610)                                     (1597–1654)

        |                                                 |

  Anne Ellis (1610–1678)                        Thomas Ellis (Immigrant)

        |                                                 |

  Elizabeth Armistead (1633–1685)               Judith Ellis (1658–1758)

        |                                                 |

  Hannah Churchill (1651–1698)                 Mary Rockwood (1683–1763)

        |                                                 |

  Benjamin Harrison (1673–1710)             Elizabeth Fisher (1722–1766)

        |                                                 |

  Benjamin Harrison (1693–1745)                 Beriah Hawes (1746–1829)

        |                                                 |

  BENJAMIN HARRISON V                       Timothy Plimpton (DNA match)

  (1726–1791)                                             |

  Signer of Declaration of Independence      Calvin Plimpton (1815–1874)

  6th Cousin 6x Removed                                   |

        |                                         Charles Henry Plympton

  William Henry Harrison                   Civil War Vet (97th Ohio Vol)

  9th U.S. President                                      |

  7th Cousin 5x Removed                      "Neva" Plympton (1870–1939)

        |                                                 |

  John Scott Harrison                    Lydia Corinna Brown (1891–1971)

  8th Cousin 4x Removed                        Materal Grandmother

        |                                                 |

  Benjamin Harrison                                 Velma (mother)

  23rd U.S. President                                     |

  9th Cousin 3x Removed                           [A Drifting Cowboy]

Connecting the Dots

It’s a humbling perspective to look back across four centuries of American history. On one hand, you have Benjamin Harrison V helping helm a young republic at Philadelphia and Berkeley Plantation, while his son and great-grandson led the nation from the White House.

On our side of that same Masterson heritage, our direct line forged ahead through Massachusetts pioneers, Ohio Civil War veterans like Charles Henry Plympton (Co. K, 97th Ohio Volunteers), Montana homesteaders, and down to my materal grandmother Lydia Corinna Brown and my mother Velma.

We may have ridden different trails—one through the halls of statehouses and the other through the dirt roads and saddle leather of the American frontier—but we share the same blood, the same early colonial roots, and the same quiet commitment to this country.

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy

Down the Rabbit Hole in the Dystopian People's Republic of Los Angeles

 

I am a native of this city. Born in Santa Monica, raised in Los Angeles from the age of two, I’ve spent more than 75 years of my life in the Ol’ Pueblo—save for a brief seven-year stint in Oakhurst and my time serving in the military.

For most of those decades, I felt safe. I didn’t just live here; I invested in my community. I served as an elected Neighborhood Council Board Member, an appointed Business Improvement District Board Member, and a Trails Community Homeowners Association Board Member. I spent years on the sidelines coaching boys' and girls' soccer and track. In 2002, during the Valley Secession movement, I even ran for Valley City Council in a bid to help the San Fernando Valley break away from Los Angeles and form an independent, accountable city.

Then came the turn of the decade. Sometime after 2002, the Ol' Pueblo underwent a dark transformation.

Open corruption among politicians grew rampant. Powerful city employee unions expanded their headcount while shrinking actual services to the public. Homelessness and open drug addiction skyrocketed. As crime surged, city officials simply tweaked the math—offering sterile statistics to mask the reality of our filthy, increasingly dangerous streets.

Even my once-quiet, rural equestrian community couldn't escape the decline. Muggings, shootings, home invasions, robberies, and property crimes exploded around us. The city cleared the way for all manner of unsupervised "halfway houses" to open in quiet residential neighborhoods—operating without law enforcement oversight or community input. Police helicopters circling overhead, sweeping searchlights across my yard in the dead of night, became routine.

Then came yesterday. What should have been a peaceful Sunday afternoon turned into a nightmare for this 83-year-old veteran.

It started with a chopper hovering directly above my roof. Outside, sirens blared from the front and back streets surrounding my property, followed by the squeal of tires as a half-dozen squad cars screeched to a halt. My dog began barking frantically. Checking my security cameras, I saw LAPD officers with drawn handguns, shotguns, and rifles fanning out across my front yard.

Peeking through my front window, I counted at least a dozen officers flanking the "sober living home"—a convenient euphemism for a commercial drug rehab facility—operating right next door. Most of their weapons were aimed toward the window I was standing behind.

What followed was a two-hour standoff. Six occupants of the house were detained in handcuffs while officers conducted a search and interrogation.

As an ex-Green Beret, I know how to keep my head in a tense situation, though these days I rely on a walker to get around. I stayed inside until the police moved up my driveway, seeking shade against my garage door to question their suspects out of the hot sun.

I announced my presence in a loud, clear voice and stepped outside. I spoke with a young officer named Cruz, who explained they were responding to a "shots fired" call. He asked if I’d heard anything; I told him I hadn't. As we talked, I asked him how a law-abiding citizen goes about applying for a Concealed Carry Weapon (CCW) permit. Officer Cruz advised me that the fastest route was to visit the LAPD Devonshire Division station to get the paperwork.

First thing this morning, I walked into Devonshire Division. I wasn't greeted with helpful guidance. Instead, I met cold reluctance. I was told to "go online," before an officer shuffled across the room to hand me a scrap of paper that read: Google LAPD CCW.

When I looked into it, I discovered a one-year waiting list just to start the application process. Turning 84 next month, the message felt loud and clear: We hope you die before we have to deal with you.

To top it all off, the evening news just reported that a leading candidate in the L.A. mayoral race plans to involve Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in her administration—the very organization advocating to disband ICE, dismantle federal borders, defund law enforcement, and empty the prisons.

I’m a native son. I’ve given my life to this place. I don’t want to pack up and move to somewhere strange.

What the hell am I supposed to do?

A Drifting Cowboy and Horses of the West

Bound by the Reins: A Celebration of Our Ancestral Horsemen

https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2026/09/bound-by-reins-celebration-of-our.html with video links

Riding with the Kings of the West: When the San Fernando Valley Was Still Wild

https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2026/09/riding-with-kings-of-west-when-san.html

Video links:

LA Sheriff's Rodeo Slidshow 1955/6

https://youtu.be/nN_4SWz_mz4

Sandy_1956_Calabasas.mov

https://youtu.be/UcD2ztO7jC8

1956 in Calabasas, California.  ETI riders gathering for a trail ride to Chatsworth and back.

Drifting Cowboy: Legacy Yarns from the Open Range

https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2026/04/drifting-cowboy-legacy-yarns-from-open.html

The Cowboy Who Cashed In a Winner

https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-cowboy-who-cashed-in-winner.html

A Pretty Cool Cowboy Cousin: Duke Wayne, Chatsworth, and Me

 Long before I ever looked into family pedigrees or traced bloodlines back to 17th-century New England, I knew John Wayne simply as "The Duke"—the towering, slow-talking star who commanded the silver screen. Like millions of kids growing up in the mid-20th century, I spent my youth admiring his cinematic grit.

It wasn't until years later, while untangling the branches of my family tree, that I discovered a surprising genealogical thread: Marion Robert Morrison—John Wayne—was my 10th cousin 2x removed.

Our shared lineage winds back through New England history to our colonial ancestors, the Spencers. While one branch of the family tree led through the Baileys down to my mother, Velma, another branch moved through the Parsons family—down through Wealthy Chase Parsons and Clyde Leonard Morrison to a boy born in Winterset, Iowa, named Marion.

Riding the Same Dirt

What makes this kinship special isn't just a shared ancestor in colonial Connecticut or Massachusetts; it's the physical ground we both covered in the San Fernando Valley.

During the 1930s, long before he became an Oscar-winning icon, Marion Morrison was a working actor making his mark in early B-Westerns. He spent countless days on location in the Santa Susana Mountains surrounding Chatsworth. Ranches like Iverson, Brandeis, and Ray "Crash" Corrigan’s Corriganville served as the backdrop for his early films—including The Dawn Rider (1935), Overland Stage Raiders (1938), Pals of the Saddle (1938), and John Ford's landmark Stagecoach (1939).

Two decades after John Wayne rode through those sandstone outcroppings for the camera, I was an fourteen-year-old kid riding my red dun pony, Sandy, along those same Chatsworth trails. As members of Equestrian Trails Inc. (ETI), my friends and I rode from Calabasas up past the western edge of the Chatsworth Reservoir to Oak Park and Lake Manor—passing right through the shadows of the movie ranches where my distant cousin had made film history.

In 1955, I sat in the stands at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the L.A. County Sheriff's Championship Rodeo, watching the grand parade of Hollywood Western stars alongside world-champion bronc and bull riders. Wayne himself was a regular fixture at those Coliseum events throughout the era, celebrating the culture of the American West before massive crowds.

Crossing the Great Divide

Looking back, it’s a wonderful piece of personal history to realize that the land I rode as a young cowboy was the same landscape my cousin helped immortalize on film.

While Duke Wayne rode across the big screen into cinematic immortality, I was lucky enough to live the real thing—boots in the stirrups, reins in hand, breathing in the dust of the Santa Susanas. He may have been Hollywood's ultimate cowboy, but to this Drifting Cowboy, he was also a pretty cool cousin.

John Wayne’s — Reel Cowboy Chatsworth Filmography

Dakota (1945) starring John Wayne, Vera Ralston and Walter Brennan - Republic

The Dawn Rider (1935) starring John Wayne - Monogram

The Fighting Seabees (1944) starring John Wayne, Susan Hayward and Dennis O'Keefe (Iverson) Republic

Fort Apache (1948) starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda (Corriganville) RKO

Haunted Gold (1932) starring John Wayne (Iverson Ranch) Warner Bros.

How the West Was Won (1962) starring John Wayne, Henry Fonda and James Stewart (Corriganville) MGM

The New Frontier (1935) starring John Wayne and Ray “Crash” Corrigan - Republic

New Frontier (1939) starring John Wayne, Ray "Crash" Corrigan, Raymond Hatton, and Jennifer Jones (Republic). This film was the last of eight Three Mesquiteers B-movies with Wayne.  Lensed on the Iverson, Brandeis Ranch, and Corriganville. It should not be confused with John Wayne's 1935 film The New Frontier.

Overland Stage Raiders (1938) starring John Wayne and Ray “Crash” Corrigan/Max Terhune (Iverson) Republic

Pals of the Saddle (1938) starring John Wayne, Ray “Crash” Corrigan and Max Terhune (Corriganville) Republic

Red River Range (1938) starring John Wayne, Ray “Crash” Corrigan and Max Terhune (Corriganville) Republic

Santa Fe Stampede (1938) starring John Wayne, Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune (Brandeis)(Corriganville) Republic

Stagecoach (1939) starring John Wayne (Iverson Ranch) United Artists

Texas Cyclone (1932) starring Tim McCoy with John Wayne (Iverson Ranch) Columbia

Three Texas Steers (1939) starring John Wayne, Ray “Crash” Corrigan and Max Terhune (Corriganville) Republic

The Trail Beyond (1934) starring John Wayne and Noah Beery Jr. (Chatsworth Trains) Monogram

The Undefeated (1969) starring John Wayne and Rock Hudson - 20th Century-Fox

Winds of the Wasteland (1936)  starring John Wayne (Brandeis Ranch) Republic

Wyoming Outlaw (1939) starring John Wayne, Ray “Crash” Corrigan and Raymond Hatton (Corriganville) Republic

My personal all-time favorite John Wayne Western was John Ford’s “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” (1949), however it was not filmed in Chatsworth.

Happy Trails

Thank you Gemini AI for your wisdom and research assistance. -- Drifting Cowboy

To learn more about Chatsworth Movies see:

https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2025/03/chatsworth-movies-comprehensive-list-of.html