John W. A. Sanford Sr. (August 28, 1798 – September 12, 1870) was a plantation manager, military officer, land agent, and politician from

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. He served as

Secretary of State of Georgia The secretary of state of the U.S. state of Georgia is an elected official with a wide variety of responsibilities, including supervising elections and maintaining public record Public records are documents or pieces of information that are ...

and in the

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. Sanford was born near

Milledgeville, Georgia Milledgeville () is a city in and the county seat of Baldwin County, Georgia, Baldwin County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Founded in 1803 along the Oconee River, it served as the List of current and former capital cities in the ...

, in 1798. He attended

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and was a farmer. In 1832, he was elected a major general, 3rd Division

Georgia Militia The Georgia Militia existed from 1733 to 1879. It was originally planned by General James Oglethorpe before the founding of the Province of Georgia, the Crown colony that would become the U.S. state of Georgia. One reason for the founding of the c ...

, by the Georgia Legislature. In 1834, Sanford was elected as a Jacksonian Representative from Georgia to the

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, but he resigned before the end of his term to participate in the removal of the

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from the state. His congressional service spanned from March 4, 1835, to July 2, 1835. After serving in the

Creek War of 1836 The Creek War of 1836, also known as the Second Creek War or Creek Alabama Uprising, was a conflict in Alabama at the time of Indian removal between the Muscogee Creek people and non-native land speculators and squatters. Although the Creek p ...

as a major general, Sanford was elected to the

Georgia Senate The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, in the U.S. state of Georgia. The Georgia State Senate and the lower house of the General Assembly, the Georgia House of Representatives, comprise the bicameral leg ...

in 1837; however, he resigned before that session of the state Senate began. From 1841 to 1843, Sanford was the

. He also was a member of the state convention of 1850. Sanford served as secession commissioner from Georgia to the State of Texas in 1861. Sanford died in Milledgeville on September 12, 1870, and was buried in

Memory Hill Cemetery Memory Hill Cemetery is an American cemetery in Milledgeville, Georgia. The cemetery opened in 1804. Notable interments * Thomas Petters Carnes (1762–1822), United States Representative for Georgia and state court judge. * George Pierce Do ...

in Milledgeville. His Sanford Emigrating Company was contracted to remove Creek Native Americans. He advocated for Americans to own slaves and denounced any laws protecting fugitive slaves as unconstitutional. Sanford testified he owned about 56 slaves. Sanford married Mary Ann Ridley (born 1802) daughter of Richard Augustus Blount and Mary Edmunds née Dawson Blount. She inherited plantation lands and slaves from her father. His son John W. A. Sanford Jr. later served as

Attorney General of Alabama The attorney general of Alabama is an elected, constitutional officer of the State of Alabama. The office of the attorney general is located at the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. Henry Hitchcock was elected Alabama's first attorney general ...

Notes and references

Additional sources

* Smith, Gordon Burns, ''History of the Georgia Militia, 1783-1861, Volume One, Campaigns and Generals'', Milledgeville: Boyd Publishing, 2000. ASIN:B003L1PRKI.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanford, John W. A. 1798 births 1870 deaths People from Baldwin County, Georgia Yale University alumni Members of the Georgia House of Representatives Georgia (U.S. state) state senators Secretaries of state of Georgia (U.S. state) Burials at Memory Hill Cemetery American militia generals Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia (U.S. state) Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 19th-century members of the Georgia General Assembly