Harriet was born in Morgan County, Ga., Dec. 6th, 1811 and lived to the ripe old age of 98. “She professed religion in her fifteenth year and joined that grand old body, the Primitive Baptist Church, in which she remained a member until her death. For us to say she lived a Christian life would be almost an insult to her memory, as her very life has shown to those who knew her that nothing but the spirit of the God of love in whom she lived and trusted would have brought her through this life of sorrow and disappointment and given her in her old age that spirit of love and contentment as shown by her daily life. . . it would be her greatest pleasure to talk of the many promises in her bible and her home on the other side of the great beyond and the tears of joy would course their way down her withered cheeks. . .She seemed to live in the perpetual sunshine of Heaven. She lived as it were, on the very threshold of the other world and the sunshine of God's love seemed to reflect and shed its divine rays upon all she came in contact with. Many times has the writer [Mathew Phillips, her grandson], when bowed by the cares of this life: after spending a few moments in conversation with her and seeing her smile of contentment or perhaps finding some beloved passage of scripture which had eluded her memory, I would thank God for her presence and feel all cares vanish. As it was with this writer, so it was with all who knew her. She loved everyone and to know her was to love her.”

She married George W. Williamson in 1829 in Henry County, Georgia and later moved to Pike County (near Zebulon, GA) where they lived for most of the rest of her life. She was the mother of 10 children: Anne Elizabeth, Emma Ella, Joseph Madison, Thomas Bloodworth, Mary Elizabeth Cornelia (Mollie), Sarah Jane, Margarett Josephien Tamsy, William Jackson, William Pinkney and James Franklin. Harriet and George were in the 65th year of their marriage when he passed in 1894. She lived with various family members after that and moved to Arkansas in her 90s to live finally with her daughter Mollie Souter where she passed in 1909.

Her father's name was William Buckalew; mother's, Linnie Proctor; her grandparents on her father's side, Fredrick Buckalew and Ruth Gosling; her grandparents on mother's side, John Proctor and Linney Edwards. Note it is not quite clear whether to spell her name BuckElew or BuckAlew as some of her documents have the spelling either way. Actually, neither appears to be the original name Bucklew which many have traced as descended from Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, Scotland [1565-1611]