John Floyd (1769-1839) - Find a Grave Memorial

US Congressman. The son of a sailor who settled in South Carolina, as a teenager he served in the final year of the Revolutionary War as a member of a Beaufort volunteer militia in which his father was active. After the war John Floyd was trained as a carpenter and shipwright, and in 1791 moved to Camden County, Georgia with his father. He became active in boat building in Savannah and also owned and operated "Fairfield" and later "Bellevue", successful plantations near the town of Woodbine. In the early 1800s Floyd commanded an eight-county district of the Georgia Militia as a Brigadier General. During the War of 1812 he commanded the Georgia Militia's 1st Brigade, 1st Division (Floyd's Brigade), which took part in Andrew Jackson's expeditions against the Creek Indians, during which Floyd was wounded with a gunshot to the knee. He later commanded the Georgia Militia as a Major General, and from 1820 to 1827 was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives. In 1826 Floyd was a successful Jacksonian candidate for the US House of Representatives and served one term, 1827 to 1829. He did not run for reelection in 1828 and returned to management of Fairfield and Bellevue. He died at the Bellevue plantation home which rested between the community of Woodbine and the smaller plantation of Fairfield. Floyd County, Georgia was named for him, and in 1997 Mary Faith Wilson, a Floyd descendant, endowed the General John Floyd Fund at the Georgia Historical Society.

Bio by: Bill McKern