Postmaster General of the United States. Born one of three sons of Mary Bolton and James Habersham, a prominent merchant, in Savannah, Georgia. In the years preceding the American Revolution, after graduating from Princeton, he went into business with is father, but came down in the Patriot camp politically, as opposed to the professed Loyalist sympathies of his father. With his father's death in 1775, he joined the Council of Safety and the Provincial Council. He served as a major with the Georgia militiamen, and after the outbreak of hostilities, a colonel in the 1st Georgia Regiment of the Continental Army. He was twice captured, once at the fall of Savannah and again at the fall of Charleston, and was both times exchanged to continue in active service throughout the war. After the war, he served as Speaker of the Georgia House in 1785, as a member of the Georgia convention in 1788, which ratified the Constitution, and as as mayor of Savannah from 1792 to 1793. In 1795, he was appointed Postmaster General by President Washington and served until 1801. He then returned to Georgia and his life as a planter and merchant. He was appointed the president of the Savannah branch of the Bank of the United States, a position he held until the bank folded in 1815. He succumbed to natural causes later that year at the age of 64; within three years, a newly formed county in northeast Georgia was named in his honor.
Postmaster General of the United States. Born one of three sons of Mary Bolton and James Habersham, a prominent merchant, in Savannah, Georgia. In the years preceding the American Revolution, after graduating from Princeton, he went into business with is father, but came down in the Patriot camp politically, as opposed to the professed Loyalist sympathies of his father. With his father's death in 1775, he joined the Council of Safety and the Provincial Council. He served as a major with the Georgia militiamen, and after the outbreak of hostilities, a colonel in the 1st Georgia Regiment of the Continental Army. He was twice captured, once at the fall of Savannah and again at the fall of Charleston, and was both times exchanged to continue in active service throughout the war. After the war, he served as Speaker of the Georgia House in 1785, as a member of the Georgia convention in 1788, which ratified the Constitution, and as as mayor of Savannah from 1792 to 1793. In 1795, he was appointed Postmaster General by President Washington and served until 1801. He then returned to Georgia and his life as a planter and merchant. He was appointed the president of the Savannah branch of the Bank of the United States, a position he held until the bank folded in 1815. He succumbed to natural causes later that year at the age of 64; within three years, a newly formed county in northeast Georgia was named in his honor.
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