Midway always surprises you. For a place that feels quiet today, sitting at the crossing of US‑17 and US‑84 with its churchyard pines and faint coastal breeze, it carries an outsized share of early American history. The landscape looks modest now, but in the eighteenth century this was the heart of Saint Johns Parish, a community of educated, politically assertive New England transplants whose influence reached far beyond the marshes around them. The marker for Nathan Brownson fits neatly into that pattern, another reminder that this small corner of Liberty County produced leaders who helped shape both Georgia and the nation.
This marker tells the history of another such historic figure. It reads, "Georgia Colonial governor, trustee of the proposed University of Georgia, physician, Nathan Brownson became governor of Georgia in 1781, serving until Jan. 1782. Prior to this time Brownson served as a member of the Provencial Congress which met in Savannah July 4, 1775. He was, also, a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1776-1778 and was surgeon to a Georgia brigade.
"Born in Connecticut in 1742, a graduate of Yale College, Brownson studied medicine and practiced that profession in his home state, moving to St. John`s Parish (now Liberty County), Georgia in 1764. Active in the cause of liberty, Brownson became one of the leaders in the revolutionary cause. He was one of the delegates to the state convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution in Augusta on 31 December 1787.
"Nathan Brownson died in Liberty County October 18, 1796, being best remembered as governor and as one of the founders of the University of Georgia."
The marker itself carries no number, but it was placed in 1992 by the Georgia State Society and the Daughters of the American Colonists, adding one more chapter to Midway's long habit of honoring the people who shaped its identity. It stands quietly at the roadside, yet it points to a life woven deeply into the story of Georgia's independence, its early government, and its commitment to education, all rooted in a community that still feels the echoes of its revolutionary past.
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