Self Guided Walking Tour
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Thomas Edward Watson
(1856–1922), section 20:
Thomas Edward Watson was born September 5, 1856 two miles from Thomson, Georgia, oldest son of John Smith Watson and Ann Eliza Maddox. His family descended from Georgia’s early Quaker residents who had settled the area in 1768.
Clara Elizabeth Stovall
(1868-1963), section 137:
Born September 15, 1868, Clara Stovall was coauthor
(with Mrs. W. C. McCommons) of the book “History of McDuffie County” and thus responsible in large part for the preservation of the county’s history. Through her research she recorded in detail an authentic and readable history of our county.
Elias Wilson (Shade) Hawes
(1853-1927), section 84:
Born in Wrightsboro and educated in Wrightsboro School, he was a farmer, Democrat and Mason. He was elected McDuffie County Sheriff in 1889, serving until 1907, when he resigned to become Georgia Prison Board
inspector. He returned to elected office as Ordinary in 1925, serving until his death on January 5, 1927.
Charles E. Knox
(1838-1918), section 58:
Charles Knox was a courier for General James Longstreet in 1863 and was captured near Lexington, Kentucky in 1864, imprisoned and exchanged in 1865. He purchased the Greenway Hotel which served railroad passengers in 1882, and changed its name to Knox Hotel.
David Fife Irving
(1833-1900), section 49:
He was a tanner and shoemaker, and when the Civil War broke out he was called, but on his journey was stopped and sent back to tan leather and make shoes for the Confederacy. After the war, he settled in Thomson and built a dry goods store across from the Knox Hotel
(later Hadaway’s Store).
Dr. George Thomas Neal
(1857-1936), section 38:
After graduating from Thomson Schools, Emory College at Oxford and Vanderbilt in 1886, he began a dentistry practice in the area – Thomson, Warrenton, Norwood and Harlem. He was the first of 4 generations of his family practicing dentistry in Thomson.
John Lewis King Holtzendorf
(1848-1898), section 132:
Ran away at age 18 to join the Confederate Army. His last post was as a mount procurer with Company C of the 8th Georgia Regiment Cavalry in 1864, which became part of the 62nd Georgia Volunteers. The regiment fought at the Petersburg Siege and the
Appomattox Campaign.
Colonel John Allen Wilkerson
(1834-1912), section 163:
Wilkerson enlisted with Walker Light Artillery which became part of Company F of the 12th Georgia Battalion in May, 1862. He was badly wounded in the left leg at Hatcher’s Run, VA, in 1865 and sent to a Richmond hospital to recover.
Claude Nathaniel Bennett
(1866-1926), section 37:
Bennett became secretary to the Secretary of the Interior during President Grover Cleveland’s second administration. In 1896, Bennett founded the Congressional Information Bureau, which provided data to Congress and maintained a bureau for international business in all branches of government.
Dr. James Spann Jones
(1811-1885), section 52:
In 1842, Dr. Jones was elected to the Georgia Senate from Warren County. In 1853 helped to found the First Methodist Church in Thomson. Following the upheaval of the Civil War, Dr. Jones served as a delegate to the Georgia Constitutional Convention of 1865 from Columbia County.
Confederate Soldiers Section
section 78:
The Soldier’s Section contains the remains of 5 men who were taken off the train in Thomson during the Civil War, far away from their homes and loved ones. Each grave is marked with a marble slab and a CSA grave marker. One marker does not bear a name because the soldier beneath it was too badly wounded to reveal his identity as he was removed from the train at the Thomson Depot. The grave markers read: E. Thornton, Ala Rgt; T.W. Toms, Waco Parish, La, Oct 12, 1864; Hill CSA; Wm
Daniel, NC Rgt; Unknown.