Chattahoochee-Burke-Stewart County GaArchives Biographies.....Gilbert, Thomas 1793 - 1881
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 5, 2004, 12:25 pm

Author: Martha Clayton Gilbert
JUDGE THOMAS GILBERT
By Mrs. Martha Clayton Gilbert

    Judge Thomas Gilbert was born in Anson County. N. C., July, 19. 1793, and
when quite a young man was left, to the tender and loving care of an older
sister, his mother having died. His father moved to Georgia a few years later,
and when the war of 1812 between England and America was declared, Judge Gilbert
(Thomas) volunteered and went to the front for duty, in Capt. Saffold's,
battalion of artillery. He was sent to New Orleans and served in that division
of American troops. He was in the battle of New: Orleans, the decisive battle of
the war. He fought or remained in the army until the British surrendered and
then was honorably discharged. He was wounded in the arm and his hearing
impaired for the remainder of his life, and on returning home after peace was
declared, he entered the farming business, finally moving into Hancock County
near Sparta, near his brothers and sisters.

    Judge Gilbert married Miss Margaret Carswell of Burke County in 1816, and
lived for some years in Wilkinson County.

    Late in the year 1834 he moved to Stewart County where he was a prominent
farmer and citizen until 1860 when he moved to Chattahoochee County. He lived
here until his death in 1881.

    Judge Gilbert was prominent in his community and in, the affairs of his
State, He was a deacon in the Baptist Church for more than 60 years, being a
member of the Board of Deacons of Good Hope Church, near Harp's Mill in
Chattahoochee County, at the time of his death. He was the last of seven
brothers, the sons of Jesse Gilbert. He represented Chattahoochee Co. on the
commission to revise the Constitution of the State.

    Judge Gilbert was a strong supporter of the cause of education. He gave
liberally at all times to this, and one gift in particular was that of the sum
of $10.000.00 to Mercer University, then located at Penfield, Ga., now at Macon.
His three sons, John Barton Gilbert of Stewart County. Dr. Jasper Newton Gilbert
of Columbus, Muscogee County, and Matthew Carswell Gilbert, for a number of
years a resident and prominent farmer of Chattahoochee County, were educated at
Mercer University.

    Judge Gilbert also gave a plot of ground to the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South in Stewart County, and built a church on it, in memory of his second
daughter, Louisa Gilbert, who died as a young lady a few days after graduating
at a college in Columbus, Ga., in 1852. This church was called Louisa Chapel and
is still standing in Stewart County, and marks the family burial ground of Judge
Gilbert.

    Mr. Matthew Carswell Gilbert, the youngest son of Judge and Mrs. Gilbert,
lived for a number of years in Chattahoochee County, at the old home place,
where Camp Benning now stands. He was the father of Mrs. A. S. Harp who now
lives in Cusseta, Ga. Matthew Gilbert was twice married, the first time to Miss
Eugenia Kirkland of Georgetown, Ga. (the mother of Mrs. Eugenia Harp of Cusseta)
who only lived a year. He married in 1875 Miss Mattie Clayton of Stewart County,
who at present lives in Atlanta, Ga.

    Judge Thomas and Margaret Carswell Gilbert, the subject of this sketch, had
the following children:

    John Barton, Jasper .Newton. Matthew Carswell, Adaline, Louisa, Elizabeth
and Tallulah. Three of the daughters died before reaching the age of 20, just as
they were completing their college education. The fourth daughter, Elizabeth,
married Mr. John Hooks of Stewart County and lived until an old lady. John B.
Gilbert, the eldest son was a farmer and a journalist of some note in Stewart
County. He wrote a number of poems and made other contributions to the literaure
of his day. He was educated at Mercer University. The second son, Jasper Newton,
was graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Ga. and was for a
long number of years one of the best known and most successful physicians in the
section of the State—Stewart and Muscogee Counties. His home was in Columbus,
Ga., and he was the father of Judge Price Gilbert of the Superior Court of Georgia.

    Matthew Carswell ("Cas" as he was known to his friends) was a successful
farmer and cotton warehouseman in Stewart, Chattahoochee Counties and in
Columbus, Ga., for a number of years. He also operated a line of steamboats on
the Chattahoochee River. Besides Mrs. Harp of Cusseta, he has three children
living, Thomas C. Gilbert of Cincinnati, Ohio; Mrs. Margaret Gilbert Sindle, of
Atlanta, and Miss Adaline Louisa Gilbert of Atlanta. His widow, Martha Clayton
Gilbert, also lives in Atlanta. Ga. Mr. Gilbert died in College Park, a borough
of Atlanta; in 1912 and is buried there.

    He also was educated at Mercer University, and was a beloved and honored
citizen of the State for 82 years. He was a member of the class of 1852 of
Mercer University.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF CHATTAHOOCHEE COUNTY, GEORGIA
By N. K. Rogers

Dedicated to

KASIHITA CHAPTER U. D. C.

and all worthy descendants of the County's first settlers.

Copyright 1933

by N. K. ROGERS

PRINTED   BY
COLUMBUS  OFFICE  SUPPLY CO. COLUMBUS, GA.

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