Franklin-Hart County GaArchives Obituaries.....Ayers, Dr. Thomas Wilborn January 5, 1954
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Evie Whitfield http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00024.html#0005876 July 31, 2009, 1:17 pm

Atlanta Journal-Constitution  Jan 5, 1954
Dr. Thomas W. Ayers, the Southern Baptist Convention's first medical missionary
to China, died Tuesday morning in an Atlanta hospital. He had been ill for
several months. He was 95.
In his lifetime Dr. Ayers was a journalist as well as a physician and missionary.
At one time he was publisher of the Anniston (Ala.) Daily Hot Blast, predecessor
of the Anniston Star. This paper is now published by his son, Col. H. M. Ayers.
He was decorated by two president of China for work during a pulmonary plague,
quarantine and Red Cross work during a civil war.
Dr. Ayers was born in Habersham County, Georgia, but was taken by his parents,
Judge and Mrs. J. W. Ayers, to Carnesville, Ga., when less than a year old.
There he grew up and received his early schooling.
When only 18 he bought the Franklin County Register in Carnesville. Later he
sold the paper for twice what he paid for it and bought the Hartwell, Ga., Sun.
Dr. Ayers' interest in medicine was born in Hartwell and he studied at night
after working on the newspaper during the day. He went to Augusta to attend the
University School of Medicine for a year, then returned to Hartwell to operate
the town's only drug store.
He moved to Anniston in 1883 and opened a drug store. His earnings enabled him
to pay his tuition at the Baltimore College of Physicians and Surgeons and
following his graduation he returned to Anniston to open his practice in 1886.
Dr. Ayers began his practice in china early in 1901. He built the first hospital
in China, at Hwangshien, shortly after. A monument was erected at Hwangshien in
his honor after he left there in 1926, He was the second living man to be
honored with a monument in China.
In 1926 Dr. Ayers became field secretary for the Foreign Missionary Board. He
retired from that position at the age of 75. He has made his home in an
apartment with a niece, Miss Lucy Ayers, at 978 Juniper St., Northeast.
His survivors, in addition to Col. Ayers, include another son, Dr. Sanford E.
Ayers; and daughters, Mrs. Elbert J. Lyman of New Orleans, Mrs. Lucy Ayers
Pittman of Birmingham, and Mrs. Mary Lee Gannon of St. Augustine, Fla.    





Additional Comments:
Son of Jeremiah Walters Ayers & Lucy Guest.  Married to Willie Minora "Minnie"
Skelton on Oct 22, 1878 in Hart County, GA

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