Muscogee-Hancock County GaArchives Biographies.....Thomas Sr. & Jr., Grigsby E.  Unknown - July 5 1865
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Carla Miles http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00010.html#0002476 November 10, 2004, 8:05 pm

Author: Unknown - article appeared in the Marion County Patriot
The Marion County Patriot, No. 25
June 22, 1888
Page Two

Grigsby E. Thomas

Candidate for the State Senate – A Brief Sketch of His Life
		(Columbus Enquirer)

This is a year in which most of our offices, both state and national, are to be 
filled by the voice of the people in the ensuing election.  Seeing the name of 
Grigsby E. Thomas, Jr. announced as a candidate for the senate for this 
district, composed of the counties of Chattahoochee, Marion and Muscogee, it is 
our duty, without disparagement to the claims of others, to give a brief sketch 
of the candidate.

He is a son of the late Judge Grigsby E. Thomas, and was born in this county 
the 7th of September, 1842.  His father was born in Hancock County and educated 
under Nathan Beeman, having for his schoolmates the late Gov. Charles J. 
McDonald, ex-Senator Walter T. Colquitt, Hon. A.H. Chappell, Hon. Mark A. 
Cooper, Gov. Charles J. Jenkins, Hon. Dixon H. Lewis and others equally as 
prominent.  He studied law under Duncan G. Campbell and Judge Nathan C. Sayre 
and began the practice of it in the village of Warrenton, Ga.  He was a 
consistent statesright man of the Troupe party, was elected member of the house 
of representatives from Warren County for six successive years, being the 
author of the famous “Honest Debtors etc.”, which virtually abolished 
imprisonment for debt in Georgia, except only in cases of fraud.  Private 
affairs and (word blurred) family caused him to withdraw from the political 
arena in 1828, when he devoted himself with renewed zeal to the practice of his 
profession.  He turned his attention to the new and growing town of Columbus, 
Ga. as a place for his future residence, and to which place he moved in the 
fall of 1830 and was elected Judge of the Chattahoochee circuit in the fall of 
1832.  At that early period, where now is the Queen City of the Chattahoochee, 
it was known as the backwoods of Georgia, and the judge of the circuit 
frequently traveled an Indian trail, swimming creeks and rivers and climbing 
mountains, sleeping in open houses and holding courts in log cabins.  After 
serving one term as judge, at the request of his wife, he retired from 
political and public life and devoted himself entirely to the practice of his 
profession.  His grandfather was a Baptist preacher and his father was a member 
of that denomination.  When at school at Mount Zion, its principal being a 
Presbyterian preacher as well as school teacher, he united with the 
Presbyterian church, and upon his removal to Columbus cast his fortune with 
that denomination, being among its first members, and was elected a ruling 
elder.  In 1836 he purchased his home on Rose Hill, which is now a portion of 
our city and at which place he died July 5, 1865.

Grigsby E. Thomas, Jr., the subject of this sketch, returned home after four 
years service in the confederate army, just in time to close the eyes of his 
aged father.  Left alone just at the time when he most needed advice and 
counsel, and when his country was in kelts.  Upon his deathbed his father 
enjoined him to pursue the profession of the law, and in 1865, at the November 
term of Muscogee court, Judge Edmond H. Worrill presideing, he was admitted to 
the bar.  Judge Worrill with is proverbial urbanity and gentle manners, greatly 
aided the young man in his early efforts at the bar.  He eschewed politics and 
applied himself closely to the practice of his profession for fifteen years.  
In 1876 Gov. James M. Smith appointed him solicitor for the county court of 
Muscogee County.  He was re-appointed by Gov. Alfred H. Colquitt and held this 
office for six years, to the entire satisfaction of the people.  In 1880 he 
espoused the cause of Alfred H. Colquitt in the famous Colquitt-Norwood 
campaign, and for the first time took the stump.  Those who remember the 
campaign and its results will remember how well he acted.  His party honored 
him with the position of a member of the state democratic committee from the 
fourth district, and it was that executive committee which aided in the 
election of Grover Cleveland for president of the United States four years ago.

During all this time he has been faithful to the party, and as one of his 
opponents said, “He bore no malice, but always acquiesced in the decisions of 
his party.”  He lives at the old homestead on Rose Hill, and by a life of 
private usefulness in public and private enterprises he has maintained the 
honored name his father left him as a heritage.  He was elected dictator of the 
Knights of Honor at its last session in Columbus, Ga. in 1882, and has filled 
the position as one of the trustees of the orphan asylum since 1878.

We again copy the following notice from the Meriwether Vindicator, as showing 
the estimation in which Muscogee’s son is held in our neighboring counties and 
his fitness and qualifications for the office and the honor which he asks from 
the hands of his fellow citizens.

“We notice that Col. Grigsby E. Thomas of Columbus, is being mentioned as a 
candidate for senator from the counties of Chattahoochee, Marion and Muscogee.  
Col. Thomas is one of the most solid and best posted men in our portion of the 
state, and his presence in the Georgia senate would be a public blessing.  He 
is no claptrap wrangler, but a safe and conservative statesman.  He would honor 
Muscogee in the senate, and prove one of the best workers in the body.  Apart 
from being a well informed man on all subjects, Col. Thomas is an accomplished 
lawyer and elegant gentleman, and always found on the right side of all public 
questions.  We hope he will have a walkover for the position for which his 
friends are urging him.  He deserves it.”


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