UPSON COUNTY, GA - HISTORICAL HOUSES Hannah House

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Historic Houses printed in Upson Historical Society Newsletters:
July 1999


GRAND OLD HOUSES
THE HANNAH HOUSE, now the home for Sally's Resturant,
holds the memories of one of Thomaston fine old
families. This house, known as a Craftsman House was
built around 1910. Windows were grouped with the lower
sash having one solid piece of glass and the upper sash
di-vided. Stone columns are another outstanding
feature.

Mr. Jefferson Davis Hannah (originally spelled Hanna),
who built this house, was bom during the Civil War in
1§62 in Tennessee. As a young man he left home in
protest to his father's third marriage (the third of
five) and started for Alaska, but got no further than
Chicago. After sojourns in Arkansas and St. Augustine,
he came to Tho-maston to work for his uncle, Dr. G. W.
T. Hannah. Here he met and married Miss Jessie King,
daughter of Jacob Scott King. 

He and Jessie had three daughters, Hermione, Evelyn
Isla, and Louise. A successful merchant, a partner in
Hannah and Chatfield General Merchandise Company on the
Square, he sent all of his girls to college. They
attended Weslyan and Agnes Scott, but only Louise
graduated. Evelyn did not like mathematics. 

Hermione did substitute teaching for her cousin John
Thurston until her mother made her quit. She also
worked in her father's store. In later life Hermione
took care of her mother's aged sister, Miss Isia King.
Hermione's final claim to fame came one morning when,
armed with a rifle, she ordered city workers not to cut
down a tree in front of her house. She died in 1988. 

Evelyn became a writer, co-authoring The Early History
of Upson County and a number of novels, the most famous
of which was Blackberry Winter. She married Robert
Leonard Sommerville, and they are both buried in
Thomaston, Frances married an engineer, Holland R.
Melson, and spent her life in Detroit, Michigan. They
had two sons.

The Hannahs were devout Presbyterians, the Kings were
Bap-tists. Mrs.Hannah and her daughters came to the
Baptist Church. Mr. Hannah had a brother, J. E. Hannah
who was a Presbyterian minister.    J. D. Hannah died
in 1937. His wife lived until 1950. The Hannah's were a
family that came to Thomaston, flourished, made their
contribution to the community, and have now left the

Scene. (Sources: The Early History of Upson County,
Thomaston Times October 12, 1983)