Thomas Saunders Gholson

Thomas Saunders Gholson
Thomas Saunders Gholson
Member of the Second Confederate Congress from Prince George, Virginia
	In office; May 1864 – March, 1855
Preceded by	Charles Fenton Collier,
Succeeded by	position abolished
Judge of the Virginia Circuit Court in Brunswick County, Virginia
	In office; 1858–1863
Personal details
Born	9 December 1808; Brunswick County, Virginia
Died	12 December 1868 (aged 60); Savannah, Georgia
Resting place	Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg, Virginia
Nationality	American
Spouse(s)	Cary Ann Gholson
Occupation	lawyer, politician, judge

Thomas Saunders Gholson (December 9, 1808 – December 12, 1868) was a Virginia lawyer, judge and Confederate politician.[1]

Early and family life

He was born in Gholsonville, Brunswick County, Virginia to Major William Gholson (1775-1831) and his wife Mary Saunders (1776-1842), and was the younger brother of James H. Gholson (1798-1848). Their uncle Thomas Gholson, Jr. (1780-1816) had served in the Virginia General Assembly and as U.S. Congressman, before dying in Brunswick County, Virginia of the lingering effects of a wound received during the defense of Washington D.C. during the War of 1812. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1827.[2]

On May 14, 1829 Thomas Gholson married his cousin, the congressman's daughter Cary Ann Gholson (1808-1896), and they would have two daughters and a son. Rev. John Yates Gholson (1830-1886) would marry in New Orleans and later move to Alabama, and Georgiana F. Gholson Walker (1833-1904) would marry and move to New York City.[3]

Career

After reading law and being admitted to the Virginia bar, around 1836, Thomas Gholson also invested in the Brunswick Land Company, as did his elder and politically active brother and several other prominent local men (including Rev. Richard Kidder Meade). Each bought $1000 shares of the company, which bought, traded and speculated in lands in Texas.[4] In 1847, the Virginia House of Delegates received a complaint against his brother Judge James H. Gholson, alleging favoritism towards Thomas Gholson, among others. When the complainant, R. H. Collier, who had also publicly assaulted one of the Gholsons, refused to testify under oath before the appointed committee, the legislative investigation was dropped, but his brother died the following year.[5] Thomas Gholson was a legal and possibly legislative mentor to Hugh White Sheffey who served in the legislature and also became Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates during the American Civil War, and later a judge.

Around 1850, after his brother's death, Thomas moved his family to Blandford, which is closer to (and now part of) Petersburg. Although owning only $7500 in property in 1850 (shortly after his brother's death), by 1860 Thomas Saunders Gholson owned $100,000 in real estate and $120,000 in personal property.[6] Petersburg became a railroad hub in this era; Judge Gholson was president of several railroads, and also worked to support a public library in Petersburg.[7]

Virginia's legislators confirmed Thomas Gholson as a state court judge, and he served from 1859 to 1863, when he resigned to serve in the House of Representatives of the Second Confederate Congress. He defeated Petersburg lawyer Charles Fenton Collier (son of Robert Ruffin Collier, possibly the complainant years earlier) and represented Prince George County, Virginia(which adjoins Petersburg) as well as nearby Nottaway, Amelia, Powhatan and Cumberland Counties from 1864 until the war's end in 1865. On February 1, 1865, Gholson delivered a speech concerning the possibility of using Negro troops, which was published.[8] Thomas Gholson received a pardon from President Andrew Johnson on September 6, 1865.[9]

Death and legacy

Gholson died in 1868 in Savannah, Georgia, and his remains were returned to Virginia for burial at Blandford Cemetery. His son, who became an Episcopal priest, would name his son born in Marengo County, Alabama in 1870 after his grandfather.

References

http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/gersch-gibbon.html#S3A1AR87R PoliticalGraveyard.com
Virginia Biographical Encyclopedia, available online
ancestry.com does not include the marriage record, nor baptismal or death records for the children, but all are listed on findagrave and a family genealogy and supported by the 1850 U.S. census available online; no record exists of what happened to their daughter Cary (b. 1848) beyond her mention as 17 years old in the 1860 census.
Gay Neale, Brunswick County, Virginia: 1720-1975 (revised to 2000) (Lawrenceville, Brunswick County Bicentennial Committee 1999) p. 141
"Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia". 1846.
1860 U.S. Federal Census Slave schedule Dinwiddie, Petersburg West Ward. The federal slave schedule shows him as owning 15 enslaved persons, including 5 children, which seems low for the property valuation, but may include only slaves in Petersburg. The corresponding Virginia schedules for 1850 and 1860 are not available online. The 1840 U.S. Federal Census for Brunswick not stated shows T.S. Gholson owning 13 enslaved persons. He only owned $7500 in real estate according to the 1850 U.S. Federal Census for Petersburg (independent city), and may have been supporting his brother's widow Charlotte and daughter Mary as well; that federal slave schedule is missing or misindexed.
The source, Biographies of Notable Americans (1904), vol. IV, p. 272, available online at ancestry.com, does not indicate whether that railroad involvemewnt occurred before or after the war, or both.
Virginia at War, 1865 p. 123 n7 available at googlebooks, but need better cite--pamphlet not in Library of Virginia catalog tho should be archived, may be at VHS. Neale history of Brunswick County, at pp. 134-135 and 207 variously indicates this Thomas or his brother was one of the main spokesmen against allowing black troops to fight on the Southern side. The book inaccurately lists both Gholson brothers as moving to Petersburg in 1850. It also indicates a lawyer kinsman, William Yates Gholson, moved to Mississippi, freed his slaves and moved to Ohio because it was a free state, but not that W.Y. Gholson became a Republican, law partner of Salmon P. Chase and won election to the Ohio Supreme Court in 1858.
U.S. Pardons under Amnesty Proclamations, Vol. 16 August thru October 1865; unlike other instances, the underlying documents are not available at ancestry.com. Petersburg became the political stronghold of former Confederate General turned Republican, William Mahone, so it is unclear whether Gholson was part of Mahone's postwar railroad reorganization efforts.

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[1] ttp://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/gersch-gibbon.html#S3A1AR87R PoliticalGraveyard.com

[2] Virginia Biographical Encyclopedia, available online

[3] stry.com does not include the marriage record, nor baptismal or death records for the children, but all are listed on findagrave and a family genealogy and supported by the 1850 U.S. census available online; no record exists of what happened to their daughter Cary (b. 1848) beyond her mention as 17 years old in the 1860 census.

[4] Gay Neale, Brunswick County, Virginia: 1720-1975 (revised to 2000) (Lawrenceville, Brunswick County Bicentennial Committee 1999) p. 141

[5] "Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia". 1846.

[6] 1860 U.S. Federal Census Slave schedule Dinwiddie, Petersburg West Ward. The federal slave schedule shows him as owning 15 enslaved persons, including 5 children, which seems low for the property valuation, but may include only slaves in Petersburg. The corresponding Virginia schedules for 1850 and 1860 are not available online. The 1840 U.S. Federal Census for Brunswick not stated shows T.S. Gholson owning 13 enslaved persons. He only owned $7500 in real estate according to the 1850 U.S. Federal Census for Petersburg (independent city), and may have been supporting his brother's widow Charlotte and daughter Mary as well; that federal slave schedule is missing or misindexed.

[7] The source, Biographies of Notable Americans (1904), vol. IV, p. 272, available online at ancestry.com, does not indicate whether that railroad involvemewnt occurred before or after the war, or both.

[8] Virginia at War, 1865 p. 123 n7 available at googlebooks, but need better cite--pamphlet not in Library of Virginia catalog tho should be archived, may be at VHS. Neale history of Brunswick County, at pp. 134-135 and 207 variously indicates this Thomas or his brother was one of the main spokesmen against allowing black troops to fight on the Southern side. The book inaccurately lists both Gholson brothers as moving to Petersburg in 1850. It also indicates a lawyer kinsman, William Yates Gholson, moved to Mississippi, freed his slaves and moved to Ohio because it was a free state, but not that W.Y. Gholson became a Republican, law partner of Salmon P. Chase and won election to the Ohio Supreme Court in 1858.

[9] U.S. Pardons under Amnesty Proclamations, Vol. 16 August thru October 1865; unlike other instances, the underlying documents are not available at ancestry.com. Petersburg became the political stronghold of former Confederate General turned Republican, William Mahone, so it is unclear whether Gholson was part of Mahone's postwar railroad reorganization efforts.