Thomas E. Watson Birthplace

Thomas E. Watson was born September 5, 1856, in his grandfather’s home three miles east of Thomson. Tom Watson described this “unpretentious dwelling” in his 1904 novel, Bethany:

…ours was just a plain house and none too large, not built out of bricks brought over from England, but of timbers torn from the heart of the long-leaf Georgia pine.

The main body was made of logs hewed with the broad-axe, smoothed with the footadze, and joined powerfully at the ends --the four corners—by being interlocked into deep notches; upon these solid, heavy logs was laid, inside and out, a covering of plank: strong sleepers bore up the plank floor, stout rafters held the shingle roof…

Such was my grandfather’s house, built for comfort, built to resist the storms of a hundred years—which, indeed, it has done.

The home was the center of Thomas Miles Watson’s plantation – 1,300 acres and 45 slaves -- in what was then Columbia County.

Today, the restored home resides on Foundation grounds just three miles from its original location. The Watson-Brown Foundation purchased and restored the home in 1972. It is available for tours by appointment.

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