Uncle Tom Saunders Dead – An Old Citizen
Uncle Tom Saunders, the oldest citizen of this county, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. W. A. Elder, at Indian Spring last Sunday.
Mr. Saunders was an old merchant of this county and has hauled thousands of good from Savannah to Iron Spring where they were retailed. When the war between the states broke out Mr. Saunders was too old to go to war and so he stayed at home and merchandised. He was a man of much intelligence and of strong individually. He was regarded with great respect by all who knew him and it can be said truly of him” an old landmark has gone”. Concerning Mr. Saunders death the Flovilla correspondent of the Atlanta Constitution said on Monday:
Thomas Jefferson Saunders, the oldest inhabitant of Indian Spring, died last night of heart failure. Mr. Saunders was born 1808 and was a pioneer citizen and merchant of this place coming here immediately after the treaty with the Indians, which ceded to the state of Georgia all the part of Butts county known as the Indian Spring reserve. He was always a successful and useful citizen. On his ninetieth birthday he with Dr. E. B. Elder voted for Allen D. Candler for governor, it being Mr. Saunders’s last vote and Dr. Elders first. With the passing away of Mr. Saunders the last of the old set – Elder, Collier, Bryan, Wright, Lawson and others, all of whom lived to be very old – have gone.
Mr. Saunders leaves three daughters, ten grandchildren and four great grandchildren, his daughters being Mrs. Jeannie Elder, of Indian Spring, Mrs. Lonia Health of Macon, and Mrs. Susan Slaughter of Jackson. The funeral services and burial will occur tomorrow at 10 o’clock at the family burying ground at Indian Springs.

(Jackson Argus – Butts County - Week of March 2, 1900)

Submitted by