Thomasville in Davidson County, North Carolina — The American South (South Atlantic)

Thomasville

A Key Stop & Refuge

Photographed by Don Morfe, September 17, 2013

1. Thomasville Marker

Inscription. John W. Thomas, who represented this area in the state legislature in the mid-1800s, laid out the town of Thomasville in 1852 on the proposed route of the North Carolina Railroad. Three years later, the line was completed to the new town, and the first train passed through January 20, 1856. By 1860, Thomasville was thriving with 308 residents, a female seminary and a shoe factory. During the war, two companies, including the renowned “Thomasville Rifles” (Company B, 14th North Carolina Infantry), served in Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Many of the soldiers who boarded trains two hundred yards east of here (a memorial is located at West Main and Cramer Streets, south of the railroad) later fell in the Seven Days’ Battles and at Sharpsburg (Antietam), Gettysburg, and the Wilderness. After the war, Thomasville became noted for its furniture-making industry, especially chair manufacturing.

Thomasville, a key stop on the North Carolina Railroad, played an important role during the Civil War as a refuge for wounded and ill soldiers and civilians fleeing war-torn eastern North Carolina. Local factories

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produced shoes for the Confederate cause, and a smallpox hospital was located here. In 1864, Gen. James Longstreet’s corps passed through on the railroad en route from Georgia to rejoin Lee’s army in Virginia. Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston established hospitals in a tobacco warehouse and in the local Baptist and Methodist churches in March 1865, as his Army of Tennessee retreated north. Local citizens assisted in the care of wounded soldiers, Northern and Southern, from the battles of Averasboro and Bentonville (March 13 and March 19-21, 1865) The Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the hospitals were interred in Thomasville City Cemetery side by side, a very rare practice during the war.

(captions)
(upper left) John W. Thomas
(lower left) Corner of Main and Salem Streets, late 19th century
(lower center) Confederate dead in the Blood Lane, Antietam — Courtesy Library of Congress. These soldiers likely were members of the 14th N.C. Infantry, Co. B, the “Thomasville Rifles,” raised in Thomasville.
(lower right) Civil War-era photograph of a Thomasville shoe factory.

Erected by North Carolina Civil War Trails.

Photographed by Don Morfe, September 17, 2013

2. Thomasville Marker

Close up of the map as shown in the upper right of the marker

Topics and series. This memorial is listed in these topic lists: Railroads & Streetcars • Settlements & Settlers • War, US Civil. In addition, it is included in the North Carolina Civil War Trails series list. A significant historical date for this entry is January 20, 1857.

Location. 35° 52.946′ N, 80° 5.004′ W. Memorial is in Thomasville, North Carolina, in Davidson County. It is at the intersection of West Main Street and Trade Street, on the left when traveling west on West Main Street. The marker is located in front of the Visitor Center-Train Depot. Touch for map. Memorial is at or near this postal address: 44 West Main Street, Thomasville NC 27360, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this memorial is in North Carolina’s Piedmont

and specifically in Piedmont Triad.

It is also in the American South

and specifically in the Upper South.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

one of the original Thirteen Colonies,

one of the Confederate States

Photographed by Don Morfe, September 17, 2013

3. Thomasville Marker

of America,

and the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 4 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: John W. Thomas (within shouting distance of this marker); Smith Clinic (approx. 0.2 miles away); a different marker also named Thomasville (approx. ¼ mile away); Thomasville City Cemetery (approx. 0.4 miles away); Mitchell House (approx. 0.7 miles away); a different marker also named John W. Thomas (approx. 2.8 miles away); John H. Mills (approx. 3.2 miles away); North Carolina Vietnam Veterans Memorial (approx. 3.8 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Thomasville.

Another marker is no longer nearby. John H. Mills (was approx. 3.3 miles away but has been reported to have been replaced with another marker now near it).

Photographed by Don Morfe, September 17, 2013

4. Train Depot

This property has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior

Photographed by Don Morfe, September 17, 2013

5. Thomasville Marker

Close up of the side view of the Train Depot-Visitor Center

Photographed by Don Morfe, September 17, 2013

6. Train Depot

Rear view of the Train Depot

Photographed by Don Morfe, September 17, 2013

7. Thomasville Marker

Mural on building across the street from the Train Depot-Visitor Center

Credits. This page was last revised on October 30, 2022. It was originally submitted on November 5, 2013, by Don Morfe of Baltimore, Maryland. This page has been viewed 1,399 times since then and 52 times this year. Last updated on October 29, 2022, by Carl Gordon Moore Jr. of North East, Maryland. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. submitted on November 5, 2013, by Don Morfe of Baltimore, Maryland. • Bernard Fisher was the editor who published this page.