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Captain Hiles was educated in the Lynchburg, Tennessee,
Academy and the University located at Shelbyville; and was
just reaching manhood on the outbreak, of the War between
the States. He became a soldier in the Seventeenth Tennessee
Regiment, attached first to the Army of Northern Virginia,
and later to the Western Armies. He served with the rank of
Brevet-Captain and participated in the desperate struggles of
Chickamauga, Perryville (Kentucky), Drewry's Bluff (Virginia), and the siege of Petersburg. He served through the
whole war with fidelity and with credit, and is now the holder
of a Confederate Medal of Honor. In 1866, Captain Hiles
engaged in the dry goods business at Summerville, Georgia.
A prudent, steady going, capable man, his affairs prospered;
and in 1860 he moved to Rome and established the wholesale
dry goods business known as the Thompson Hiles Company,
which, after doing a large and prosperous business for years,
he sold out in 1890. He had, however, always retained an
interest at Summerville, and the firm of Thompson Hiles and
Company, yet doing a large business in that town, is one of
the oldest and strongest firms of the section. He also retains
an interest in the Chattooga County Bank, of Summerville, in
which he is a director. He has been for thirty years unbrokenly a director in the First National Bank of Rome and
is recognized as one of the soundest and safest financiers of
his section.
Captain Hiles has served as a member of the City Council,
and one term as Mayor of the city. He is active in the work
of the Methodist Church, of which he is a steward; and is
affiliated with the various Masonic lodges, also with Rome Commandery No. 8 of the Knights Templar.
Captain Hiles has been twice married; first, in 1868, to
Elizabeth Sturdivant, of Summerville, Georgia, a daughter of
James D. and Margaret (McClure) Sturdivant. His second
wife was Clalie McWilliams, of Rome, daughter of O. H. and
Julia (Pope) McWilliams. Of his marriages there have been
six children born. The living children of the first marriage
are Mrs. Harper Hamilton; Gordon Hiles, of Atlanta; and
Mrs. J. R. Moorman. The living child of the second marriage is Thompson Hiles, Junior.
Captain Hiles political sympathies have always been with
the Democratic party. Ho believes that the broadening of our
educational facilities is the primary need of Georgia, and he
would like to see our people concentrate their energies in that
direction in order that our children and our children's children
may have advantages which have been denied to us, and which
will qualify them to do larger things than we have been able
to do.
Captain Hiles has nearly reached the Biblical three score
and ten. He has served his country faithfully and well, both
in war and peace; and by his ability, his industry and his
economy he has accumulated a competency and enjoys the esteem of the community in which more than forty years of his
life have been spent. Bernard Suttler.
Source: Men of mark in Georgia: a complete and elaborate history of the ...,
Volume 6 By William J. Northen (1835-1913)
NOTES: Died 18 Sep 1913 in Rome GA - buried at Myrtle Hill Cemetery in Floyd Co GA
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Though now to some extent retired from business activities, Thompson Hiles, a prominent citizen of Rome, yet
retains enough active interests to require his presence in
his office every day. Though Mr. Hiles has been identified with
Northwest Georgia for a generation, he is a native of Tennessee, born in Shelbyville, January 8, 1841;
son of Joseph Hiles, a farmer, born in Virginia, moved to Tennessee, and married
Abilene Anthony, a native of Shelbyville. Joseph Hiles wife,
Abilene Anthony, was probably also descended from a Virginia family, for so far as is known, the Southern Anthony
family came from that State about the Revolutionary period.