Homicide at Cochran, Georgia! William Thomas McVay was born on 24 August 1835. He married Martha Ella Linder in Laurens County, Georgia, on 4 November 1858. In 1862, W. T. enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private. He was promoted through the ranks, culminating in the position of 1st Lieutenant of Company F, 14th Georgia Infantry. During the decade of Reconstruction, William transitioned from a Confederate officer to a prominent merchant in the newly established community of Cochran, Georgia. Officially incorporated in 1869, the town was built around a stop on the Macon and Brunswick Railroad. Merchants like McVay were crucial to the town's early economy, linking local cotton and agricultural products to the wider regional markets. Being a successful merchant in a small, post-war Southern town (not to mention his veteran status) likely meant William was an individual of considerable influence and standing in the local community and surrounding counties. A snippet from an articl...
Telling the Tales of Tombstones