ONE-EYED TOM

THOMAS JEFFERSON HATHAWAY

Tom's Signature from an 1894 Civil War Pension Application Affidavit

Complete History of the 46th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry 
by Thomas P. Jones, page 47

My second great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Hathaway, lost vision in one eye at age twenty-one, yet went on to lead a remarkably adventurous life. Born in Vermillion County, Illinois, on 28 September 1831, Tom moved with his family to Stephenson County in 1836. The third of ten children born to Thomas and Sarah Brown Hathaway, he grew up on his father’s prosperous livestock and row‑crop farm.

In the fall of 1852, at age twenty-one, Tom was accidentally hit in the eye with an ear of corn thrown “in play” at a corn husking party. The accident left him able to distinguish only light from darkness in the affected eye, yet about five years later he headed west to Winneshiek County, Iowa, where he purchased a 160‑acre farm near Cresco from the federal government.

Tom's 1859 Land Patent in Winneshiek County, Iowa

When the Civil War broke out, Tom returned to Illinois and enlisted as a private in Company A of the 11^th Illinois Infantry four days after President Lincoln’s 15 April 1861 call for 75,000 troops. He enlisted a second time in Company B of the 46^th Illinois Infantry, serving a total of fourteen months. He was elected and commissioned as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the 46^th and served in the intense battles at Fort Donaldson and Shiloh.  

Thirty-one-year-old Tom commanded Company B through two grueling days of conflict during the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. The regiment faced unrelenting Confederate attacks near Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, in what became one of the war’s bloodiest engagements. Thomas oversaw the coordination of his unit under fire, supported by Sergeants Retzell, Faust, and Cooper, and aided by the skilled deployment of skirmishers led by Sergeant Leopold Shook.

During the cannon fire and musket volleys, Thomas sustained an injury described in the company’s records as a slight wound to the head. The injury may have been significant enough to affect his ability to serve, contributing to his resignation just two months later. He received an honorable discharge upon his resignation due to ill health on 13 June 1862.

Thomas J. Hathaway and Susan Mallory 1862 Marriage Record

Tom was described as 5 feet, 9 inches tall, with blue eyes, light hair and light complexion in 1861 when he mustered in the Union Army at age 29. He married Susan Ellen Rowray Mallory, a young widow, on 21 September 1862 in Freeport, Stephenson County, Illinois. Susan’s first husband, John C. Mallory, also served in the 46^th Iowa Infantry and died of pneumonia in August 1862 in a St. Louis hospital. Their two young sons were raised by their paternal grandparents, Dewitt Clinton and Eleanor "Ellen" Brown Mallory. 

Susan was one of seven children born in Pennsylvania to John and Mary Catherine Rheinhardt Rowray. Her exact date of birth was not determined, but she was enumerated as ten years old on the 1850 census taken in Potter Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania. , In about 1854, her father moved the family to Stephenson County, Illinois where she and Tom were married. 

Susan Ellen Rowray (Mallory) Hathaway

The Hathaways had five children during their twelve years of marriage. Tragically, Susan died in her mid-thirties when their oldest child was just eleven years old and the youngest was about two. During their marriage, Tom moved the family to Marshfield, Missouri, in 1869 and to Montevallo, Missouri in 1872. After Susan’s death in 1874, Tom’s parents took in the children and raised them to adulthood.

Tom was grounded in Christianity as a Seventh Day Adventist minister, while also possessing a spirit of adventure. Following Susan’s death, he embarked on a years‑long trek through the northern and western territories. He preached, traded with Native people, and hunted with a muzzle‑loading shotgun as he traveled by river raft.

He later journeyed to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where he built a flatboat and piloted it down the White and Buffalo Rivers to the Mississippi. From there, he and a companion continued by steamboat to Vicksburg and by rail to Jackson, Mississippi, before building another flatboat and navigating the Pearl River to the Gulf. They hunted and fished for over a month and returned home by train.

Tom's 1882 Vernon County Decree of Divorce from Mary Catharine Holland

Tom married a second time to Catherine Mary Holland on 20 March 1878 in Vernon County, Missouri. The marriage was short‑lived, and local rumors suggested his second wife may have had a questionable reputation in Nevada, Missouri. They were divorced on 12 November 1882.

First Page of Tom's 1883 Well Drilling Machine Patent 

Tom possessed a unique talent for inventing machinery. He patented a well-drilling machine on 27 November 1883 and a seed planter on 6 June 1893. His meticulous drawings and thorough descriptions of his inventions demonstrated both his mechanical skill and his ability to communicate complex ideas clearly. He was 62 years old when the second patent was issued to him. Both patents are on file at the US Patent Office in Washington, D.C.

First Page of Tom's 1893 Seed Planter Patent 

Tom's father-in-law, John Rowray, may have been an influence on Tom's interest in inventions. John was a "tinner," or tin smith, based in Union and Center Counties in Pennsylvania, who also dealt in buying and selling machinery and patent rights in the eastern United States. John was recorded in 1831 in Union County as the buyer of a washing machine patent which he could market in some Ohio Counties. In 1834 in the same county deeds, he bought the patent for a clover seed hulling and straw chopping machine which he could market in Maryland, Virgina, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and New York. He also bought the patent to a screw formed cylinder in 1834 which he could market in Virginia. 

Life dealt Tom another physical blow in September 1888, in Prairie County, Arkansas. He was on top of a wagon filled with hay and nearly finished loading it when the horses hitched to the wagon startled suddenly and threw him to the ground. He fell hard onto his right shoulder, badly injuring it and breaking his collarbone. At age 57, he found himself disabled, half blind, and unable to work.

Tom's Signed Affidavit Explaining How He Lost Vision in 1852
in Illinois and Suffered a Shoulder Injury in 1888 in Arkansas

Tom began receiving a Civil War Invalid Pension of $12 per month on 6 May 1891. He was considered three-quarters disabled by doctors who examined him. He spent the last years of his life living with his surviving children. His granddaughter, Florence Needham, remembered fondly, “He was loved by all of them and was always welcome in their homes. He helped his daughter Carrie with the babies and work around the home. Grandpa would sit for hours, singing to the babies and rocking their cradle with his foot. He also lived with son Charley and helped take care of their youngest children.”

Charges for Tom's Funeral in 1911

Tom died at his son Zach’s home in the summer of 1910 and was buried in Stronghurst Cemetery at Media, Illinois. His military headstone is inscribed with “LIEUT. THOS. J. HATHAWAY, CO. B, 46 ILL. INF.” as a lasting tribute to his courageous service in the Union Army in the War of the Rebellion.  

Tom's Obituary from the Monmouth Republican Atlas Newspaper

Tom's Funeral 

Tom's Military Headstone and GAR Star in Stronghurst Cemetery