Isabella Lightfoot Hayes Thomas
Isabella Lightfoot Hayes Thomas (1818-1891), daughter of Bartholomew L. Hayes and Martha P. Cocke Hayes was born in Milton, North Carolina. She married Athens businessman Stevens Thomas on June 20, 1836, and the couple made their home in Athens. Isabella served in the Ladies Aid Society of Athens during the Civil War.
Born on March 27, 1818, to Bartholomew Lightfoot Hayes and Martha P. Cocke Hayes, Isabella Lightfoot Hayes Thomas grew up in Milton, North Carolina. She married Athens businessman Stevens Thomas on June 20, 1836. Her husband, a graduate of the University of Georgia and Yale Law School, descended from one of the city’s founders. He served as first president of the Bank of Athens prior to the Civil War and as the general agent of the Southern Mutual Insurance Company after. The marriage produced seven children, six of whom survived to adulthood. During the Civil War, both Isabella and her daughter Paulina served in the Ladies Aid Society of Athens, a women’s organization dedicated to caring for sick or injured soldiers and providing them supplies when needed. Isabella died on December 29, 1891, only two months after the death of her husband.
